Young man found dead with bound feet in Puerto Villarroel: family demands justice
Franco Guarayo Paco, 18, was found dead in a ravine in Valle Sajta bearing signs of torture. A young man of the same age was apprehended by police.
Discovery with evidence of torture in Cochabamba's tropical region
The body of Franco Guarayo Paco, 18 years old, was found dead in a ravine approximately three metres deep in Valle Sajta, in the municipality of Puerto Villarroel, Cochabamba. According to El Deber, the young man had his feet tied with black nylon tape and bore multiple marks of blows across his body.
Police apprehended another young man of the same age in connection with the case. According to investigations, the detainee reportedly guided officers to the location where the corpse was found amongst the undergrowth.
Franco had left on Wednesday night in his vehicle to provide a taxi service after receiving a telephone call from the young man who is now in custody. From that moment, his family lost all contact with him. His mother attempted to reach him by telephone without success, which led his relatives to begin searching for him and to file a report of his disappearance.
Family members of the young man described his situation: he had obtained his high school diploma the previous year and worked as a taxi driver and day labourer to support himself following the death of his father. With financial support from his uncles, he had managed to acquire the vehicle with which he earned his living, in addition to saving Bs 10,000. That vehicle is also missing.
"He earned his living as a day labourer. He graduated last year, his father died and he was supporting himself working with that car which is now gone. We have seen the body, it is all beaten up, they tortured him," declared a family member, who also expressed concern about the acts of violence recorded in the region.
The family denied that Franco had a debt of Bs 60,000, a version that circulated in some reports on the case. The family requested that the authorities conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the death, determine the motive for the crime and identify all those responsible.
Police officers carried out the legal examination of the body and initiated proceedings to clarify what had occurred.
Source: El Deber