A month has passed since Eduardo Mauricio Ruiz Sanz, “Trvko”, left, and his father, Roger Ruiz, is just trying to see him again in photos. When everything happened, on October 15, he decided to remove the portraits from his house: “They destroyed it when they saw it.”
This November 15, Roger can take a break. He has just left a mass with his family. Walk towards the Plaza de Armas of San Martín de Porres, where friends and groups organized events in memory of “Trvko”: music, painting, reading and workshops for children.
Unpublished images of his life are also exhibited: his adolescence, his first drawings, his compositions, his role as a new father accompanying the pregnancy of the mother of his son, who is now 10 years old.
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On the night of October 15, Mauricio Ruiz was shot dead by non-commissioned officer Luis Magallanes Gaviria—the video of his murder is now being avoided. “They have brought photos of my cute little black boy. My little son always with his smile. Some I avoid seeing… but here I am. Just strength. I’m not going to hide,” says Roger.
That intimate scene contrasts with another: a month later, the tax investigation remains on hold. There are no statements taken, there is no summons to the injured or minimal procedures. The file is stalled.
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A month without investigation acts
Prosecutor Roger Yana Yanqui, of the Third Special Prosecutor’s Office for Human Rights, asked to recuse himself from the case and requested that a common criminal prosecutor’s office take over the investigation, considering that Trvko’s death would not be part of an institutional policy. The Common Criminal Prosecutor’s Office refused to receive it: it maintained that it did involve “serious violations of human rights” and returned the folder.
Now, the case is stuck in a negative jurisdiction dispute. The final decision rests with the Third Superior Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Human Rights and Terrorism.
The defense of the Ruiz family, in charge of the Arbizu & Gamarra Study, hopes that it will finally be taken over by Human Rights: “After a month, there is not a single act of investigation. They have to start soon,” they point out. Renato Ríos—Mauricio’s friend and wounded by Magallanes’ second bullet—is the central witness in the case. His file was separated from the rest by decision of prosecutor Yana, under the argument of “procedural speed.”
YOU CAN SEE: Trvko case: key witness speaks and new video confirms at least five shots fired by Magellan
Lawyer Carlos Rivera, from the IDL, considers it “a questionable criterion”: “If that were the argument, there should be fourteen more folders. In human rights, fragmenting decontextualizes and weakens the evidence.”
After the separation, Yana acknowledged that the events constitute human rights violations and that there were “police plans and operations” on October 15. Up to that point, for the defense, the analysis was correct. But immediately afterwards, he ordered that the Homicide Division of the PNP carry out the preliminary investigation, citing a ruling from the Constitutional Court. That decision, Rivera explains, “breaks twenty years of practice in human rights cases.” Ríos’ defense presented a formal opposition. Rivera summarizes: “It seems that no one wants to investigate.”
Eduardo Ruiz’s defense demands that Human Rights take over the case
Lawyer Julio Arbizú, defender of the Ruiz family, confirms that the investigation is practically paralyzed. He explains that, after the inhibition of prosecutor Yana and the rejection of the Common Criminal Prosecutor’s Office, the file was elevated to the Third Superior Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Human Rights, which must now resolve the jurisdiction dispute. As long as there is no decision, “everything is stopped,” he says.
Arbizú emphasizes that the initial proceedings—including statements and expert reports—reveal that Trvko’s death occurred within the framework of a police operational plan, which implies responsibilities not only of non-commissioned officer Magallanes, but also of superiors and authorities who ordered or knew about the operation. “It is not an isolated event,” he emphasizes. He adds that the separation of the Renato Ríos case demonstrates fiscal inconsistency: the injured man is being investigated by Human Rights, but Trvko’s death was sent to the common jurisdiction.
The lawyer demands that the Superior Prosecutor’s Office immediately define jurisdiction and that the case return to Human Rights, where – he affirms – it must be investigated as a violation of human rights and as a police operation with structural responsibility. “It seems that they want to prevent the commanders and political leaders from responding,” he says. Also remember that Magallanes maintains his appearance with restrictions and a pending appeal request.
YOU CAN SEE: Human Rights Prosecutor Roger Yana refrains from continuing with the case against Luis Magallanes
The Police as judge and party
The decision for the Homicide Division to investigate non-commissioned officer Magallanes – identified as the author of at least five shots – worries both defenses. Carlos Rivera is direct: “The Police are going to investigate one of their own, whom the commanding general called ‘hero’. There will be no impartiality.”
Roger Ruiz agrees: “The president does not say anything. The Police protect the person who murdered my son. Here a police officer kills a compatriot and is named a hero. In what country does this happen? Only in Peru.” At dawn on October 16, prosecutor Yana himself was at the hospital when Roger recognized Mauricio’s body. “I had faith in him,” he remembers. “I thought Human Rights would see him. But in the end he was sent to the common court.”
Rivera anticipates the risk: if the Superior Prosecutor’s Office determines that it corresponds to Human Rights, the case will return to Yana. “And what are you going to do? The same thing you did with Ríos: hand him over to the Homicide division.” For Rivera, the paralysis responds to a “desire to submit to police mandates” and a “will of the State to cover up.”
YOU CAN SEE: Trvko case: new images, contradictory versions and possible sanctions against non-commissioned officer Magallanes
An ignored precedent: Inti and Bryan
The handling contrasts with the precedent of 2020: the investigations into the deaths of Inti Sotelo and Bryan Pintado. At that time, prosecutor Yony Soto ordered that the entire investigation be carried out by the Public Ministry, without police intervention in the investigations, including ballistics. Everything was carried out by the Special Forensic Team of the Institute of Legal Medicine.
That standard, Rivera points out, “guaranteed impartiality. What is happening today breaks that methodology.”
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A country paints the face of Trvko
The night before the month of the murder, dozens of young people painted Trvko’s face in Plaza Francia. His name multiplied on walls, banners and candles. The next morning, the Municipality of Lima sent brigades to erase the murals and remove the banners. “They want us to forget,” says Roger.
But the opposite happens. On Sunday, November 9, Roger was walking with his mother Otilia through San Germán, in San Martín de Porres. There they found a muralist painting Mauricio’s profile. “Remembering trvkito, my brother,” said the artist. The grandmother, still dressed in black, approached the mural almost by instinct, as if she wanted to touch and feel her grandson in that fresh line.
From Tacna, the artist Die Ca$h prepares another tribute. He met Trvko on one of his trips to the south and admired him ever since. “My brother was a person with a big heart,” he says for this report. “Listen to his lyrics: he denounced crime, but not just the crime on the street. The one in a jacket and tie, the one that doesn’t appear on TV. He even pointed out the police as part of crime. Don’t misrepresent his music.”
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In France and Spain, groups of Peruvians replicate murals. “Trvko lives now and always” is the phrase that is repeated in Lima, regions and abroad. While the file goes back and forth between offices without anyone assuming it, Roger continues walking among vigils, murals and candles.
“I want justice for my son.”
And in another part of Lima, Renato Ríos still cannot make a fist. A bullet splinter has prevented him from doing so since that night. On the corner where Trvko fell, a sign summarizes everything: “They can uproot us a thousand times and we will bloom a thousand times again.”
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Municipality of Lima erases commemorative mural after day for Trvko
Hours after the vigil for the first month of the murder of Eduardo Ruiz, the Municipality of Lima deployed crews in the Historic Center to erase graffiti and murals, including those that remembered Trvko. The institution spread images of the operation on social networks, ensuring that it sought to “restore the Historic Center” after the mobilizations of the previous day.
While the tax investigation remains paralyzed, the murals and vigils have become the main space of memory for friends, artists and citizens who demand justice.
