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The Ecuadorian government announced on Friday that the policeman Germán Cáceres, the main suspect in the murder of his wife, María Belén Bernal, has been arrested in Colombia, after a joint operation by the prosecutors of both countries. Bernal’s murder, which occurred last September, caused a shock in Ecuador and has become a new symbol of the fight against femicides in the country.
The news was first broadcast by the local television network Ecuavisa. Germán Cáceres, who was wanted for the femicide of his wife, was located and captured in the town of Palomino (in the Colombian Caribbean). The President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, also confirmed the news on his Twitter account.
“Germán Cáceres, wanted for the femicide of María Belén Bernal, has been located and captured. My appreciation for the joint work between the Ecuadorian Police, the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office and the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office,” Lasso posted.
The Ecuadorian president assured that “once in the country, (the suspect) will receive the full weight of the law” and indicated that he spoke with Colombian President Gustavo Petro to personally thank him for Colombia’s collaboration in the search and capture of Germán Cáceres.
A new emblem of the fight against femicides in Ecuador
Cáceres fled Ecuador last September and has been wanted by Interpol ever since as the main suspect in the murder of his wife, María Belén Bernal. The young lawyer disappeared on September 11 when she went to visit him at a police school where Cáceres worked as an instructor.
According to the statements of the lawyers, screams and calls for help coming from the defendant’s room had been heard for about twenty minutes.
Cáceres filed a complaint for the alleged disappearance of his wife; then he was held for hours, but was released and nothing more was heard from him. The last thing the police knew was that Cáceres had left the country for Colombia.
The body of the 34-year-old lawyer was found ten days later on a hill in the suburbs of the capital, Quito, a few kilometers from the police academy. The coroner’s report established that Bernal was strangled.
The case outraged and moved Ecuadorian society. It has become one of the most prominent cases of violence against women, since it took place in a police school, which led the victim’s mother, Elizabeth Otavalo, to describe it as a “state crime”. “The death of my daughter cannot go unpunished, it will not be another statistic,” added Otavalo.
More than 200 femicides registered since the beginning of the year in Ecuador
Ecuador, a country of 18 million inhabitants, registers high rates of gender violence. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, at least 573 femicides have been registered since 2014, when the crime was included in the country’s Penal Code.
But according to Fundación Aldea, a human rights organization, since the beginning of the year, more than 270 femicides have been committed. According to official statistics, 65 out of every 100 women between the ages of 15 and 49 have suffered some type of violence in this South American country.
As a result of the case of the lawyer’s murder, President Lasso announced the dismissal of his Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, and senior police officers. The president, who had described Bernal’s murder as a “feminicide”, also ordered the dismissal of two police generals.
EFE, AFP, Local media
