Gay Hate Crime Murder Of Puerto Rican Teen Sees Police Announce He Deserved It

The body of gay teenager, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was discovered on the edge of a road in Cayey, Puerto Rico last Thursday, with the police investigator suggesting that the 19 year old deserved it “because people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen”.

Dreaming of working in the fashion and beauty sector, Jorge was planning to start college to train for his dream job in January, but was found this last week burnt, decapitated and dismembered only a few miles from Caguas, the town in which he was living.  A much loved member of the gay community in the area, Mercado’s death has obviously been met with great sadness by the community, something which is tinged  with further disappointment because of the fact that it is highly unlikely his death will be treated as a homophobic attack seeing as Puerto Rico has never in it’s history classified a murder as any form of hate crime.

Luis Rivera, one of Jorge’s best friends said that they first began to worry about Jorge when he didn’t turn up to the Krash de Santurce club as he and his friends have planned and they couldn’t get hold of him on his cell phone, with the sad realisation of what had happened occuring when  he read about the discovery of a body with features matching Jorge in the paper.

Pedro Julio Serrano, a leading human rights activist has spoken of his sadness at the death of Jorge,  with his family not yet feeling ready to speak out.

Photo by Suministrada.

UPDATE : A suspect has seen been arrested and confessed to the murder – you can read the arrest here and his confession here.