Fernando Villavicencio, one of eight Ecuadorian presidential candidates, was shot dead during an election event in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. President Guillermo Lasso confirmed this by referring to the fact that organized crime was behind the killing in Villavicencio. Villavicencio, 59, a journalist, was the presidential candidate of the Build Ecuador movement. Elections are held on August 20. Police said other people were injured, including some officers. The president declared a state of emergency, while the president of the National Electoral Council, Diana Atmaint, confirmed the date of the elections. According to local media reports, the voting, scheduled for August 20, will take place and is not suspended.
“I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Lasso said in a statement. Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.” Ecuador’s attorney general’s office said a suspect in the Villavicencio assassination died of his wounds after being arrested by authorities. In some videos on social media, Villavicencio can be seen leaving the electoral event surrounded by guards. The 59-year-old then enters a white truck and a few gunshots ensue. The information that was confirmed to the Associated Press by Patricio Zuquilanda, adviser to the Villavicencio campaign. Zuquilanda said the candidate had received death threats prior to the shooting, which he had reported to authorities and led to an arrest. Villavicencio was one of the most critical voices against corruption, especially during the government of former president Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2017. He filed numerous complaints against high-ranking members of the Correa government, including against the former president himself.
unanimous condemnation
The condemnation of the attack on the 59-year-old, heir to current president Guillermo Lasso, was also unanimous on the part of his opponents in the presidential race. The absolute favorite in the polls, Luisa Gonzalez, candidate of former president Rafael Correa’s party, expressed her “indignation” by stating that Villavicencio’s death “is a mourning for everyone”. Similarly, the candidate of the Pachakutik indigenous movement, Yaku Peréz, running for the ballot, expressed his condolences and affirmed that “Ecuador does not deserve any more deaths”. “It’s time to unite and restore peace,” he said. The centre-right independent candidate, Otto Sonnenholzner, condemned the attack arguing that “the country has gotten out of hand” from the government. The presidential elections will be held on August 20 in the context of a serious security crisis caused by the increasingly strong presence of drug cartels in the country.
Villavicencio himself had denounced in the days preceding the attack that he had received concrete threats from a drug trafficking leader named José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito”. The outgoing government of President Guillermo Lasso has so far tried to manage the serious situation with a massive deployment of soldiers and with extraordinary public order measures aimed at some provinces, but without concrete results.