Investigación científica del femicidio de María Belén Bernal en la Escuela Superior de Policía

Abstract

The murder of María Belén Bernal for reasons of gender, power and violence adds to the cases of femicide in Ecuador, which by the year 2022 would be 81, while for the rest of Latin America there would be more than 4,000 cases, which began in the country as a law against violence against women in 1995, going on to be reformed by the Penal Code as a matter of sexual crimes in 1998, being later an executive decree for 2004, which evolves when entering the Constitution of the Republic of 2008, to the After two years, the right to a life free of violence is recognized and guaranteed, which evolves into article 141 of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP), which punishes with a custodial sentence of 22 to 26 years. The role of the forensic chemical expert in the luminol test, carried out in the trunk of the vehicle, previously indicated the presence of blood, to corroborate if this blood belonged to María Belén Bernal, a genetic comparison was made between the blood sample from the vehicle with the sample from Bernal's mother, Elizabeth Otavalo. The DNA test result was positive and conclusive. The scientific evidence that firmly supported the connection of Germán C. with the crime, reinforcing the argument of the Prosecutor's Office as a case of femicide due to strangulation corroborated in the autopsy and the forensic analyzes that provided a solid basis to argue the guilt of Germán Caceres.