Several people carry the coffin of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio at the end of the mass for his body to be transferred to his burial today in Quito (Ecuador). The coffin with the body of Villavicencio, the candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador who was assassinated last Wednesday at the exit of a political rally, left in a hearse accompanied by the family towards the cemetery in the north of Quito where this will be buried. same friday. EFE/ José Jácome
The coffin with the body of Fernando Villavicenciothe candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador who was assassinated last Wednesday, left in a hearse accompanied by his family to a cemetery in the north of Quito where he will be buried this Friday.
The hearse left the funeral home where in the last hours has been veiled in the privacy of a small group of relatives and friendsand at whose doors some twenty supporters and families met on Friday morning to whom access has finally not been allowed.
Villavicencio, a journalist and former assemblyman who had established himself as a staunch enemy of the former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), was assassinated on the afternoon of last Wednesdayshot by alleged Colombian hitmen while leaving a rally at a school in the north of Quito.
Despite the request of sympathizers and some relatives, who requested access to the funeral chapel, Villavicencio’s wake was held entirely privatelywithout the public being able to access to say goodbye.
Although his relatives had proposed to make a posthumous tribute to Villavicencio in an exhibition center in the Ecuadorian capital, finally the coffin went only to the cemetery, which from early hours had scheduled the burial for this Friday afternoon.
Before going to the cemetery, inside the funeral home where the body was held, there were a very private ceremony in which the relatives were present.
From early in the morning there were disagreements between the relatives of Villavicencio, because some blamed the wife of the deceased, Veronica Sarauznot allowing them access to the funeral chapel.
Outside the funeral home, some tense situations also arose among supporters seeking to enter, which led some of the police officers guarding the place to launch pepper spray.
Villavicencio was one of the eight registered candidates to succeed the current president, Guillermo Lassoin the extraordinary general elections called for next Sunday, August 20.
The attack also left at least nine injured, of which five of them are stable in the Women’s Clinic, according to a statement from the medical center where Villavicencio also arrived “in a sudden condition” and where they failed to save his life.
For their part, the Ecuadorian authorities have arrested six people – all of them Colombians – on suspicion of being the material authors of the crime, who are in pretrial detention by court order, but it is still unknown who may have ordered the murder.
According to the same 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. EFE