However, Ruiz died in Valparaíso, Chile soon after his arrival in the country. He reportedly had uremia and a urethral obstruction, both of which deteriorated into Fournier gangrene, which killed him soon after. Later speculation that Ruiz had been poisoned or killed has been countered by three facts: that Ruiz's brother, Mariano Ruiz Quiñones (who was the coordinator of the revolution in Curaçao), died of the same condition soon after (suggesting a genetic predisposition to it), that Betances had used a catheter on Ruiz before he left Saint Thomas to bring him some relief from his condition, and that Betances published a medical article in France twenty years later, in 1887, that discussed the condition, out of what he had described as many years of second-guessing what could have been done to save Ruiz's life.