In April 2022, Lira disappeared briefly, claiming he'd been detained by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).[6][7] In May 2023, Lira was arrested and charged with producing and publishing material that tried to justify the ongoing Russian invasion, which is illegal under Ukrainian law.[8][9] Lira was released on bail and subsequently tried to flee the country. He was arrested again for violating his bail conditions, and died of pneumonia in custody on January 12, 2024.[10]
After graduating, Lira moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a screenwriter. Unsuccessful, he turned to writing novels.[12] In 1997, Lira released a Spanish-language coming-of-age novel, Tomáh Errázurih.[13][12] Lira's first English-language novel, a spy thriller called Counterparts, was published in January 1998 by G. P. Putnam's Sons.[14][15] Lira received an advance of one million U.S. dollars for the novel and a follow-up,[1] upon which he was referred to by Qué Pasa magazine as the "highest paid Chilean writer in the world".[16]
In 1998, after moving to New York City, Lira wrote, produced, and directed a short comedy film, So Kinky.[12] He was also involved in the story creation of the 2000 video game Soldier of Fortune.[17] Lira published a second English-language book, another spy thriller titled Acrobat, in 2002, the movie rights to which were bought by Miramax.[18][19] In 2005, he filmed Secuestro in Chile, which came in second in the box office in Chile following its opening weekend.[20][21]
From 2010 to 2013, Lira published his thoughts on economics and other subjects on his blog, some of which were reposted by Business Insider,[22] though a majority of his articles have since been removed.[23] He also contributed to Zero Hedge, a far-right financial and geopolitics website.[24] During this period, Lira contacted Australian economist Steve Keen, proposing a collaborative project and suggesting that they start a paid subscription website. According to Keen, Gonzalo "overstated and over-promised what he could do".[4]
From 2017 onward, Lira was active on YouTube under the pseudonym Coach Red Pill (CRP), an allusion to Red Pill and Black Pill symbolism in the manosphere community. The content was misogynistic[5] and anti-feminist in nature, appealing to incels.[25] Lira posted videos with advice such as "never date a woman in her thirties" and argued that all women wanted was money, a house, and kids, as only child-rearing would biologically validate them.[4] In one video, he advised viewers living in Western democracies to move to "a poor, underdeveloped country" due to the former's supposed "totalitarian" deployment of COVID-19 vaccines.[26] In November 2021, Lira deleted most of his CRP content and began posting under his legal name.[21]
Lira in February of 2022, during the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Lira lived in Kharkiv, and married a Ukrainian woman with whom he had two children, though the pair later separated.[4][33]
Arrest and prosecution
On April 15, 2022, friends and family of Lira said that they had lost touch with him, after which Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs began searching for his whereabouts.[34][35] Ukraine-based American journalist Sarah Ashton-Cirillo reported Lira's apparent capture by Ukrainian forces on April 18.[25] Lira became the subject of conspiracy theories surrounding his alleged murder,[31][36] but resurfaced alive on April 22, 2022, claiming that he had been detained by the SBU for the period he was missing.[7][37]
On May 1, 2023, Lira was arrested for violating Article 436-2 of Ukraine's criminal code, which prohibits justification of Russia's ongoing invasion of the country.[8][38] The Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security noted Lira had also shared pro-Russian disinformation such as claiming the Bucha massacre was faked or that the Ukrainian government was a Neo-Nazi regime, and that Lira had shared video of himself insulting Ukrainian soldiers.[39] His arrest was reported by the SBU on May 5.[40][41] Lira was subsequently released on bail and placed under house arrest.[32] He returned to social media to claim to have been tortured while imprisoned, an allegation denied by the SBU.[32] Lira attempted to flee the country by crossing the Hungarian border on July 31 to claim political asylum, but was captured and arrested again for violating his bail conditions.[24][42]
In December 2023, Elon Musk, CEO of X (formerly Twitter), publicly inquired about Lira on his platform, in response to a post by media personality Tucker Carlson calling Lira a political prisoner.[43][44] The SBU responded that Lira had been detained in accordance with the law.[38] Musk's post was also labeled with a Community Note explaining the nature of Lira's charges, after which Musk claimed that the note had been "gamed by state actors".[45][46] In a Business Insider interview that month, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, who had become a Ukrainian military spokeswoman, asserted that Lira had fabricated his torture accusations in an effort to gain sympathy.[44]
Death
On January 12, 2024, Gonzalo Lira Sr., Lira's father, reported that his son had died in a Ukrainian prison at the age of 55.[23][47] This was confirmed by the United States Department of State[48] and Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[49][50] His cause of death was reported to be pneumonia.[10] Lira Sr. blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and United States President Joe Biden for causing his son's death.[51][52] Russian officials, including Maria Zakharova and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, echoed this claim,[53][54] as did some Western political figures.[55]Cathy Young of The Bulwark criticized anti-Ukraine commentators for spreading misinformation about Lira and exploiting his death, and also issued a call for transparency.[55]
