Yesterday I introduced the case of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado. Now there is an update in the case. Last night police arrested a suspect. There is hardly any info about this individual other than he is a 26 year old male from Cayey, PR. There still is no word on whether or not this crime will be investigated as a hate crime. The FBI is not currently involved in the investigation but is monitoring it. US attorneys office is also looking into it. The FBI did acknowledge that a federal investigation is possible. Actually there is an even newer update...
It appears that the killer has confessed. His name is Juan A. Martinez Matos and he claims that he was trying to find a female prostitute and was fooled by Jorge. He than says that in a fit of rage he brutally killed him. I do want to caution everyone that these articles are originally written in Spanish. The information I'm getting is in English. (I do speak Spanish, but not well enough to properly translate a news article.) I have come across several translation errors in this process.
Here are some links for people to read.
Here are the latest articles in English.
And here they are in Spanish.
And a facebook page called Justice for Jorge...
My heart goes out to the friends and family of Jorge. Hopefully some clarity can come from the situation now that Juan A. Martinez Matos has confessed. I am thoroughly saddened by the revelations of this event. I imagine that Martinez Matos will pay dearly for his actions. I do want to point out that I reserve my greatest judgement for our society that propagates heterosexism and patriarchy. That teaches little boys to hate gay people. That it would be better to die, than to be gay, that it would be better to kill than to be touched by a gay person. Such pathological thinking is devoid of any true communal understanding of human existence. And this is why our responsibility to challenge oppression in all of its forms is so critical. So that we can prevent the next Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado from losing his life.
That was so beautifully expressed my friend. You have the ability to see the root cause of such atrocities. I may be in California, but my heart is with his family on the island. Thanks for your words. They gave me some clarity when all I was feeling was rage.
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