Lasso asks for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior for the case of María Belén Bernal

( Spanish) — The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, informed this Friday in his account twitter official which ordered that two generals of the National Police be dismissed from the institution. The president added that he also asked the country’s police commanders to make their charges available.

Minutes after the president’s announcement, Fausto Salinas, commander general of the National Police, responded to Lasso’s tweet saying that “before your authority on Monday we will make our positions available, we assume that any decision that contributes to overcoming this difficult moment will be the right decision”.

The generals whose dismissal Lasso ordered are Freddy Goyes and Giovanni Ponce, national director of Judicial Police Investigation and national director of Citizen Security and Public Order, respectively. Lasso did not give details of the reasons for the dismissal of these two generals.

is trying to contact Generals Goyes and Ponce to find out their reaction to the president’s request to remove them from the institution. is also trying to get information from the Ecuadorian presidency about the reasons for Goyes and Ponce’s dismissal.

Lasso calls for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior

Lasso also reported that he gave Police Commander Fausto Salinas a week to deliver definitive results leading to the capture of Lieutenant Germán Cáceres, investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office as the author of the crime of femicide against lawyer María Belén. Bernal, adding that he has called for the resignation of Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo.

“Ecuador as a whole knows the value of General Carrillo, and although some may not like his frontal attitude, General Patricio Carrillo has dedicated his life and his loyalty to the ideal of a safer country. However, after the events of these days, I have decided that his services end today. I have asked General Carrillo for his resignation as Minister of the Interior,” Lasso reported.

The president indicated that all efforts will be made to prevent and eradicate gender violence and not re-victimize the victims and their families.

“As President of the Republic, I want to apologize, because this should never happen, much less in a public building where those who must protect us are trained,” he said.

The death of Maria Belen Bernal

This presidential decision comes two days after the National Police found the body of María Belén Bernal, a 34-year-old lawyer who had been missing for 10 days and whose case unleashed a wave of solidarity and indignation in the country because she disappeared after entering at the Police High School to see her husband, police lieutenant Germán Cáceres, who is still at large and whose search continues, according to the authorities.

Cáceres had a surveillance request arranged by the Prosecutor’s Office in the preliminary investigation process for Bernal’s disappearance. Until this Friday it is not known if the notification of the process was sent to a defender of the suspect. tried to contact Cáceres or his lawyer, without getting a response.

The Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office reported that this Monday an international commission from Colombia will arrive in Ecuador to join the investigative work in this case:

“The contribution of the experts (prosecutor, criminal technician and civil investigator) will allow an objective and transparent process to continue,” the Prosecutor’s Office emphasized on its official Twitter account.

This Friday, Elizabeth Otavalo, Bernal’s mother, told the media during her daughter’s funeral that she will continue her fight to demand justice after the crime perpetrated against her loved one.

“I dedicated myself to hugging her, to hugging that cold coffin, yesterday morning I took her injured hands, completely injured, and I promised her that we are not going to rest, I am going to continue with this,” said Otavalo outside the University Theater in the Central University in Quito where Bernal’s remains were laid to rest and where the victim obtained her law degree.