Peruvian authorities on Tuesday said that they are investigating the shooting death of an Indonesian diplomat as a contract killing amid a surge in violent crime in the South American country.
Zetro Leonardo Purba, 40, who worked at the Indonesian embassy in Peru’s capital, Lima, was shot three times on Monday night as he arrived on a bicycle at his apartment building.
Authorities said that Purba was taken to a hospital, but was later declared dead.
Photo: AP
Officials did not immediately provide a motive for the shooting.
However, Peruvian Minister of the Interior Carlos Malaver told lawmakers that the attack was a “qualified homicide in the form of a contract killing.”
Police released footage from two surveillance cameras that showed a person wearing a helmet firing twice at the diplomat, who falls to the ground.
The images showed the suspect shooting the diplomat a third time and fleeing on a motorcycle driven by another person.
Malaver added that nothing was stolen from the diplomat, who had arrived in Peru five months ago and was working as a junior officer in the embassy.
He had a wife and three children.
“They were waiting for him and the bullets hit him in the head; they wanted to kill him,” Malaver said of the suspects.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sugiono in a statement called for a “thorough, transparent and expeditious investigation, as well as the maximum possible protection for diplomatic personnel and Indonesian citizens in Peru.”
Sugiono, like many Indonesians, uses a single name.
The Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the homicide “will be thoroughly investigated, and all necessary assistance and protection will be provided” to Indonesia’s ambassador and embassy staff.
Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmer Schialer later told reporters that Peru’s main problem is “insecurity” and acknowledged that the diplomat’s slaying is “one more wake-up call” regarding the issue.
The government of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte has struggled to respond to a rise in homicides and extortion in the nation.
Official figures show that 6,041 people were killed between January and the middle of last month, the highest number in the period since 2017.
Meanwhile, extortion complaints totaled 15,989 from January to July, a 28 percent increase compared with the same period last year.
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