Zetro Leonardo Purba, a 40-year-old Indonesian diplomat stationed in Peru, was assassinated on Monday right outside his apartment in Lima.
Purba reportedly arrived in the country earlier this year and resided in an apartment located in Lima’s Lince district alongside his wife and two minor children. On Monday evening, the diplomat was shot dead outside his apartment while riding his bicycle.
Security camera footage published by the newspaper La República and other outlets show a man waiting for Purba right outside the building before the attack.
In the video, one of the hitmen intercepted Purba just as he was about to enter his residence while a second individual waited on a motorcycle to make the getaway. The attack took place in front of two witnesses, who took cover after the shots were fired. Purba’s wife was not injured in the attack and is presently under police safeguarding with the rest of her relatives.
In remarks given to local lawmakers, Peruvian Interior Minister Carlos Malaver said on Tuesday that the assassination of the Indonesian diplomat “has characteristics typical of contract killings.”
“This is the first contract killing we have had this year in the district of Lince. The facts and motives that led to this person’s victimization are unknown,” National Police of Peru (PNP) commander David Guivar told reporters.
“We cannot rule out that this was a settling of scores. We are conducting the investigations and procedures carried out by the National Police in order to identify the attackers. According to what we saw on the security cameras, they appear to be foreign nationals,” he continued.
At press time, PNP has not ruled out any possible hypothesis behind the assassination given the nature of the crime. Unnamed police sources told the newspaper El Comercio: “The first hypothesis is that the intention to murder the victim stems from a matter that occurred in Indonesia and was being followed up on in Peru.”
“Preliminary information indicates that the short time spent in Peru rules out, in the first instance, that it was related to an issue in the country. Everything suggests that the mastermind was in the Asian country and that he contacted hitmen in Lima,” El Comercio wrote.
An unnamed friend and coworker of the victim spoke with Radio Programas del Perú (RPP) on Tuesday and ruled out the possibility that Zetro Leonardo Purba had previously received any kind of threat or had problems with anyone, stressing that the diplomat did not speak Spanish.
“I have no idea what’s going on. We don’t have any information about this. I work with him at the Indonesian Embassy. They just arrived in Lima with their family last April,” the coworker reportedly said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Menteri Luar Negeri said on a Tuesday social media post that he spoke with his Peruvian counterpart Elmer Schialer to request a throughout investigation on the assassination of the diplomat. Negeri emphasized that he trusts Peru to guarantee the maximum protection of its embassy’s staff, their families, and Indonesian nationals in Peru.
The Peruvian Foreign Ministry released an official statement on Tuesday lamenting the assassination of the Indonesian diplomat and expressed its condolences. The Ministry said that it ordered protection and all necessary measures to assist the Indonesian ambassador to Peru in all proceedings related to the case, and assured that the assassination will be thoroughly investigated.
Peruvian Foreign Minister Schialer told reporters on Tuesday that the assassination of the Indonesian diplomat in Peru is “a clear sign that one of Peru’s main problems is public insecurity.”
“It’s yet another wake-up call, another reminder that the main problem facing our beloved country is insecurity. This is a call, then, for everyone, authorities and citizens alike, to fight openly and resiliently, with the law on our side, against this terrible phenomenon,” Schialer said.
“And, of course, this is something that will have repercussions in the international media and that, of course, we will have to go out and explain,” he added.
The assassination of Zetro Leonardo Purba took place weeks after both Peru and Indonesia celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations, and amid growing nationwide anti-corruption protests in Indonesia against the country’s government.
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