The authorities said that they had labeled the deaths as a detest crime following keeps of two people had been found in a poorly burned vehicles a week ago.

A week after the system of two transgender lady had been within a terribly burned automobile in Puerto Rico, the police said Thursday that they have arrested two men associated with the killings together with turned them over to the F.B.I.

The boys, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, happened to be used into guardianship on Wednesday but I have perhaps not come recharged, in accordance with Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of violent research when it comes down to authorities in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast, where in fact the women’s stays were found on April 22.

He said the F.B.I. got absorbed the outcome and was exploring Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for feasible civil-rights violations.

“We tend to be classifying it as a hate criminal activity because they happened to be socializing using sufferers, and once they found out these people were transgender ladies, they chose to destroy them,” head Morales said on Thursday.

The police said these people were looking forward to autopsy results to decide how the women was indeed slain. Activists posses identified the women as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two pals exactly who lived in new york. Their stays comprise located after one labeled as 911 to submit a burned vehicles under a bridge on a desolate street in Humacao, just before 5 a.m. on April 22, Captain Morales stated.

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon had been interacting with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez throughout the night before they were slain and comprise tape-recorded on one on the women’s social media records, head Morales said.

He mentioned law enforcement had furthermore tied Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon into the killings through surveillance camera footage and “scientific evidence,” that he dropped to detail. Mr. Pagan Bonilla confessed to participating in the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon transformed themselves in, the guy mentioned.

Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman for all the F.B.I.’s San Juan area company, dropped to talk about the arrests but said the agency routinely collaborates with neighborhood, condition and federal companies.

“The Bureau try and can continually be into unlawful behavior that might drop within federal jurisdiction,” she stated. “However, all of our rules try we really do not confirm or reject the existence of research, to safeguard the stability of every feasible investigative effort.”

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon couldn’t right away feel attained for touch upon Thursday night, and it had not been straight away clear if they had solicitors.

If the men are billed, it can portray a switching point in the management of criminal activities against L.G.B.T.Q. folks in Puerto Rico, which includes a disturbing history of violence against homosexual and transgender individuals, activists mentioned.

Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez happened to be the next and 4th transgender folk murdered in Puerto Rico within the last few 2 months, activists stated. These people were also believed to be the seventh and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming men and women to currently killed in the usa in 2010, in line with the Human Rights venture.

Prior to now 15 several months, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. people have started murdered in Puerto Rico, per Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay rights activist. Just about three with the deaths stays unsolved, the guy stated.

“These arrests is a step during the proper way, but these murders need to be prosecuted as dislike crimes,” Mr. Serrano mentioned. “We desire the government to finish the investigations in various other seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. men and women in the isle and offer justice for several ones.”

Ms. Velazquez stayed in Queens and Ms. Pelaez inside the Bronx. Both had recently moved to Puerto Rico, plus they happened to be about to travel back again to ny afterwards this month, according to family relations and activists.

Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s relative, mentioned Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon were arrested after an area radio station submitted graphics of those on Facebook and individuals started initially to phone the facility to determine them.

“We become extremely appreciative on the operate that the officials and the area added to locate exactly who did this,” she mentioned on Thursday.

She mentioned the images originated from two video clips that Ms. Pelaez had uploaded on the Snapchat and Twitter reports, which demonstrated the girl and Ms. Velazquez interacting with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.

“we noticed the video, therefore seemed like they certainly were spending time together as friends,” she mentioned. “It felt normal. There seemed to be audio playing in background. Anyone seemed great.”

She stated the police have shared with her group best the males comprise in federal custody.

The killings came a month after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender guy, got murdered in Moca, P.R., in accordance with the individual legal rights strategy.

In February, Alexa Negron Luciano, a famous figure on Puerto Rico social media who was simply transgender and homeless, is recorded to death after a McDonald’s visitors reported that Ms. Negron had spied on the inside women’s area.

Ms. Negron’s last moments — presented from inside the headlights of a vehicle amid a cackle of fun — were published on social networking, an undeniable fact that activists mentioned underscored the impunity homophobic assailants become whenever committing this type of crimes.