Argentine surgeon Cristian Pérez Latorre, famous for performing surgery on international celebrities including the late model Silvina Luna, was arrested Thursday in Los Ángeles, accused of performing cosmetic procedures without a license, as well as assault and battery.
He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted as charged.
“When an individual masquerades as a doctor and performs medical procedures without a license, it not only endangers lives but also erodes the essential trust between patients and legitimate healthcare providers,” said Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office published a communiqué outlining Latorre’s charges: one count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of battery with serious injury, and six counts of practicing medicine without a license.
Latorre allegedly performed cosmetic surgery without the proper license on a woman in Los Angeles on July 13, 2021. Ten days after the procedure on the unidentified woman, Latorre medically treated her for infections that resulted from the surgery, and again on August 13 for further complications related to the surgery. “It is further alleged that Latorre inflicted great bodily injury,” the DA office added.
It is unclear whether Latorre was licensed in Argentina but not the United States or lacks any medical qualification. His LinkedIn page features the American Board of Surgical Assistants, the Buenos Aires Juri Clinic, and the private H.A Barceló Medical Foundation. The Herald reached out to all three for confirmation but did not receive an immediate response.
On his Instagram account — which has currently gone private — Latorre claims he is a “board-certified plastic surgeon” in Argentina and a “registered nurse first assistant and face specialist” in the US, as can be understood from the country flags he put next to each of those statements.
He also advertised himself as the co-owner of The Aura Healing, an online “ritual shop” that sells crystals, candles, and detox juice plans starting at US$110.
The Silvina Luna case
In 2016, Latorre garnered significant media attention when he performed surgery on Silvina Luna, an Argentine model and actress who traveled to LA for help with a medical nightmare. In 2011, another Argentine celebrity surgeon Aníbal Lotocki performed a Brazilian butt lift on Luna using doses of methacrylate well over the legally permitted amount. A few years later, she started having serious health problems in her kidneys, and doctors determined that she had been a victim of medical malpractice.
In 2016, Latorre allegedly removed a large amount of the substance Lotocki had put inside Luna’s body. However, her health problems worsened and she died in August 2023 at 43 years old.
Latorre made frequent appearances on Argentine media to discuss the case and often warned against injecting liquid silicone on his social media. Months before her death, he said during an interview that the methacrylate was like “a poison” to the body and “what Lotocki did to Silvina is a medical disaster.”
Three months after Luna’s death, Lotocki was convicted to eight years in prison and banned from performing medicine for 10 years. The conviction included three other victims besides Luna: the Argentine judiciary found that he had caused them repeated serious injuries due to using excessive methacrylate and injecting it in parts of the body where it is banned.