2023-08-10 13:08:48
“I’m not afraid of them. Here I am. Giving face.” A few days before his death, Fernando Villavicencio thus referred to the threats against his life, made, according to what he himself denounced, by an Ecuadorian drug lord linked to the Sinaloa cartel. Twenty-four hours before he died last night in Quito, riddled with shots during a rally, he repeated again: “Let the hitmen come, here I am.” His followers applauded him. He told them that he refused to wear a bulletproof vest because “you are my bulletproof vest. I am brave like you.”
Ecuador is in a state of deep turmoil. Disoriented and dismayed by the assassination of a candidate for President of the Republic, but above all of the politician who, within the electoral campaign, had most committed himself to the fight against corruption. Despite the fact that the polls did not place him among the candidates with the best chances of governing, many Ecuadorians saw him as the recipe against rampant, unprecedented violence so suffocating that the head of government himself, Guillermo Lasso, ruled in April in favor of that citizens carry weapons to defend themselves against criminals, drug traffickers and organized crime.
The events occurred around 6:15 p.m. (around midnight in Spain). Villavicencio, a 59-year-old investigative journalist, was about to get into a car after delivering a rally at a Quito school when a group of armed hitmen fired at him repeatedly, apparently from the opposite side of the vehicle. The escorts that accompanied the politician responded with their weapons. Dozens of supporters of Construye, the movement of the assassinated candidate, fell to the ground or ran to take refuge inside the premises. Nine people were injured, including two police officers and a congressional candidate.
Despite the response from the bodyguards, for Fernando Villavicencio it was already too late. He died with three shots to the head. One of the hitmen, apparently the one who led the attack, was killed by the security service and taken to the hospital, where he died. Six other people have been arrested in a subsequent raid for their alleged relationship to the crime. ‘It’s time for the brave’, prayed some billboards from the Villavicencio campaign that were scattered on a ground littered with traces of blood.
«We lived a horror movie, with submachine guns that fired thirty, forty shots. We saw injuries fall, I know that there will possibly be some deaths, and painfully the murder of Fernando, “Galo Valencia, the candidate’s uncle, told the local press.
After the crime, there was a spontaneous reaction of support for the assassinated presidential candidate with shouts like “Fernando, brave. Fernando you will live forever. The protesters also chanted slogans against former President Rafael Correa, president between 2007 and 2017, who was later convicted in absentia for corruption crimes. Villavicencio investigated this plot for years, which made him an enemy of the former leader. “Correa, criminal”, were some of the accusations that were heard last night outside the forensic hospital where the body of the candidate was transferred.
The country’s president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, has decreed a state of emergency for 60 days. Lasso has targeted “organized crime.” The victim herself, close to the president, had denounced threats from a criminal group linked to the Sinaloa Cartel in recent days. In this sense, the head of the Government has stressed that “this crime will not go unpunished” after warning that “organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on them.” Lasso has convened the Security Cabinet, in which the president of the National Council, Diana Atamaint, the State Attorney General, Diana Salazar, and the president of the National Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, participate.
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A suspect in the murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio is detained after the attack in Quito.
The remaining seven candidates in these elections have suspended all their acts this Thursday, after condemning the attack and showing solidarity with the family of the Construye leader. There is no precedent like this in the democratic history of Ecuador, a country that seems to reproduce right now the worst evils linked to drug trafficking in the region. Because similar cases have occurred in Mexico and Colombia. Much like the assassination in Quito, the Colombian liberal Luis Carlos Galán was riddled with shots on August 18, 1989 when he was preparing to hold a rally in the town of Soacha. The candidate had stood out for his denunciations of the activities of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel. The subsequent investigation revealed that not only the hitmen of this group participated in the murder, but also politicians and police officers.
Another well-known case is that of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, assassinated by an individual on March 24, 1994 after a political act in Tijuana (Mexico). The popular PRI candidate was waving to his supporters in the middle of the crowd when his assassin approached him and shot him twice with a revolver. The investigators were struck by the fact that the rally had been organized in a space where there were minimal security conditions. Colosio promoted a political reform that, among other elements, would limit presidential terms, and he had been a great critic of his party, where he wanted to introduce changes towards more democratic forms. His murder was long thought to be the result of a political plot.
Exact moment in which the candidate for the presidency of Ecuador, Fernando Villavicencio, is killed as he leaves a political rally in Quito. pic.twitter.com/GTQyBeXt7y
— Wall Street Wolverine (@wallstwolverine) August 10, 2023
Ecuador goes to the polls on August 20, and this Sunday the official debate of the eight candidates was agreed. The president has confirmed that the date of the elections will be maintained.
International reactions to the death of Villavicencio, whose investigations into corruption ended up leading to well-known legal proceedings, have been immediate. In a statement, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that it “supports the Ecuadorian electoral process, its democracy and the authorities of that country so that this tragic death is investigated and the culprits are tried.”
The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) has also conveyed its “dismay” and “its pain” at “the savage murder of the presidential candidate.” The OAS has urged all candidates to strengthen security measures in cooperation with the authorities and reaffirmed its commitment to Ecuador to defend democratic values. All the candidates for these elections have escorts provided by the Government, except for one of them who opted for his own private security.
The US ambassador to Ecuador, Michael Fitzpatrick, has claimed to be “deeply shocked” and has described Villavicencio as a “fighter against the corrupt and drug criminals.” Washington has already offered to help Ecuadorian authorities with the investigation. For its part, the Government of Chile has indicated that “this unjustifiable fact reminds us of the importance of strengthening democratic coexistence and dialogue as a tool to fight intolerance and violence”, added the Government.
Criticism of the Police
In the last National Assembly (Congress), Villavicencio chaired the Oversight Commission from where he made serious complaints about drug trafficking and links with political sectors. Ecuador has entered a stage of political violence not known until now. In one of the interviews that the leader of Constuye gave in recent days, he criticized the role of the authorities in the fight against organized crime: “The Police know where the hideouts of criminals, drug traffickers, illegal mining are, of white collar criminals. And he promised that one of the first things he would do if he became president would be to purify the security forces.
The Ecuadorian Police is already investigating the facts. The passage to the crime scene was closed this morning to inspect it and “rule out the presence of explosives.” According to witnesses quoted by the newspaper ‘Primicias’, the presidential candidate was shot by a revolver used by “a short man”.
Shortly after the crime, the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office announced the death of the main suspect after being injured during the shootout between the hitmen and security personnel. “A suspect, who was injured during the exchange of bullets with security personnel, was apprehended and taken badly injured to the Flagrancy Unit in Quito. An ambulance from the Fire Department confirmed his death. The Ecuadorian Police proceed with the removal of the body,” the Public Ministry has published on its account on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
They detonate a suspicious package
Agents of the Ecuadorian Police caused the controlled detonation of a package suspected of containing an explosive, located in the same place where the candidate was shot to death.
An injured policeman receives help from those attending the rally.
The detonation took place near the intersection of Amazonas and Gaspar de Villarroel avenues, in the commercial and financial center of northern Quito, after the bomb squad cleared the highly crowded area.
An agent with special equipment located the package in a safe place and protected by tires, to proceed with the caused and controlled detonation.
The area remains cordoned off and the movement of people and vehicles is prohibited while investigations and evidence of the crime are carried out. The crime is generating this Thursday a heated wave of comments from citizens and authorities who clamor for greater security.
#afraid #hitmen