The bodies of Venezuelans Kelvin Infante Ramírez and Franklin Ernesto Lugo Yáñez are found inside two suitcases buried in an uninhabited area, near the Santa Rosa border control in Tacna, Peru, on the border with Chile.
Peruvian media report that the lifeless bodies were found on Monday, May 2, and the identification of the victims was carried out on Friday, May 6, thanks to the fingerprint tests.
The Venezuelans were identified as two friends who were on their way to Chile and had been reported missing by their relatives in Chile.
Police and forensic experts say that the victims were beaten and then suffocated with packing tape before being put in the suitcases.
The investigators do not rule out that it was an assault or revenge by coyotes who could not charge for their services of transferring migrants to the Chilean side.
The bodies of the young people were tied hand and foot, one of the forensic experts points out.
Prosecutor Isabel Mendoza Cáceres reports that during the autopsy the tattoos they had were revealed, which helped to identify them.
The head of the Criminal Investigation Division of Tacna, PNP Colonel Manuel Guerrero Serpa, says: “Apparently they crossed the border and intercepted them on the highway from Arica to Tacna,” reports the newspaper La República de Perú.
The officer specifies that the first body found corresponds to Franklin and the other was about 20 meters away.
He adds that, although for now there are many theories surrounding these mysterious deaths, he does not rule out that it could be a crime perpetrated by gangs of coyotes dedicated to migrant smuggling. “Last year there were two cases of contract killings, also of foreign citizens,” he indicates.
The Peruvian Police assures that between Tacna and Arica, the coyote mafias operate a dangerous business.
The traffic chain begins at the Manuel Odría land terminal (Tacna, where migrants are captured and the payment for the service varies between 100 and 200 dollars, reports the La República newspaper.
