Prosecutors in Rome have opened an investigation into the murder of an Italian scientist in Colombia, with one theory being that he could have been killed by warring criminal clans in a case of mistaken identity.
Alessandro Coatti, who until late last year worked at the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) in London, was last seen leaving a hostel in Santa Marta, a port city on the Caribbean coast, on 3 April.
The 38-year-old’s dismembered body parts were found two days later in a suitcase dumped on the outskirts of the city.
The molecular biologist had been travelling and conducting research in South America after working in London for eight years. There is no evidence that Ciotta had any links to organised crime.
Rome prosecutors will collaborate with counterparts in Colombia, with Italy expected to send a team of investigators to Santa Marta. According to reports in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, one line of inquiry is that Coatti could have been killed by mistake in the context of a “settling of scores” between organised crime groups.
Lerber Dimas, a crime expert, told the Colombian news website El Tiempo that the killing bore the hallmarks of the two armed groups operating in the area, Clan del Golfo and the Autodefensas Conquistadores de la Sierra.
Norma Vera Salazar, a human rights expert, said there had been a spate of similar crimes. “There is a clear recurring pattern in these crimes: bodies are tortured, dismembered, stuffed into garbage or coffee sacks, and abandoned along rural roads,” she told El Tiempo. “These types of murders are used by self-defence groups to send warning messages, instil fear and mark territory.”
Coatti was travelling alone in South America, visiting Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador before arriving on 3 April in Santa Marta, which is surrounded by beaches and mountains and is a gateway to some of Colombia’s most popular tourist destinations. His disappearance was reported the next day.
Coatti was born in Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region, where his parents live in the town of Alfonsine, close to Ravenna. He was planning to return to Italy for Easter, his uncle Giovanni told the Italian press. “Alessandro was a good, happy person and a brilliant biologist,” he told the local news site Il Resto del Carlino. “He loved to travel and discover the world.”
He added: “We are shocked, what happened is surreal. We have entrusted ourselves to the Italian and Colombian authorities. We want the truth. Alessandro was only 38 years old, with a life ahead of him. We cannot understand why this happened to him, and in that way.”
