Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio assassinated at campaign event

[peppertree]

An opposition candidate in Ecuador’s upcoming presidential election, Fernando Villavicencio, was assassinated at a campaign event Wednesday, President Guillermo Lasso confirmed on social media, vowing the killing will not go unpunished.

Villavicencio, 59, was shot dead at a Movimiento Construye political rally at a school north of the capital Quito, campaign team members Cristián Zurita and Rodrigo Figueroa told CNN.

He was gunned down 10 days before the first round of the presidential election was set to take place on August 20.

At: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/09/americas/ecuador-presidential-candidate-fernando-villavicencio-assassinated-intl-hnk/index.html

Fernando Villavicencio, 1963-2023.

Villavicencio, a centrist, was one of eight candidates vying to replace disgraced President Guillermo Lasso, who was forced to call early elections after dissolving the National Assembly on May 17 - just days from a likely impeachment.

Link to tweet

[Judi Lynn]

1. Horrible. Villavicencio didn't stand a chance. This was his 60th year.

Such a sad situation.

Earlier in his life, he had been a journalist, the report said.

If only idiots would give up on their vile decisions to murder human beings.

Rest in peace, Fernando Villavicencio.

Thank you for posting this article, peppertree.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Ecuador under state of emergency after presidential candidate killed

August 12, 2023

AFP – Ecuador declared a state of emergency yesterday and asked the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to help probe the assassination of a popular presidential candidate, whose death has highlighted the once-peaceful nation’s decline into a violent hotbed of drug trafficking and organised crime.

Police said six Colombians have been arrested in the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist and anti-corruption crusader who was gunned down as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito on Thursday.

Another attacker, also Colombian, was shot dead by security agents, authorities said. Interior Minister Juan Zapata said the assailants belonged to “organised crime groups”, without specifying which ones.

Shocked citizens expressed their frustration with the burgeoning violence in the South American country, which has seen its murder rate soar as drug gangs wage bloody turf wars.

Housewife Ruth Flores, 65, told AFP people were “outraged” by the murder of a man she saw as “the hope for honesty in our country. A candidate who denounced the corruption of narcopolitics”. She described the situation in the country as “very worrying. You can’t walk peacefully… there is no security”.

More:
https://borneobulletin.com.bn/ecuador-under-state-of-emergency-after-presidential-candidate-killed/

[Judi Lynn]

3. 6 Colombians Arrested in Relation to the Assassination of Ecuadorian Presidential Candidate Villavic

By Socalj 8/12/2023 04:59:00 PM
"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

The six suspects arrested in connection with the assassination of a Presidential candidate in Ecuador are Colombian nationals, Ecuador’s interior minister, Juan Zapata, said Thursday, marking another twist in a killing that has rocked a nation consumed by violence fueled by drug trafficking.

The candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist who had been outspoken about the link between organized crime and government officials, was gunned down outside a high school in the capital, Quito, after speaking to young supporters. The attack came just days before voting begins in an election that has been dominated by concerns over drug-related violence. A suspect was killed in the melee that followed, and nine other people were shot, officials said.

Mr. Villavicencio, 59, was polling near the middle of an eight-person race. He was among the most vocal candidates on the issue of crime and state corruption.

It was the first assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador, once a relatively safe nation, and came less than a month after the mayor of Manta, a port city, was fatally shot during a public appearance.

. . .

Former Colombian President Ernesto Samper expressed worry about the news of the Colombian nationality of the murderers of candidate Villavicencio. "It coincides with the murder of the president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, and the former guerrilla leaders of the FARC in Venezuela, carried out by suspicious paramilitary commandos”, he stated.

. . .

Two months before this assassination, the former journalist demanded that the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, solve the problem of drug trafficking since those criminal organizations had expanded to Ecuador.

On June 8, he posted a video on his Facebook stating that the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG were responsible for the criminal activity in the country.

“Our country is the biggest victim of the criminal operations of the biggest drug mafias in the world. But those mafias and those cartels are not Ecuadorian. It is not that they flourished in the beautiful town of Chone or in Esmeraldas; the mafias are from Mexico: Sinaloa, Jalisco Nueva Generación, and now the Albanian mafia,” Villavicencio asserted.

He stated that the industrialization of cocaine is carried out in Colombia, and the criminal groups use Ecuador as a transit territory for the storage and export of drugs. "We are not going to allow organized crime managed by these schools of hitmen, of drug criminals from Colombia and Mexico, to continue claiming innocent victims in this country," he asserted.

More:
https://www.borderlandbeat.com/2023/08/6-colombians-arrested-in-relation-to.html

[Judi Lynn]

4. Running mate of slain Ecuadoran candidate to run for president

August 13 2023 10:06:48



The running mate of slain Ecuadoran candidate Fernando Villavicencio will run for president in his place in August 20 elections, their party said Saturday.

"The movement will replace the presidential ticket by putting Andrea Gonzalez as president," the centrist Construye party said in a statement.

Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist and prominent anti-corruption crusader, was gunned down as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito on Wednesday night.

President Guillermo Lasso has blamed the murder on organized crime.

Gonzalez, 36, is due to participate in Sunday's presidential debate in Quito.

Her work has been focused on environmental advocacy, particularly concerning oceans and mangroves, as well as combatting wildlife trafficking and deforestation.

More:
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/running-mate-of-slain-ecuadoran-candidate-to-run-for-president-185440