Ecuadorian police have arrested six people on charges of involvement in the killing of Fernando Villavicencio, the political candidate in the presidential elections who was shot dead Wednesday night after a rally in Quito, the country’s capital . The man who murdered Villavicencio was killed Wednesday by security forces present at the scene: police said both the man and the six people arrested are of Colombian nationality. The investigation into the murder is still ongoing and for the moment no hypotheses have been made as to the motive.
Police said the arrests were made on Thursday during searches in the neighborhoods of Conocoto and San Bartolo, in the eastern and southern suburbs of Quito. Those arrested have been identified by the names Andres M., Jose N., Eddy G., Camilo R., Jules C. and Jhon Rodrigue, while the identity of the man who killed Villavicencio has not yet been disclosed.
During the searches, a rifle, a machine gun, four pistols, three grenades and four boxes of ammunition were found in the homes of those arrested. It was not specified what role the six people arrested would have played in the murder of Villavicencio, but according to the Ecuadorian authorities they would all be part of a criminal organization, as would the man who fired the shots.
At the moment it is not clear what organization it is, and the police have not communicated more details about it. The main hypothesis put forward in the past few hours is that Villavicencio may have been killed by groups of drug traffickers, which in recent years are becoming increasingly influential in the country and which Villavicencio himself had repeatedly condemned during the electoral campaign. Because of his commitment against organized crime, he had also received threats from the Choneros criminal gang, active in the coastal city of Manta and linked to the powerful Mexican cartel of Sinaloa.
Thursday the murder of Villavicencio had been claimed with a video posted on social networks by a group of men who claimed to be members of Los Lobos, a gang born in recent years after a split from the Choneros and their rivals. A few hours later, however, a new video was released where other men said they were Los Lobos and denied any involvement in the murder. Ecuadorian authorities have not yet confirmed that Los Lobos are actually involved in the killing of Villavicencio.
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Villavicencio was 59 years old and had worked as a journalist for many years in the past. In 2021 he was elected to the country’s parliament and stood as a candidate in the presidential elections on August 20 with the centrist Movimiento Construye party. Outgoing President Guillermo Lasso has confirmed that despite the assassination, elections will still take place, and has declared a national state of emergency for 60 days, with the army mobilized across the country to ensure the safety and regularity of voting .