The winner of a gay beauty pageant in Veracruz was tortured and assassinated, according to local authorities in the municipality of Martínez de la Torre.

The body of Luis Contrera Ponce, the 2018 Gay Queen in the same municipality, was found yesterday in the Ejidal neighborhood, half nude with signs of torture and wearing a barbed-wire necklace.

A human rights activist described the murder as a hate crime and said it was similar to others. Yazz Yazziel Bustamante said there have been 15 hate-related homicides in the state of Veracruz so far this year.

An anthropologist at the social anthropology research center Ciesas said Veracruz ranks in first place for the murder of transsexuals.

Contrera, who went by the name Alaska Bout, was the second gay pageant queen to be assassinated this year. Yamileth Quintero, who won a beauty contest in Elota, Sinaloa, was killed in May in Culiacán.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)