Verónica Sarauz, wife of the candidate for the presidency of Ecuador Fernando Villavicencioassassinated on Wednesday afternoon by hitmen as he was leaving an electoral rally, believes that he was assassinated because he confronted the political mafias and drug traffickers.
“My husband was murdered because he was the only one who faced political mafias and drug traffickers of this country,” he wrote this Thursday on his Twitter account, one day after the attack in which the candidate died.
Unknown persons shot at Villavicencio on Wednesday afternoon when he was leaving the premises of a school, where a rally with a view to the general elections extraordinary on August 20.
Ecuadorians will go to the polls after the head of state, William Lassodissolved last May the National Assembly (Parliament), with an opposition majority, at a time when it was preparing to debate and vote on his possible dismissal for alleged embezzlement (embezzlement), a charge that the ruler rejected.
When dissolving Parliament, Lasso applied the so-called “cross death”, contemplated in the Constitution, and forced the call for extraordinary elections to designate who will finish the period for which he was elected, that is, until May 2025.
Immediately after Lasso’s decision, Villavicencio, who was part of the National Assembly dissolved, expressed his joy because he questioned the quality of legislators.
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An FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) delegation from USA will arrive in Ecuador in the next few hours to support the investigation into the murder of Villavicencio.
The arrival of the FBI in Ecuador was confirmed this Thursday on social networks by President Lasso, who indicated that he requested Washington the support of the federal investigative agency to clarify this crime.
After the murder of Villavicencio became known, the Government of the United States had offered the Ecuadorian Executive “urgent investigative assistance” through its ambassador in Quito, Michael J Fitzpatrick.
This participation of the FBI in the murder investigation is part of the close relationship they have built United States and Ecuador in the last two years, especially since Lasso came to power, with cooperation in different matters, including security.
So far the authorities have reported the arrest of six Colombianssuspected of having participated in the attack, in which nine people were injured.
One more suspect died after being wounded in the exchange of shots that the attackers had with the security personnel who were protecting the candidate.
The Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapataindicated that “due to the preliminary information collected, it is confirmed that those apprehended belong to organized crime groups.”
He Villavicencio assassinationwhich promised to fight head-on against these gangs and which in recent weeks had denounced death threats against them, has shocked the country, in the midst of an electoral campaign that revolves almost exclusively around the security crisis that is plaguing Ecuador.
