Ecuador’s presidential candidate Otto Sonnenholzner (right), denounced that a shooting took place near the place where he had breakfast with his family on Saturday, August 19, the eve of the early general elections to be held in his country, without reporting victims.
“We have just suffered a shooting in front of the place where I was having breakfast with my family” in the port of Guayaquil (southwest), said the politician by X (formerly Twitter).
And I add: “Thank God we are all fine but we demand an investigation into what happened. The fear and helplessness that I saw in the eyes of everyone present hurts me. We can’t go on like this. Let’s change course tomorrow!”
Also read: Candidates for the presidency of Ecuador close campaign with security measures
In response to inquiries from the press, his campaign team has not specified whether the shooting was directed at the former vice president (December 2018 to July 2020), who aspires to come to power like seven other candidates.
The police and the government have not ruled on the fact, as happened with the complaint also on Saturday from the mayor of the coastal town of La Libertad (southwest), Francisco Tamarizthat he was the victim of a shooting attack apparently by police officers, which left no victims.
Tamariz, close to the former socialist president Rafael Correastated through social networks that he was unharmed from the attack along with his wife and two other relatives who were traveling in an armored vehicle, which was the target of about 30 shots.
Correa, whose candidate Luisa González is a favorite for the presidential election this Sunday, republished on his X account the complaint that the mayor of La Libertad (southwest and with about 100,000 inhabitants) had disclosed on the same platform.
The difficult moment that Ecuador is experiencing
In recent years, Ecuador has faced a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking with massacres in prisons, which have left more than 430 prisoners dead since 2021 and a record homicide rate of 26 per 100,000 inhabitants on the streets in 2022almost double that of the previous year.
Leaving a rally in Quito on August 9, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio (center)who ranked second in voting intentions according to a poll, was shot dead.
You can read: Family of murdered presidential candidate sues the Government of Ecuador
In the middle of the campaign for the elections this Sunday, another mayor, an aspiring deputy and a local correísmo leader were also assassinated.
On Thursday, during the closing campaign, presidential candidate Daniel Noboa (right) denounced an attack with shots against his caravan, from which he escaped unharmed. The authorities contradicted his version.
AFP.
