By Deutsche Welle
01 Jul 2024, 18:58 PM EDT
Ecuador’s prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the death by asphyxiation of a soldier in a barracks in the country’s Amazon region, and has temporarily detained 18 soldiers in the first proceedings into the alleged femicide.
The Ecuadorian Army, in a statement, reported that the Attorney General’s Office detained 18 people belonging to the military institution for eight hours, in compliance with the proceedings undertaken by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
On June 29, the Ecuadorian entity confirmed the death by asphyxiation of Second Lieutenant Ati Gavilánez Aidita Pamela, an officer belonging to the 19th Logistics Support Command.
The soldier’s body was found in the female staff dormitory of the Napo Military Fort, in the Amazonian province of Orellana (east) and, according to an initial report, the cause of death is “asphyxia caused by an airway obstruction while sleeping.”
“As an institution, we will continue to act with complete transparency, so that this reprehensible act does not go unpunished, and those who are found responsible are judged with the maximum rigor of Ecuadorian laws,” the Army added in the statement released on Sunday.
Other deaths of women will be investigated
For its part, the State Attorney General’s Office, in a message on the X network (formerly Twitter), said that in this case he will apply an investigation protocol for femicides.
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office is carrying out investigations after learning of the death of an Ecuadorian Army officer, whose body was found with signs of asphyxiation,” the Public Prosecutor’s Office wrote, reiterating that in this case “the protocol for investigating femicides and other violent deaths of women is being applied.”
Hours later, the Prosecutor’s Office said that “the hearing to formulate charges against four soldiers for their alleged participation in the femicide perpetrated against an Army second lieutenant” was held and added that they will be prosecuted “as authors and co-authors of the crime.”
The victim’s father said she was raped
Luis Ati, the second lieutenant’s father and retired soldier, told the newspaper Vistazo that his daughter was found dead at 6:40 a.m. on Saturday, but he was informed of the incident at 9:00 a.m.
“The commander of the 19th Napo brigade told me that there had been an unauthorized party and that they had taken my daughter to the room where she lived and that she had been found dead,” said the father.
He added that they even took the lieutenant’s body to Lago Agrio for an autopsy without the family’s permission. “They said she had drowned because of the alcohol, and that was a lie. She was raped, murdered and allegedly raped.”
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