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The Government of Ecuador confirmed this Friday that police officer Germán Cáceres, the main suspect in the murder of his wife last September, was arrested in Colombia after a joint work between the prosecutor's offices of the two countries.
Caceres, who had fled the country, had a "red notice" order from Interpol for his location and capture, being the main suspect in the murder of Maria Belen Bernal, a young lawyer who disappeared on September 11 when she went to visit her husband in the police precinct where he worked as an instructor.
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The news, broadcast by a television channel, was also confirmed by the President of the Republic himself, Guillermo Lasso, on his Twitter account.
"Germán Cáceres, wanted for the femicide of María Belén Bernal, has been located and captured. I recognized the joint work between the Ecuadorian Police, the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office and the Colombian Prosecutor's Office," Lasso wrote.
The president assured that the fugitive policeman, "once in the country, will receive the full weight of the law." At the same time, the Ecuavisa channel indicated that Caceres was located and captured a few hours ago in the Colombian town of Palomino.
The general commander of the Police, Fausto Salinas, informed this Friday that there was no trace of Caceres, although the search devices were still activated.
Bernal's case has outraged and moved Ecuadorian society. It has become one of the most astonishing facts of violence against women as it took place inside a police facility, which has led the victim's mother, Elizabeth Otavalo, to call it even a "State crime."
The events occurred on September 11, when Bernal went to the Escuela Superior de Policía, north of Quito, to visit Cáceres, an instructor at the training center.
Bernal's body was found ten days later on a hill near the Police School with signs of strangulation, according to the forensic report.
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