Cuenca Ecuador: Number of violent deaths worries local authorities

elcomercio.com/Lineida Castillo reported the voice of Ricardo Baculima sounds sad and tired when he tells how his father-in-law was murdered. He found Baltazar Tacuri, 79, in a wooded ditch, face down with half his body burned. It was Monday April 3 and the news shocked the residents of the rural parish of San Joaquin, located west of Cuenca. Tacuri was a timber merchant and on the morning of Saturday, April 1, he left home with USD 900 to pay the salary to his six employees and collect other debts he had. For the family it was strange that the man did not arrive to watch the image of the Virgin of the Swan that was fulfilled in his house and did not answer his cell phone either. Now, nobody knows exactly why such an extreme attack occurred, but the National Bureau of Crimes Against Life, Violent Deaths, Disappearances, Extortion and Kidnapping investigates this case for robbery. “They killed my father-in-law with a blow to the head and set him on fire to get rid of his body; It was horrible, said Baculima at the funeral that was fulfilled on Tuesday. That Monday also appeared the body of Cristina Palacio, the young woman who was stabbed and thrown to a river, according to the story given by the person who is now being processed in this case. Why this level of violence ? Agents have some clues. Rodrigo Ocaña, chief of the Azuay Police, says that the suspects “can act with violence when they are under the influence of alcohol, drugs or have disorders.” In the case of Palacio, the defendant argued that he has a mental illness and presented documents that he was held in a drug rehabilitation center. In Cuenca there is already a history of extreme violence in the murders. In July 2012 the sisters Marisela and Moraima Páramo, aged 22 and 24, were beaten, strangled and one of them sexually assaulted in their house located in the southeast of the city. Finally, the attacker set fire to the corpses. The only suspect is a fugitive, and therefore, the judicial process was stalled. The university students lived alone because their parents migrated. Two years later, the family sold the house to get away from the memories. “We were hurt by the horrendous crime,” a neighbor said on Thursday. Also, there are sentenced cases like the crime of Cristina Suquilanda, of 41 years, that happened in July of 2013. Its cremated body was found on the banks of the river Yanuncay, sector of Barabón. The three men are serving a 25-year sentence for felony murder . In their children the pain is still present and now they prefer not to talk about it. For Felipe Camacho, former director of the Cuenca Security Council, crimes with violence usually occur when the perpetrators have hatred or antipathy towards the victim. “They act with hyperaggressiveness because of a condition of the moment, but they carry some time,” he said. Blanca Duchi, 47, her son-in-law killed her with seven stab wounds, on March 20 and are among the 13 violent deaths recorded in Cuenca during 2017. The neighbors of the neighborhood La Libertad, the rural parish of El Valle, were felt with this case. They say that Rommel S., came to his mother-in-law’s house in an ethyl state to beat his sleeping wife. Hearing the argument, Duchi defended his daughter and he stabbed her in the back and head. Lagente was alarmed and in the brawl the children of the family witnessed the events. The suspect escaped. The house where the crime occurred remains closed and nobody took care of the vegetables that Duchi sowed. “What happened in this neighborhood was tragic,” said the neighbor, Maria Guallpa. The number of violent deaths worries local authorities. That is why they met last Thursday at the Security Council and Security Bureau 5. María Augusta Muñoz, governor of Azuay, acknowledged that March was an atypical month with seven crimes. For this reason, several groups among them #Niunamenos called torch marches, to request that these facts do not occur more. The idea is to ask the authorities not to go unpunished. Read Article

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