The candidate for the Presidency of Ecuadorian Christian Zuritasubstitute for the murdered Fernando Villavicenciohas denounced a Death threat received through social networks, and Construye, his political movement, requested the immediate intervention of the Government and the Prosecutor’s Office to protect his life.
“Cristian trembles” is the threat reported by Zurita a few hours after the start of the vote, apparently registered on the Tik Tok social network from an account called “Cartel Jalisco NG”, which would allegedly refer to the Mexican Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación.
The Construye movement assured that “this fact urgently and immediately requires the intervention of the President of the Republic (Guillermo Lasso) and the State Attorney General’s Office to guarantee the life of the presidential candidate Christian Zurita.”
The political formation considered that “the omission before this imminent danger It will decree the responsibility of the indicated authorities, even more so when the request for the granting of precautionary measures is in progress before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “in favor of Zurita.
Likewise, it urged the international electoral observation missions “to issue the pronouncements before the authorities, to guarantee the validity of democracy and the transparency of this electoral process.”
For his part, Zurita pointed out through a message on social networks that the threats against his life and his team will not stop them, but they force them to take greater security protocols, to avoid a repeat of the events of August 9. , when Villavicencio was riddled with bullets by alleged Colombian hitmen as he left a rally.
“We have alerted the national authorities, the international missions that are observing the elections, and the IACHR,” Zurita confirmed.
The journalist, who accompanied Villavicencio in journalistic investigations and complaints that gave him notoriety, took up his candidacy after the journalist and former assemblyman was the victim of the deadly attack.
The murder occurred a few days after Villavicencio reported having received death threats allegedly from Adolfo Macías “Fito”, the boss of the Los Choneros criminal gang, one of the organized crime mafias operating in Ecuador and that Villavicencio had promised fight ruthlessly.
The attack left Ecuador shocked, which is experiencing the worst crisis of violence in its history, attributed by the authorities to organized crime and drug trafficking, which have caused the country to go from 5.8 to 25.32 intentional homicides in five years. every 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, the highest figure since records were kept.
In this spiral of violence, other politicians such as the mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago, and Rider Sánchez, candidate for assembly for the province of Esmeraldas, and days later also a local leader of correísmo in Esmeraldas, were already assassinated in previous weeks.
Zurita will compete this Sunday in the extraordinary general elections along with seven other candidates to succeed Lasso and complete the 2021-2025 period, interrupted by the president last May by invoking the “cross death”, a constitutional mechanism with which he dissolved the National Assembly (Parliament), with an opposition majority, when he was preparing to debate his dismissal as the last step in a political trial against him.
