- Writing
- BBC News World
image source, Maria Belen Bernal
María Belén Bernal, in an image published on her social networks.
The Ecuadorian authorities reported that police lieutenant Germán Cáceres, husband of lawyer María Belén Bernal and the main suspect in her murder, was captured this Friday in Colombia and will be transferred to Quito.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso reported that Cáceres, “wanted for the femicide of María Belén Bernal,” was arrested in Colombia, and promised that when he arrives in Ecuador “he will receive the full weight of the law.”
The case of Bernal, 34, shocked Ecuador on September 11, when the lawyer disappeared after entering the Higher Police School, in the north center of Quito, to meet her husband.
The first to report Bernal’s disappearance was his mother, Elizabeth Otavalo, who has since started a campaign to find his daughter, in addition to denouncing the alleged negligence on the part of the authorities.
“Where is María Belén Bernal?“, questioned the media and chanted protesters in the streets, mostly women, while the Prosecutor’s Office revealed that Cáceres had fled.
Days later, Bernal’s body was found lifeless a few meters from the police building.
image source, RODRIGO BUENDIA/Getty
Protesters had demanded answers from the Police.
The Ecuadorian police, the body for which Cáceres worked, specified that the suspect was found in Palomino, a town located in the Colombian Guajira.
“Let them put him in good care, it is not going to be that later he commits suicide or maybe he escapes us again“, declared Bernal’s mother to the local press after hearing the news.
Lasso even offered a reward for whoever offered information that would allow Cáceres to be located, and ordered the search operation to be reinforced to resolve a case that raised doubts about the actions of the police and put the focus back on violence against women.
image source, Getty Images
Hundreds of people protested in the streets of Quito to protest the death of Bernal.
respected lawyer
María Belén Bernal was 34 years old, originally from Quito and had studied law at the Universidad Central’s School of Jurisprudence, in addition to completing a master’s degree in Oral Litigation at the California Western School of Law.
She had managed to become a respected litigator, in a field where she was recognized for her extensive knowledge of criminal proceedings.
One of the best-known cases that he had to face was the representation of the family of Alejandro Páliz, who died in March 2021 after being run over by a patrol from the Quito Metropolitan Transit Agency.
In that case, according to local media, Bernal managed to demonstrate the responsibility that the agents had had, with an untimely maneuver that prevented Páliz’s reaction to avoid the accident.
At the time of her disappearance, the lawyer He worked for the firm Defensa Penal Group. and was part of the group of six women who handle cases focused mostly on criminal matters.
Bernal had also handled cases of sexual assault, gender violence, defense of the police, alimony and others, according to the Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo.
Bernal was aware that his work as a criminal lawyer had made him enemies.
In fact, in the middle of this year, through a publication on the TikTok social network, he had given two names that he held responsible in advance if something happened to him.
However, as soon as her disappearance became known, the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office discarded the two names that she had indicated in the video, after establishing that the main suspect in the case was her husband, Lieutenant Cáceres.
According to local media, Cáceres and Bernal had married in 2017.
The couple lived in the Conocoto area, in the south of Quito, with Issac, 13, the son of Bernal’s previous relationship.
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