The last hours of Silvano, the young Peruvian who was thrown from a bridge in Medellín: a scam, a macabre video and a transnational tragedy

The story of Silvano Oblitas Cántaro Tolentino made it clear that the problem of xenophobia and citizen intolerance is one of the main challenges that the authorities must assume in order to combat violence rates in South America.

Silvano was a 19-year-old Peruvian national who was dedicated to loading merchandise in the market places of the province of Huánuco in the Inca country.

While in Peru, Silvano would have met a man of Colombian nationality, named Andrés and another Venezuelan man, who they would have convinced him to do a business in Medellín on the grounds that he could travel and return with money to help his family.

This is how Silvano managed to save 5,000 Peruvian soles, the equivalent of 4’850,000 Colombian pesos Y He set out on the road to Antioquia on Monday, January 25, with the idea of ​​buying branded clothing and then taking it to Huánuco and reselling it at a higher price..

Until that moment everything seemed to be going well and even Silvano managed to send videos on his social networks where he was very happy with his arrival in Colombia, he did not seem to have coexistence problems, much less economic problems.

The problem began to become evident 16 days later, when the young Peruvian lost communication with his loved ones, after he called them on Wednesday, February 10, to ask for financial aid in the face of an alleged scam of which he had been a victim with merchants in Medellín.

“He said, ‘Janet, please, I was left with nothing here. Send me money, please. ‘ It was 8 pm I told him that tomorrow morning I would deposit him, that he send me the bill that I was going to do everything possible. The next day he was no longer connected. I wrote to him, I called him and he no longer answered the phone “Silvano’s sister told El Comercio de Peru.

In view of the fact that he had no further contact with his loved ones in Peru, the family became concerned and began a search from Huánuco to find out the whereabouts of ‘Jackiel’, as he was affectionately called at home.

Janet, his sister, found a clue that allowed progress in the investigation into the whereabouts of the missing youth. On February 14, the woman received a video clip from the social network TikTok that her neighbors shared with her where Silvano is apparently seen wearing clothes he used in Peru. Janet said she immediately recognized the young man’s voice timbre in that media file.

What ended all illusion for her was to notice that in the video her brother appeared being violated by two men who insistently questioned him about his nationality. At one point, as seen in the recording, when the boy answers that he is from “Huánuco, Peru”, one of them takes him by the leg and chest and throws him from the top of a bridge.

Regarding the men who are around him in the video, the authorities presume that due to their accent they would be of Venezuelan nationality, but this hypothesis has not been possible to confirm, since they only have that TikTok video as a clue to find the authors of the crime.

Apparently, for a sum that ranges between 5,000 and 9,000 Peruvian soles, they would have robbed Cántaro Tolentino by deceiving him with the argument of the clothing business in order to later get rid of him.

In addition, the scam would have started even when Silvano spoke in his first times with his family on WhatsApp.

“He told me: sister, the Colombian who took me left me on the street, there is nothing, he left me without food, right now I don’t know where to go, I have nowhere to sleep, please send me money”Janet said.

The compilation of the case, as well as the faces of the men who would have convinced Cántaro Tolentino to travel to Medellín were recorded in the following report published by the Peruvian newscast ATV Noticias:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMBU9qkCPXU

Intervention of the Colombian authorities in the case

In this way, a crime between foreign citizens committed on a bridge in Medellín alerted the Attorney General’s Office to be able to find the body of the young man who suffered the attack from on high. The Sectional Office of Prosecutors of Medellín reported that it would activate an urgent search mechanism for Silvano Oblitas.

Throughhe Group of Disappeared persons attached to the Technical Investigative Body (CTI) of the Attorney General’s Office, telephone lines were activated to be able to find useful information that would allow finding the young Peruvian. This was announced on Wednesday, February 17.

Unfortunately, on the afternoon of Saturday, February 20, the Metropolitan Police of Valle de Aburrá confirmed that in the Las Mojarras district, in the municipality of Mercaderes, department of Cauca, they found the body of a person who would have the characteristics of a 19-year-old Peruvian youth. age, identified as Silvano Oblitas Cántaro Tolentino.

“At the bottom of a bridge they find what would be the skeletal remains that match the characteristics of the young man and progress is being made in their identification. We are in the investigation process to find those responsible for these events “reported Brigadier General Pablo Ferney Ruiz, commander of the Metropolitan Police of Valle de Aburrá.

This was confirmed by Commander Pablo Ruiz in statements to public opinion:

In previous days, the victim’s sister spoke with the Peruvian media. In statements to the press, he said that Silvano had not finished his college studies, as he was in the fourth year of high school at an educational institution in Huánuco:

The parents of the disappeared youth, Félix Cántaro Vásquez and Feliciana Tolentino Durán, asked the Colombian authorities to clarify what happened to their son and punish those responsible. “My son is innocent. I just want to pick up his body, watch over him and say goodbye “Feliciana said.

In the days after the disappearance, Janet, Silvano’s sister, asked the Peruvian Ministry of the Interior and the Peruvian Foreign Minister Allan Wagner for help in finding the victim’s whereabouts. Now they only hope to be able to receive his body from Colombia and give him a Christian burial, saying goodbye to his land with his family.

See more: