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
U.S. and Mexico Reach Deal to Address Water Deficit Under 1944 Treaty
The United States and Mexico have reached an agreement to comply with current water obligations affecting U.S. farmers and ranchers and for Mexico to cover its water deficit to Texas under the 1944 Water Treaty, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement.
The department уточified that the agreement applies to both the current cycle and the water deficit from the previous cycle.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Mexico of failing to comply with the water-sharing treaty between the two countries, which requires the United States to deliver 1.85 billion cubic meters of water from the Colorado River, while Mexico must supply 432 million cubic meters from the Rio Grande.
Mexico is behind on its commitments. According to Washington, the country has accumulated a deficit of more than one billion cubic meters of water over the past five years.
“This violation is severely harming our beautiful crops and our livestock in Texas,” Trump wrote on Monday.
The Department of Agriculture said on Friday that Mexico had agreed to supply 250 million cubic meters of water starting next week and to work toward closing the shortfall.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, quoted in the statement, said Mexico delivered more water in a single year than it had over the previous four years combined.
Trump has said that if Mexico continues to fall short of its obligations, the United States reserves the right to impose 5% tariffs on imported Mexican products.
Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Minister for North America, Roberto Velasco, said that a severe drought in 2022 and 2023prevented the country from meeting its commitments.
International
Several people shot in attack on Brown University campus
Several people were shot on Saturday in an attack on the campus of Brown University, in the northeastern United States, local police reported.
“Shelter in place and avoid the area until further notice,” the Providence Police Department urged in a post on X. Brown University is located in Providence, the capital of the state of Rhode Island.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that he had been briefed on the situation and that the FBI was on the scene.
At 5:52 p.m. local time (11:52 p.m. GMT), Brown University said the situation was still “ongoing” and instructed students to remain sheltered until further notice.
After initially stating that the suspect had been taken into custody, Trump later posted a second message clarifying that local police had walked back that information. “The suspect has NOT been apprehended,” the U.S. president said.
International
Colombia says it would not reject Maduro asylum request as regional tensions escalate
The Colombian government stated on Thursday that it would have no reason to reject a potential asylum request from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro should he leave office, as regional tensions persist over the deployment of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean since August.
“In the current climate of tension, negotiations are necessary, and if the United States demands a transition or political change, that is something to be assessed. If such a transition results in him (Maduro) needing to live elsewhere or seek protection, Colombia would have no reason to deny it,” said Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio in an interview with Caracol Radio.
However, Villavicencio noted that it is unlikely Maduro would choose Colombia as a refuge. “I believe he would opt for someplace more distant and calmer,” she added.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also commented on Venezuela’s situation on Wednesday, arguing that the country needs a “democratic revolution” rather than “inefficient repression.” His remarks followed the recent detention and passport cancellation of Cardinal Baltazar Porras at the Caracas airport.
“The Maduro government must understand that responding to external aggression requires more than military preparations; it requires a democratic revolution. A country is defended with more democracy, not more inefficient repression,” Petro wrote on X (formerly Twitter), in a rare public criticism of the Venezuelan leader.
Petro also called for a general amnesty for political opponents and reiterated his call for forming a broad transitional government to address Venezuela’s prolonged crisis.
Since September, U.S. military forces have destroyed more than 20 vessels allegedly carrying drugs in Caribbean and Pacific waters near Venezuela and Colombia, resulting in over 80 deaths.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that attacks “inside Venezuela” will begin “soon,” while Maduro has urged Venezuelans to prepare for what he describes as an impending external aggression.
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Several people shot in attack on Brown University campus
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