The politician, close to the president, Guillermo Lasso, received three shots to the head after a campaign event in Quito. His motto was ‘It’s time for the brave’
The candidate for the presidency of Ecuador Fernando Villavicencio, this Wednesday before being assassinated. Photo: REUTERS | Video: HR H.H.
The candidate for the presidency of Ecuador Fernando Villavicencio was shot to death this Wednesday afternoon after participating in a campaign event in Quito. The attack occurred at 6:20 p.m. at the Anderson school in the capital from which the applicant was leaving. Villavicencio, whom most of the polls placed in fourth or fifth position among the eight opponents who will dispute the succession of Guillermo Lasso on August 20, presented himself as a battering ram against corruption under the motto It is time for the brave. After the rally and just before getting into his vehicle surrounded by bodyguards, the 59-year-old candidate and a journalist by profession, was hit by bullets. The hitmen fired at least 40 shots and injured other people who accompanied him and who have been transferred to different health homes. html?n=0
President Guillermo Lasso said he was “outraged and shocked by the assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio” and assured that “this crime will not go unpunished.” In addition, he convened a Security Cabinet in the next few minutes at the Carondelet Palace in Quito, where he has requested that different authorities attend, including those from the National Electoral Council, Diana Atamaint; the State Attorney General, Diana Salazar; the President of the National Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, and the Armed Forces to deal with this fact that has dismayed the country. “Organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on them,” Lasso said on Twitter, while outside the Anderson school, a few meters from the crime scene, the Bomb Police found an artifact suspect that they detonated in a controlled manner.
Before leading the Movimiento Construye candidacy, the politician was a member of the Assembly until its dissolution and chaired the Oversight Commission. During the impeachment trial against Lasso, he was criticized because that commission issued a report favorable to the president that did not have the support of other legislators. The attack occurs when there are 11 days to go before the elections in a country asphyxiated by an unprecedented crisis. During the campaign, the mayor of Manta, a key port for drug trafficking, and Rider Sánchez, candidate for the Assembly, have been assassinated. Carlos Figueroa, a personal friend of Villavicencio, assured in a video broadcast on social networks that the candidate died after being shot, despite the fact that he had been transferred to the Women’s Clinic, a medical center near the site of the shooting. ://cd956fee4225ef4708383d3c72296b28.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html?n=0
In one of the interviews he gave this August 9 to the Ecuavisa outlet, Villavicencio had criticized the role of the authorities in combating organized crime. He stated that “the Police know where the hideouts of criminals, drug traffickers, illegal mining, and white-collar criminals are,” and promised that one of the first things he would do if he became president would be to purify to the public force.
Luisa González, the candidate promoted by former President Rafael Correa who leads the polls, suspended her campaign and, like Lasso, showed her resounding rejection of the attack: “It is with indignation that I receive the terrible news of the attack that caused the death of Fernando Villavicencio, this He mourns us all, my solidarity hug to all his family and co-idearies. This vile act will not go unpunished!” she emphasized.
Pedro Donoso, director of the consulting firm Icare, advances in statements to EL PAÍS that “now there will be a lot of speculation.” “Villavicencio was the representative of anti-correism and the hypotheses are going to point in that direction,” he reflects, describing what happened as a “turning point in a stagnant campaign, with candidates without identity.” “The campaign will not be the same, beyond the murdered candidate,” he concludes. “An opinion profile indicated that 14% of Ecuadorians considered Villavicencio as the candidate who would promote a government that was the closest to Guillermo Lasso. The idea was installed in a sector that he was close to the president. In fact, his main candidate for the Assembly was a former Interior Minister from Lasso, Patricio Carrillo ”.