QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — An Ecuadorian presidential candidate who recently pledged to root out corruption and lock up the country’s “thieves” was fatally shot at a political rally in the capital as the South American country reels from drug-related crime and violence.
Fernando Villavicencio, 59, who was known for speaking up against cartels, was assassinated Wednesday, less than two weeks before a special presidential election. He was not a front-runner, but his death deepened an organized crime crisis that has already claimed thousands of lives and underscored the challenge that Ecuador’s next leader will face.
Video of the rally in Quito posted on social media appeared to show Villavicencio walking out of the rally surrounded by guards. The footage then showed the candidate getting into a white pickup truck before gunshots were heard, followed by screams and commotion around the truck.
The sequence of events was confirmed to The Associated Press by Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser.
The candidate had received at least three death threats before the shooting and reported them to authorities, resulting in one detention, Zuquilanda said.
“The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” the adviser said. “Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”
Former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, who also is seeking the presidency, bemoaned the loss at a news conference: “We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this.”
The assassins threw a grenade into the street to cover their flight, but it did not explode, President Guillermo Lasso said. Police later destroyed the grenade with a controlled explosion.
Operations carried out in different sectors of Quito resulted in six arrests. One suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight, the attorney general’s office said.
Lasso suggested the slaying could be linked to organized crime and insisted on proceeding with the election scheduled for Aug. 20. He declared three days of national mourning and a state of emergency that involves deploying additional military personnel throughout the country.
“Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended. On the contrary, they have to be held, and democracy has to be strengthened,” Lasso said Thursday.
IN HIS FINAL speech before he was killed, Villavicencio promised a roaring crowd that he would fight corruption and imprison more criminals.
He had been threatened by affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that now operate in Ecuador. He said his campaign represented a threat to such groups.
“Here I am showing my face. I’m not scared of them,” Villavicencio said in a statement before his death, naming detained crime boss José Adolfo Macías by his alias, “Fito.”
Villavicencio, one of eight candidates running for president, was the candidate of the Build Ecuador Movement.
