Suspects arrested for the murder of Fernando Villavicencio.
An Ecuadorian judge ordered this Thursday the entry into preventive detention of the six Colombians who had been detained by the Police as suspects of being the material authors of the assassination of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencioshot at the exit of a rally on Wednesday in Quito.
The magistrate opted for the imprisonment of the six men based on the elements of conviction presented by the Prosecutor’s Office during the hearing to formulate chargesas detailed by the Public Ministry itself through its official channels.
The fiscal investigation period set by the judge will be thirty days from this stage of the criminal process. against Andrés M. José L., Adey G., Camilo R., Jules C. and John R., all Colombian nationalsas revealed by the National Police.
the six men They were detained by the Police a few hours after the attack on Villavicencio took placein a series of raids carried out in homes in two neighborhoods of the Ecuadorian capital where They also found various firearms, including a rifle, a submachine gun, four pistols and three grenades..
According to the Ecuadorian authorities, A seventh man who died after being wounded during the exchange of shots between the attackers and the security personnel who were protecting Villavicencio was also Colombian..
The investigation into the assassination of the presidential candidate will have the support of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States, through a delegation that will travel to Ecuador at the request of the president, Guillermo Lasso, after the US government offered him “assistance urgent investigation.
The crime in Villavicencio has plunged Ecuador into deep consternation when it took place just eleven days after the celebration of the extraordinary general elections, where the journalist and former assemblyman was one of the eight registered to succeed Lasso in the presidential seat.
In addition to Villavicencio, environmentalist Yaku Pérez, former correísta legislator Luisa González, security expert Jan Topic, former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner, politician Xavier Hervas, businessman Daniel Noboa and independent lawyer Bolívar Armijos have registered for these presidential elections. EFE
The National Electoral Council (CNE) has decided to keep the date of the elections called for next August 20, which will be held in the midst of a state of emergency declared by the Government for 60 days throughout the country after the murder of Villavicencio. EFE
Attendees at the rally with the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio take shelter during the shooting in which the candidate was assassinated today, in Quito (Ecuador). At least nine people were injured in the attack in which Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was murdered on Wednesday, whose alleged perpetrator died after a shootout with security personnel, according to the Ecuadorian Attorney General’s Office. EFE/ STR The presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio participates in a campaign rally, minutes before being assassinated today, in Quito (Ecuador). Villavicencio was assassinated this Wednesday during a shootout while he was carrying out a campaign event in a central sector of Quito. EFE/ STR