A lawyer who has been missing for more than a week from a police academy in the Ecuadorian capital Quito was found dead on Wednesday, September 21, Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo announced.
The police “
did their job and found Maria Belen Bernal.
I deeply regret her death, a feminicide that will not go unpunished
,” Patricio Carrillo said on Twitter.
The body of the 34-year-old lawyer was found on the hill of Casitagua, about 5 km from the police academy in the suburbs of Quito where she had come to find her husband.
The latter, now the main suspect, is on the run in this case which caused a scandal in the country.
Also reacting on Twitter, President Guillermo Lasso, currently in the United States, expressed his "
deep pain and indignation
".
"
His feminicide will not go unpunished and all those responsible will be brought to justice
," he said.
“Threatened everywhere”
About a thousand people, the majority of them women, marched through the Ecuadorian capital to the police headquarters to demand justice.
Angry women shouted "
Assassins, assassins!"
to the police officers who framed the demonstration, others brandished signs proclaiming: “
State feminicide
” and “
We want to be alive
”.
“
We are tired of feeling threatened everywhere we go.
Women are not only killed in the street, we are killed by the police themselves, the police who are supposed to provide security
,” Paola Pazmiño, an 18-year-old law student who joined AFP, told AFP. walking.
Similar demonstrations have already taken place in the previous days.
The main suspect, a lieutenant instructor at the Higher Police School (ESP), was called to testify two days after the disappearance but has since been untraceable.
The school has meanwhile suspended all its activities and its director has been dismissed.
“
This is a heinous crime that hurts and shames us all.
It is unacceptable for a police officer to take the life of another person, when the duty of any police officer is to serve and protect citizens
,” the police institution said in a statement.
Maria Belen Bernal entered the police academy in the early hours of Sunday, September 11, an unusual time for visitors, to "
bring food (...) that's why the officer
said police commander General Fausto Salinas.
Read alsoBrazil shaken by a surge in feminicides
The government is offering a $20,000 reward to find the suspect.
In Ecuador, femicide is punishable by up to 26 years in prison.
Ecuador experiences high rates of gender-based violence.
According to the attorney general's office, at least 573 women have been murdered since 2014. But according to the Aldea Foundation, 206 femicides have been recorded since the beginning of the year.