International
Missing Ecuadoran lawyer found murdered, husband wanted
AFP
A young woman lawyer was found murdered in Ecuador 10 days after going missing, the government said Wednesday, in the latest femicide in a country plagued by violence against women.
The body of Maria Belen Bernal, who was 34, was found on a hill some five kilometers (3.1 miles) from the Quito police training school where she went missing on September 11 on a visit to her husband there, Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo said on Twitter.
Her husband, Lieutenant German Caceres, is on the run and is considered the main suspect in the woman’s death, according to police.
“I deeply regret her death, a femicide that will not go unpunished,” Carrillo said as he announced the discovery of Bernal’s body.
President Guillermo Lasso, also on Twitter, vowed that Bernal’s “femicide will not go unpunished and all those responsible will be subject to the law.”
Bernal disappeared after entering the police college to visit her instructor husband, according to her family.
Two days after she was reported missing, Caceres also disappeared, prompting a manhunt and his dismissal from his job.
We will not rest
The head of the training school was also fired, and the government has offered a $20,000 reward for Caceres’ capture.
“We will not rest until we bring the murderer to justice,” a police statement said.
The crime of femicide is punishable by up to 26 years in prison in Ecuador.
According to the prosecutor’s office, at least 573 femicides have been registered in Ecuador’s population of 17.7 million since 2014.
In the first months of 2022 there had been 206 murders of women, according to Geraldine Guerra from the Aldea NGO that tracks femicides in the country.
This amounted to about one woman every 28 hours, she said.
Official data shows that 65 out of every 100 Ecuadoran woman aged 15 to 49 have experienced some form of violence.
On Monday, a prosecutor investigating hate crimes and femicide was himself murdered outside the Ecuadoran public prosecutor’s office in Guayaquil, authorities said.
Edgar Escobar was shot outside the building where he worked.
Crime and violence have been on the rise in Ecuador as rival drug gangs sow terror, especially in Guayaquil and its prison system.
Ecuador lies between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers of cocaine.
In 2021, the murder rate almost doubled from the previous year to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants.
International
Colombian president Gustavo Petro denies alleged ties to criminal networks
Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Monday rejected claims made by Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, who suggested that the president might be involved in a criminal network linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Petro called the accusation “criminal and arbitrary” in a post on social media platform X.
“Leopoldo López’s attempt to link me to drug trafficking structures is criminal and arbitrary,” wrote the Colombian president, responding to statements made by López from Madrid, where he has been exiled since 2020.
During a press conference, López claimed that Petro “has become the first international spokesperson supporting Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship” and suggested that this support could stem from a direct relationship or shared interest with what he described as a “criminal structure.”
President Petro responded that he does not have accounts or assets abroad and that his income comes solely from his salary as a public official. “Not a single peso more. I have no accounts abroad or assets. My only property is the house I built for my children, completed before becoming mayor; I owe money on it to the bank and no one lives there. I have no other assets in Colombia or abroad, so stop being foolish,” the president said.
These statements follow the U.S. Treasury Department’s inclusion of Petro, his wife Verónica Alcocer, his son Nicolás Petro, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti on the so-called ‘Clinton List’ by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) due to alleged links to drug trafficking.
Being on this list blocks assets in the United States and prohibits financial transactions with U.S. entities.
Central America
El Salvador’s FGR prosecutes 89,875 gang members under state of exception
Records from the Office of the Attorney General of El Salvador (FGR) show that under the state of exception, 89,875 gang members from various criminal organizations have been arrested, of which 91.3% (82,078) are currently in the preliminary trial stage before the courts specialized in organized crime. The FGR anticipates favorable rulings with maximum sentences for all convicted criminals.
During a recent visit to the Legislative Assembly, Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado provided details about the work carried out under the state of exception. A dedicated team of 291 legal professionals has been assigned to these cases, including office chiefs, coordinators, assistant prosecutors, and legal collaborators.
“The team working on state-of-exception cases includes 291 professionals, plus personnel from the Telecommunications Intervention Center and supervisory staff, representing roughly 30% of the FGR’s total prosecutorial workforce,” Delgado explained.
The prosecutors have prepared 590 criminal cases with formal charges:
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299 cases against Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) members
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281 cases against the 18th Street gang
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3 cases against Mao Mao
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5 cases against Mara Máquina
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2 cases against Mirada Loca
The Attorney General emphasized that the investigation and prosecution of 89,875 gang members is unprecedented in the country’s history. “Over the next two years, we expect to gradually reduce the number of defendants in the preliminary trial stage and move them toward final convictions,” he said.
Delgado also highlighted the work of the Analysis Section, which has processed 25,412 pieces of evidence, of which 19,658 are related to the state-of-exception cases, while the remaining 5,754 belong to other cases, reflecting the unit’s dual role in defending the interests of both the state and society.
International
Mexican journalist reporting on drug cartels killed in Durango
A journalist covering drug trafficking and security on social media in the northwestern Mexican state of Durango was murdered, the state prosecutor’s office reported to AFP on Monday.
The victim has been identified as Miguel Ángel Beltrán, a reporter who had previously worked in print media, according to local news outlets. Mexico is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with more than 150 media professionals killed since 1994, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Beltrán’s body was discovered on Saturday along the highway connecting Durango to the beach resort of Mazatlán in the neighboring state of Sinaloa, local media reported.
The journalist had been reporting through TikTok, under the pseudonym Capo, and on Facebook through the page La Gazzetta Durango, AFP confirmed.
In one of his latest reports, published last Wednesday, Beltrán covered the arrest of a leader of the local Cabrera Sarabia mafia, which operates in Durango and is a rival of the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, the country’s most powerful criminal organizations.
Like Beltrán, many journalists targeted in Mexico work in areas dominated by organized crime and often publish on small outlets or social media, usually under precarious working conditions.
Since December 2006, when the government launched a controversial military-backed anti-drug strategy, more than 480,000 people have been killed in Mexico.
Colombian president Gustavo Petro denies alleged ties to criminal networks
El Salvador’s FGR prosecutes 89,875 gang members under state of exception
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