The investigation opened by the Rome prosecutor’s office into the death of Luca Ventre accuses a Uruguayan policeman of the murder and a coroner of not having carried out in-depth analyzes on the body to clarify what had happened. The 35-year-old had entered the courtyard of the Italian embassy in Montevideo on January 1st, climbing over the gate after receiving no response. From the images of the cameras he seemed to be calm, holding a folder containing documents. In the embassy garden he had met two private guards instead of the Italian agents who were supposed to preside in front of the structure. For a few minutes, Luca and the two agents disappear from the images as they are out of the camera’s field of view. Then we see again the 35 year old who is about to leave the embassy followed by the two policemen. He tries to climb over, but one of the two agents pulls him down again. Thus begins a beating. The man died following a violent tackle by the two.
According to the expert appointed by the prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco, there would be no more doubts about the dynamics of the death. The death of the 35-year-old would have been determined “by a violent and external mechanical asphyxiation and the means that produced it are identified in the prolonged constriction of the neck”. The Uruguayan agent who carried out a typical judo maneuver aimed at suffocation on Luca is now accused of manslaughter. Italian investigators also point the finger at the coroner who performed the first autopsy on Ventre’s body in Montevideo. He attributed the death to a generic “agitated delirium in a context of cocaine use”, while the consultant of the Roman prosecutor underlines that the Uruguayan doctor would not have had all the necessary tests to establish the causes of death. “Superficial findings that did not explain the death” writes professor Giulio Sacchetti in a detailed report on what was done by the authorities of Montevideo.
“We performed the complete dissection of the organs of the belly’s neck – explains the Italian expert – which highlighted the preternatural mobilization of the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage. These results are only possible in the face of a restrictive action on the neck”. The outcome of the Italian investigations coincides with what was claimed by the relatives of the 35-year-old who now fear that the investigation may be closed. If the foreign accused is not extradited to Italy, the legal matter could end with nothing. Fabrizio Ventre, Luca’s brother, then asked for the intervention of the Foreign Minister. “I am a pessimist – asserted the man – because my family feels totally abandoned by the Italian institutions. Out of our own pocket we paid for the transfer of my brother’s body from South America to Rome. Luca is not a second-rate death”.
