International
The man who imitated Pelicot admits to having drugged and raped his wife
Jean-Pierre Maréchal, the man who sits on the bench in Avignon for having raped his wife and done it with Dominique Pelicot, whom he imitated in the procedure of subjecting her to a chemical submission, recognizes his full responsibility in the facts.
His lawyer, Patrick Gontard, insisted on Thursday that Maréchal has not tried to evade his responsibility, as shown by the fact that since he was arrested in 2020 he said that he “deserved the maximum, life imprisonment,” despite the fact that the crime of aggravated rape for which he is accused has a maximum penalty of 20 years.
In statements to the press before the hearing in the Criminal Court of Vaucluse (southeast of France), Gontard insisted on the role of “catalyst” that Dominique Pelicot had so that Maréchal, following his instructions, drugged his wife with anxiolytics so that, once in a state of unconsciousness, both men raped her.
The lawyer pointed out that Pelicot, with whom he had established contact through an online messaging and who proposed to resorting to chemical submission as he had been doing for years with his own wife, was for him like “a dynamite cartridge that blew everything up.”
According to his story, he provided her with the medicines and recommended the dosage to administer them with the aim that her partner would lose consciousness and they could abuse her.
The wife maintains the relationship
The lawyer has also pointed out that Pelicot was seven or eight times at his client’s house and the violations were carried out on three of those occasions.
In one of those visits, the woman woke up unexpectedly and surprised the stranger next to her in her room.
The explanations that her husband gave her then, that she had brought him to see her in underwear, did not convince her.
Despite everything, she did not report it even when the case was uncovered, in September 2020.
In her statement this Wednesday before the court, the one who is still Maréchal’s wife explained that she did not denounce him for her children, who have seen their lives upset by these events, and because during their common life he had been “a wonderful man.”
He also acknowledged that he wanted to maintain contact with him, with whom he communicates through his children, and that he even requested to be able to see him in prison so that he would tell him “to his face” what he had done to him.
The psychological exam of the accused
Along with Maréchal and Pelicot, there are 49 others prosecuted in this process for having raped the latter’s wife when she was under the effects of anxiolytics.
Gontard indirectly criticized the defense strategy of most of them, those who deny having known that Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious, by recalling that in French criminal law there is rape from the moment consent is not given to have a sexual relationship.
The lawyer admitted that the relationship with Pelicot was not the only trigger for his client’s criminal behavior, and alluded to several other elements of his life and psychology that could intervene, such as the fact that “he had almost no sex life with his wife” and was “very interested in sex” and to be born into a family marked by the sexual abuse of a violent father.
This and other issues were addressed this Thursday at the hearing by the expert Annabelle Montagne, appointed by the justice for the psychological examination of Maréchal and other defendants.
The big unknown is whether the process will be able to continue next week, due to Pelicot’s absence since Tuesday due to illness. At the outset, there are many chances that Friday’s session will be suspended.
This situation has tensed the atmosphere between lawyers who, such as Pelicot and Maréchal’s, opt for a suspension.
The president of the Court, who has so far tried to maintain the program, has acknowledged today that if the main defendant could not appear from Monday it would be “a catastrophe.”
International
Mexican government prioritizes 191 communities after deadly floods
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed on Wednesday that the death toll from recent rains and floods across several central states has risen to 66, while the federal government has activated air bridges and prioritized assistance in 191 isolated communities.
“Unfortunately, 66 people have died, and 75 remain missing,” the president said during her morning press conference. She added that the official death toll will be updated later in a new report.
As of Tuesday, authorities had reported 64 fatalities. Sheinbaum also announced the creation of a public information center to centralize official data on the deceased, missing persons, damaged homes, and cut-off communities.
According to the president, the number of missing persons has decreased thanks to coordination with state authorities.
“Through calls to phone line 079, 103 people who had been reported missing have now been located,” she explained.
Priority Municipalities
The president noted that the federal government has classified 191 communities as ‘priority’, a designation based mainly on the percentage of homes affected.
International
New road and bridge explosions raise alarm amid indigenous protests in Ecuador
Ecuadorian authorities are investigating two explosions that occurred early Wednesday, one on a road in the southern part of the country and another under a bridge in Guayas province. These incidents follow the car bomb explosion in the coastal city of Guayaquil, also in Guayas, which occurred the day before and left one person dead and 30 injured.
Press reports indicate that one person was injured and several vehicles were damaged in the explosion on the Cuenca-Girón-Pasaje road in the south.
“Besides yesterday’s explosion in Guayaquil, we have received reports of explosives placed on bridges along the Guayaquil-Machala and Machala-Cuenca routes to disrupt traffic,” said Roberto Luque, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT).
On his X social media account, Luque reported that authorities have been deployed to the sites to assess the damage and determine the current condition of the structures.
“What they haven’t achieved with their call for a strike, some are trying to achieve through terrorism,” he stated, referring to the 24 days of protests organized by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie) against rising diesel prices and other demands.
The protests, called at a national level, have Imbabura province as their epicenter. Roadblocks have also been reported in the northern part of Pichincha province, whose capital is Quito, while activities in the rest of the country continue normally.
International
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
Ecuador’s Armed Forces carried out an operation on Monday — including airstrikes — against illegal mining in the town of Buenos Aires, in the country’s north, Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo reported.
The mountainous, gold-rich area has been a hotspot for illegal mining since 2017, located in the Andean province of Imbabura.
In 2019, former president Lenín Moreno deployed around 2,400 soldiers to the region in an attempt to curb the illegal activity. “The operation began with mortar fire, followed by gunfire and bombing runs by Supertucano aircraft,” Loffredo said in a video released by the Defense Ministry.
He added that the operation would continue on Tuesday with patrols across the area to locate possible members of “irregular armed groups that may have crossed from the Colombian border.”
The Armed Forces stated on X that the intervention focused on the “complete elimination of multiple illegal mining tunnels” in the areas known as Mina Nueva and Mina Vieja.
The operation coincided with the deployment of a military and police convoy into Imbabura, which has been the epicenter of protests against President Daniel Noboa since September 22, following his decision to scrap the diesel subsidy.
Mexican government prioritizes 191 communities after deadly floods
New road and bridge explosions raise alarm amid indigenous protests in Ecuador
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Extension of the state of emergency approved in southern Chile
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