A candidate in Ecuador’s upcoming presidential election, Fernando Villavicencio, has been assassinated at a campaign event in the capital on Wednesday, as a deadly escalation of violence and crime grips the South American country.
The bloody incident prompted Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso to request help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
An FBI delegation is expected to have arrive in the country.
Villavicencio was fatally shot as he was leaving a campaign rally at a school north of the capital Quito, 10 days before the first round of the presidential election was set to take place. He was 59 years old.
Nine other people, including a candidate for the National Assembly and two police officers, were also injured in the attack.
Lasso has vowed that the incident will not go unpunished, saying that “organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on them.”
In addition to requesting the FBI, Lasso has announced a state of emergency for 60 days, an immediate mobilization of the armed forces across the country and three days of national mourning.
Ecuador’s presidential election, scheduled for August 20, will go ahead as planned, the Electoral Council President Diana Atamaint said on Thursday.
People were seen taking cover after shots were fired at the end of Villavicencio’s rally in Quito, on August 9.
A legislator in the National Assembly, Villavicencio had been outspoken about corruption and the violence caused by drug trafficking in the country.
Opinion polls had Villavicencio in the middle of the pack of the eight candidates, far behind the frontrunner Luisa González.
Villavicencio’s suspected shooter died in police custody following an exchange of fire with security personnel, Ecuador’s Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Six others – all Colombian nationals – have since been arrested in connection with the killing, according to interior minister Juan Zapata. They are members of organized criminal groups, citing preliminary evidence.
(C) ControlTV 2023.
