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The authorities stated that they had classified the deaths as a dislike criminal activity after the remains of two women comprise found in a badly burned car a week ago.

Each week following the bodies of two transgender people happened to be present a terribly burned automobile in Puerto Rico, law enforcement mentioned Thursday they had arrested two people relating to the killings and had switched all of them to the F.B.I.

The people, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, had been taken into guardianship on Wednesday but have maybe not come recharged, according to Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of unlawful investigations for all the police in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coastline, where in actuality the women’s remains had been found on April 22.

The guy said the F.B.I. have absorbed possible and was examining Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for feasible civil rights violations.

“We tend to be classifying it a hate crime simply because they are socializing making use of subjects, as soon as they found out they certainly were transgender girls, they chose to destroy all of them,” master Morales mentioned on Thursday.

The police mentioned these were waiting for autopsy results to figure out how the ladies was basically murdered. Activists posses recognized the women as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two buddies whom lived in nyc. Her stays are located after individuals also known as 911 to report a burned automobile under a bridge on a desolate road in Humacao, right before 5 a.m. on April 22, Captain Morales said.

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon was interacting with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez regarding nights before they were killed and had been tape-recorded on one associated with the women’s social media marketing account, chief Morales said.

The guy stated the police had additionally tied up Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon with the killings through surveillance camera video footage and “scientific research,” which he dropped to outline. Mr. Pagan Bonilla confessed to playing the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon switched themselves in, he said.

Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman for F.B.I.’s San Juan field company Hinge vs Bumble 2021, decreased to talk about the arrests but stated the bureau routinely collaborates with neighborhood, county and national firms.

“The agency was and certainly will often be enthusiastic about unlawful make which could fall within national legislation,” she mentioned. “However, our very own coverage try we do not verify or refute the presence of investigations, to protect the stability of every feasible investigative effort.”

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon would never instantly getting achieved for touch upon Thursday nights, therefore was not straight away clear should they have attorneys.

If the guys are charged, it could portray a flipping reason for the control of crimes against L.G.B.T.Q. people in Puerto Rico, which includes a disturbing reputation for violence against homosexual and transgender group, activists said.

Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez comprise the third and 4th transgender individuals slain in Puerto Rico in the past two months, activists said. They certainly were furthermore considered to be the 7th and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming men and women to have been slain in the usa in 2010, according to research by the individual legal rights venture.

Prior to now 15 period, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. men and women have been slain in Puerto Rico, based on Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay liberties activist. Just about three regarding the deaths stays unsolved, he said.

“These arrests were one step in correct course, nevertheless these murders have to be prosecuted as hate crimes,” Mr. Serrano said. “We urge the government to finish the investigations inside the various other seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. everyone regarding area and offer fairness regarding of them.”

Ms. Velazquez stayed in Queens and Ms. Pelaez in the Bronx. Both have not too long ago traveled to Puerto Rico, and they had been looking to travel back once again to nyc later on this thirty days, per loved ones and activists.

Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s relative, stated Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon comprise detained after a nearby broadcast station published photos ones on fb and other people started to call the station to spot all of them.

“We become very appreciative of the perform your officials as well as the community place in to get whom did this,” she said on Thursday.

She mentioned the photographs originated two video clips that Ms. Pelaez have submitted on her Snapchat and Facebook profile, which demonstrated the woman and Ms. Velazquez socializing with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.

“we spotted the video, and it appeared like these people were spending some time collectively as buddies,” she stated. “It seemed typical. There was musical playing in the history. Every Person seemed great.”

She mentioned the police had shared with her parents only that the guys happened to be in federal guardianship.

The killings emerged per month after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender guy, is killed in Moca, P.R., in accordance with the people liberties venture.

In February, Alexa Negron Luciano, a popular figure on Puerto Rico social media who was simply transgender and homeless, ended up being shot to death after a McDonald’s client reported that Ms. Negron had spied on the for the women’s place.

Ms. Negron’s last minutes — framed during the headlights of a car amid a cackle of fun — were uploaded on social media, an undeniable fact that activists mentioned underscored the impunity homophobic assailants become whenever committing these crimes.