An 18-year-old Venezuelan woman linked to the September assassination of Peruvian political candidate Susy Aponte Polo died in a highway bus crash in Venezuela, leaving her young daughter dead and an alleged co-conspirator hospitalized under police watch.
The fatal highway collision occurred on September 30 on the General José Antonio Páez highway in the state of Portuguesa, Venezuela. The crash involved a passenger bus operated by the line Ruteros de Venezuela that had departed from San Cristóbal en Táchira with an intended destination of Maracay in Aragua. According to authorities, the vehicle struck a road divider and overturned near the hamlet of Tierra Buena in the Guanare municipality, leaving three people dead and 15 injured.
Among the dead were 18-year-old Beangel Alexandra Toro Montezuma — identified in some official and media reports as Beangel Toro Montecinos — and her young daughter. The crash happened just eleven days after Susy Ysabel Aponte Polo, a journalist and candidate for the Regional Government of Áncash widely known as China Polo
, was shot and killed during campaign activities in the town of Caraz, Peru.
The third fatality in the bus crash was identified as 39-year-old Yohan Carlos Ramírez Cárdenas, while the driver, 36-year-old Pedro Sánchez, survived and was taken to a medical center. The 15 injured passengers included several minors, among them a two-year-old girl and an eight-month-old baby, both suffering from generalized trauma.
Bus Crash Claims Suspects in Venezuela
Investigators say Alexandra Toro and her partner, Adrián Azuaje Solís, had fled Peru following the September 19 assassination. In the passenger manifest for the bus, Azuaje was recorded under the alias Adrián Solís, aged 23, while Toro was listed under a variant name.
While Toro and her child were killed in the rollover, Adrián Azuaje Solís sustained severe polytrauma and a clavicle fracture. Local reports from Venezuela indicate that Azuaje was initially taken to the Miguel Oráa hospital in Guanare for medical treatment.
Despite his injuries, he left the medical facility before undergoing forensic evaluation or being formally questioned by police investigators who were initially unaware of his connection to the high-profile homicide in Peru. The Bolivarian National Police subsequently confirmed the deaths of the woman and the minor, as well as the severity of Azuaje’s injuries, through communications with the National Police of Peru.
Police Trace Foreign Cell in Caraz Shooting
The journalist and political candidate published investigative reports concerning municipal corruption, police departments, and public procurement processes. Before her death, she had reported receiving threats.
Peruvian authorities, including the special team from the Homicide Investigation Division of Huaraz and Lima, quickly mapped out the movements of a foreign cell that arrived in Caraz ahead of the attack. Security camera footage from a local hotel showed Luis Obispo Díaz, Adrián Azuaje, Alexandra Toro, and another man known as Morocho
lodging together days before the shooting.
According to the investigation, Beangel Toro and Adrián Azuaje carried out monitoring, marking, and operational support tasks prior to the attack in Caraz.
Court Orders Detention for Accused Accomplices
Following his immediate capture by police, the alleged hitman Luis Obispo Díaz confessed to investigators that he had been recruited by Azuaje — whom he knew through an intermediary known as Gocha
— to carry out the contract killing for 15,000 soles. According to the investigation, the group had initially planned to eliminate the candidate in Nuevo Chimbote, but the plan did not materialize.
An Áncash court responded to the mounting evidence by ordering 18 months of preliminary detention for Luis Obispo Díaz and Ronald Toro Ardila, the latter of whom investigators identify as an alleged financier who allegedly covered expenses related to the hitman and logistics for the cell.
Where is Adrián Azuaje Solís now, and who ordered the killing?