Quito. Andrea González, the running mate of Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead after a campaign rally, will be the candidate for Ecuador’s presidential elections, the Construye party said in a statement on Saturday.
Villavicencio, a former congressman and former journalist investigating corruption, was shot at as he was leaving a campaign event on Wednesday night, a few days before the elections. On Friday he was honored by his family and his supporters with a mass and a public wake in Quito.
“Andrea González Náder was the person chosen by Fernando Villavicencio and by the Construye Movement to replace the President in case of absence,” the movement said in a statement posted on platform X, formerly Twitter, in which it stressed that the decision was approved. by the governing bodies. In the formula, González was the vice-presidential candidate.
The movement expects to announce the name of the vice-presidential candidate in the next few hours, he added.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) has not ruled on the candidacy.
Later, Verónica Sarauz, Villavicencio’s wife, described González’s appointment as illegal.
“Candidacies in this country cannot be waived and the candidate that has to be replaced is the presidential candidate, the vice-presidential candidate cannot resign,” Sarauz, who arrived at a hotel in northern Quito wearing a vest, told reporters. bulletproof, helmet and escorted by police officers.
Sarauz also blamed the Ecuadorian State for the death of her husband and said that he was not protected.
“The State still has to give many answers to everything that happened, his personal custody did not do his job. I do not want to think that they sold my husband to be murdered in this infamous way,” she added.
Villavicencio’s death occurs at a time of a wave of violence and crime in the South American country, which plans to hold presidential elections on August 20.
The candidate died of head trauma, hemorrhage and brain laceration caused by a bullet, according to the autopsy cited in the charging documents. He also suffered a skull fracture.
On Friday, Ecuadorian lawmaker candidate Estefany Puente, who is running for a seat in Los Ríos province, said she was slightly injured in a shooting attack on Thursday and just a day after the Villavicencio murder.
