quit. Ecuador woke up yesterday militarized after the assassination of the centrist presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a fact that led the government to declare a state of national emergency, in a day in which the police reported that a dead suspect and six others arrested for the crime are Colombians, while the “intellectual authors” are sought.
President Guillermo Lasso announced on the social network X (formerly Twitter) that the candidate’s crime will be investigated by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which “accepted our request and in the coming hours an American delegation will arrive in the country.
In the early hours of yesterday, the Executive decreed three days of national mourning and imposed a state of emergency for 60 days, which limits citizen rights while military troops are mobilized through different parts of the national territory.
In a press conference together with the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint, Lasso ratified yesterday that the elections scheduled for the next 20th are maintained.
“Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended; on the contrary, they have to be carried out and democracy has to be strengthened”, he affirmed.
Defense Minister Luis Lara declared that they will deploy troops in “all corners of the country” to protect citizens until after the elections.
With the exception of Luisa González, the candidate close to former president Rafael Correa, most of the presidential hopefuls suspended their campaigns ahead of the elections. Two of the candidates with the highest preference in the electorate, former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner and the indigenous Yaku Pérez, announced that they will suspend any massive event so as not to risk the safety of the people.
Villavicencio’s wife, Verónica Sarauz, published on the social network X that her husband was assassinated “because he was the only one who faced the political mafias and drug traffickers in this country.” She criticized the security operation and said that his wife should have been taken out the back door of the school where he had his last rally.
According to Luis Fernández, legal representative of the Villavicencio family, the candidate had a 97 percent risk of suffering an attack and criticized the lack of adequate security, reported the Ecuavisa newscast.
Recently, Villavicencio accused that phytoleader of The Choneros linked to the Sinaloa cartel, threatened it, and denounced links between politicians and drug traffickers.
The Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata, specified that the man who was apprehended for the murder of Villavicencio and who later died in the Flagrancy Unit of the State Attorney General’s Office, in Quito, “because he was injured during the exchange of bullets during the attack”, was arrested on June 17 for illegal possession and carrying of weapons, but was released after receiving alternative measures to preventive detention.
He reported that in the south of the capital six other foreigners were arrested, two of them fully identified at the crime scene, and police officers seized a rifle, a submachine gun, four pistols, three grenades, rifle magazines, four boxes of ammunition , three motorcycles and a vehicle reported stolen.
“About the other six, they are Colombian and belong to organized crime groups,” Zapata said. They were detained in Conocoto, in the south of Quito. The detainees are: Adey Fernando GG and Jules Osmin C. A, who already had an arrest warrant, as well as Andrés Manuel MO, José Neider LH, Camilo Andrés RR and Jhon Gregore RG
In this context, a video went viral on social networks showing subjects dressed in black and hooded, who identified themselves as members of the criminal group. The Wolves, in which they claimed responsibility for the murder of Villavicencio and threatened the other presidential candidates. Authorities did not respond to questions from Reuters about the video.
Later, another video appeared on social networks, in which men dressed in white and showing their faces claimed to belong to The WolvesThey distanced themselves from the video of the hooded men and rejected any involvement in the crime, and said that they do not kill members of the government and civilians.
Villavicencio, 59 years old and who was known for denouncing alleged acts of corruption, was riddled with bullets the day before yesterday at the end of a proselytizing act as he left the main door of a school in the north of the capital.
Followers of his Construye Movement took to the streets in the main cities of the country on Wednesday night shouting “Correa assassin!”, alluding to the former president, who was sentenced to eight years in prison after allegations of corruption formulated as journalist for Villavicencio, in one of the most emblematic cases of lawfare (judicial persecution) in the region.
In addition, Villavicencio’s sister, Alexandra, accused former president Correa “and his criminal gangs,” reported the digital news outlet Okdiario.
Among the latest public accusations that Villavicencio made is the complaint, last Tuesday, before the prosecutor’s office about the alleged irregular concession of 21 oil fields during the Correa government, and the day before yesterday, a few hours before he was assassinated, he pointed out that the mafias had ties with the public force.
Correa declared that organized crime “has infiltrated the State, both the government and the judicial system, as well as politics in general and also the public force,” and when questioning the poor security of the deceased politician, he stressed that he did not even have an armored vehicle. .
Analysts compared the assassination of Villavicencio with that of Haitian President Jovenel Möise, perpetrated by Colombian mercenaries on July 7, 2021.
Villavicencio’s remains were transferred to a funeral home in the north of Quito, where only his family had access.
Villavicencio appeared second in voting intentions with 13.2 percent for the elections, behind Luisa González (26.6), according to the most recent survey by the private company Cedatos. The CNE reported that her replacement may be announced by the Construye Movement before the vote. He informed that the ballots are already printed and will not be changed, but the votes that are marked for him will be endorsed to the new standard-bearer of the movement.
With this crime there are already seven candidates or acting authorities riddled this year in the South American country.
