Designer Carolina Herrera at the Oscars Vanity Fair Party in Beverly Hills, California February 2, 2017. (Reuters)
Carolina Herrera wants the world to know what happened to her beloved nephew Reinaldo Jose Herrera.
The 78-year-old fashion designer took to Instagram Saturday where she spoke out against her native Venezuela’s “communist dictatorship” after her 34-year-old nephew was found dead in a vehicle abandoned outside the capital Caracas alongside another man.
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NBC 6 South Florida previously reported that Herrera’s nephew was eating with 31-year-old Fabrizio Mendoza at a restaurant on Thursday when they were both reportedly abducted by a gang of criminals. The group then asked for a ransom for the two men. Although the ransom was allegedly paid, both men were still found dead with point-blank gunshot wounds.
Page Six reported that Herrera's nephew was a father of two and Mendoza was his construction-business partner. The publication added that state prosecutors called the attack a kidnapping, a common crime in Venezuela, which is suffering from “triple-digit inflation and chronic food shortages.”
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Venezuela is also noted to have one of the highest murder rates in the world and in 2016, it recorded the highest murder rate in its history, with 70 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
“Carolina and [husband] Reinaldo Herrera, and their family are deeply devastated by this tragedy,” said a spokeswoman for the designer to Page Six on Saturday. “They are not available for further comment. The family requests privacy as they grieve.”
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