A popular Ecuadoran presidential candidate was on Wednesday shot dead while leaving a rally in the nation’s capital, prompting Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso to declare a state of emergency and blame the assassination on organized crime.
Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old crusader against corruption who had complained of receiving threats, was murdered as he was leaving a stadium in Quito after holding a campaign rally, officials said.
Lasso early yesterday declared a two-month state of emergency following the assassination, but said general elections scheduled for Sunday next week would be held as scheduled.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Outraged and shocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio,” Lasso said in a statement on the social media platform X, blaming the killing on “organized crime.”
“For his memory and for his fight, I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” he wrote.
Villavicencio was the second-most popular candidate in the presidential race, recent opinion polls showed.
Photo: AFP
“The armed forces as of this moment are mobilized throughout the national territory to guarantee the security of citizens, the tranquility of the country and the free and democratic elections of August 20,” Lasso said in a YouTube address.
The president also declared three days of national mourning “to honor the memory of a patriot, of Fernando Villavicencio Valencia.”
“This is a political crime that acquires a terrorist character and we do not doubt that this murder is an attempt to sabotage the electoral process,” he added.
Lasso has said he would not seek re-election.
Ecuadoran National Electoral Council President Diana Atamaint said “the date of the elections scheduled for August 20 remain unalterable.”
Nine other people were injured in the shooting attack, including a candidate running for the national legislature and two policemen, prosecutors said.
One of the alleged attackers was shot and killed by security personnel.
Police also detonated an explosive device planted in the area, chief investigator Alain Luna said.
Carlos Figueroa, a friend of Villavicencio’s who was with him at the time of the attack, told local media that the assailants fired about 30 shots.
“They ambushed him outside” the sports center, Figueroa said. “Some [of those present] even thought they were fireworks.”
The country’s main newspaper, El Universo, reported that Villavicencio was assassinated “hitman-style and with three shots to the head.”
Prosecutors later said six other suspects were arrested in raids carried out in southern Quito and in a neighboring town, and that Villavicencio’s body was brought to a police department and would undergo an autopsy.
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