quit. Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated yesterday in a shooting attack outside a rally held at a school in northern Quito, just over a week before the general elections and in the midst of a wave of violence that hit to this South American country.
President Guillermo Lasso confirmed the murder and declared that “organized crime has come a long way.” In the early hours of this Thursday, the president decreed a state of emergency for 60 days, in order to “guarantee the safety of citizens, the tranquility of the country and the free and democratic elections on the 20th,” in a speech published in Youtube.
The newspaper The universe He pointed out that Villavicencio, from the centrist Construye movement, was killed “hitman style with three shots to the head.”
The prosecutor’s office specified on the X social network that the suspect in the attack, who was injured during the exchange of bullets with security personnel, was apprehended and transferred to the Flagrancy Unit in Quito, where he died. He later revealed that there are six detainees.
Villavicencio, a journalist and former member of the National Assembly dissolved in May by Lasso, appeared second in the intention to vote with 13.2 percent for the elections on the 20th, behind the lawyer Luisa González (with 26.6 percent), related to the former President Rafael Correa, according to the most recent Cedatos survey.
The 59-year-old politician was a figure recognized for having denounced various cases of alleged government corruption in the past.
At press time, the authorities were unclear as to who was responsible for the attack. Former foreign minister Patricio Zuquilanda, adviser to the candidate’s campaign, told the AP news agency that Villavicencio received two death threats, “and the third has died,” although he did not provide details.
Last week, the victim twice denounced threats against his life and his campaign team. “Despite the new threats, we will continue fighting for the brave people of our #Ecuador,” Villavicencio wrote on the X social network.
He cited that he received a “very serious threat” from phytowho heads the organization The Choneros.
According to journalist Jesús García (c) The Choneros It is a “criminal group that operates the Sinaloa cartel.” Garcia added that phyto a daughter was kidnapped The aligatorslinked to CJNG (Jalisco Cartel New generation)”.
In the last video in which Villavicencio is seen alive, it is observed that he leaves the premises where the political rally was held surrounded by police officers, who help him get into a vehicle. Before closing the door, a series of bullet detonations and shouts from supporters are heard.
Zuquilanda reported that the candidate left “protected by his bodyguards, however, they shot him inside the truck and he died immediately.”
The doctor Carlos Figueroa, a friend of the victim and who was with him at the time of the attack, told the press that some 30 shots were fired.
After the attack, two explosions controlled by the police were recorded in the vicinity of the site where the murder took place. Later, the Construye movement denounced that its headquarters had been attacked; did not report casualties.
The prosecutor’s office announced that the attack left nine injured, including a candidate for assembly and two uniformed men.
The governments of Brazil, Chile, Peru and Paraguay condemned the assassination.
Lasso immediately summoned the highest authorities of the main functions of the State to the presidential palace to hold an urgent security meeting.
Iván Saquicela, president of the National Court of Justice, who was attending a last-minute security council called by the president, told the Ecuavisa television channel that he is “very hurt” and that the measures adopted have been “insufficient” and should “ask for international support.”
The candidate Luisa González, who leads the polls, asserted that the news is very sad. “Political differences are resolved at the polls, not with violence,” she maintained, and affirmed that her party, Revolución Ciudadana, stands in solidarity with Quito and with the Villavicencio family, “because when they touch one of us, they touch us all.”
He asked that the crime be investigated, and suspended his campaign act in Carapungo.
Correa, on the X social network, published: “Fernando Villavicencio has been assassinated. Ecuador has become a failed state. You hurt homeland. My solidarity with his family and with all the families of the victims of violence. Those who intend to sow even more hatred with this new tragedy, I hope they understand that it only continues to destroy us.”
One of the journalistic investigations into the dejected politician led Correa to the bench, in one of the most emblematic cases of lawfare in the region. The report he wrote together with his colleague and friend Christian Zurita uncovered an alleged bribery plot in which the former president and his government officials who were accused of having received bribes from businessmen were implicated.
For this case, Correa, who is a refugee in Belgium and whom Villavicencio referred to as “the fugitive”, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison.
Villavicencio was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation due to statements against Correa when he was president. He fled to indigenous territory within Ecuador and later received asylum in Peru. He returned to the country during the government of Lenín Moreno (2017-2021), who distanced himself from Correa.
Other presidential hopefuls, including former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, Social Christian businessman Jan Topic and indigenous candidate Yaku Pérez, deplored the assassination.
Villavicencio was married to Verónica Sarauz and had five daughters.
Ecuador has been experiencing the worst security and violence crisis in its history for more than two years. It closed 2022 with the highest rate of violent deaths, registering 25.32 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The vast majority of these intentional homicides are associated, according to the government, to organized crime and drug trafficking, which has gained strength on the coast and has turned Ecuadorian ports into large springboards for cocaine reaching Europe and North America.
