2023-08-18 05:04:00
Ecuador’s presidential candidates ended their campaigns this Thursday (17), a day marked by the tribute to the candidate murdered by a hitman and the denouncement of an alleged shooting attack against another candidate.
Journalist Christian Zurita, wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet, led the tributes in Quito in memory of his friend Fernando Villavicencio, killed by a Colombian gunman on Aug. 9.
Zurita replaced Villavicencio on the presidential ticket of the centrist Construye (Build) party. At a Catholic service held in front of hundreds of followers wearing white T-shirts, surrounded by photos of Villavicencio and attended by heavily armed police, supporters carried roses, released white balloons and sang songs in honor of the former journalist.
In Zurita’s first public act, some people present cried. Since his presentation as a candidate the previous Sunday, Zurita has chosen to stay away from crowds due to security risks.
– Possible attack –
In the town of Durn, in the southwest, the right-wing candidate Daniel Noboa denounced an attack against his caravan.
“Thank God we were unharmed. Intimidation and fear have no place in the country we want and for which we are committed to change once and for all”, he wrote on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
The police and the Ministry of the Interior contradicted this version and are investigating whether there was a shootout between criminals.
A member of Noboa’s campaign staff told AFP that people had shot at their cars.
The leftist Luisa Gonzlez, favorite in the polls, visited Guayaquil, in the southwest, to convince voters to help her win the presidency in the first round, the great ambition of her political godfather, former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017). .
Guayaquil was also the stage for the latest events in support of former right-wing vice president Otto Sonnenholzner (2018-2020). In Quito, leftist Yaku Prez walked around wearing a bulletproof vest, an unusual image of the indigenous leader who is running for president for the second time.
– Transnational crime –
Earlier, Zurita expressed suspicions that transnational crime was behind Villavicencio’s murder. The assassin who shot him was killed in an exchange of fire with the murdered candidate’s bodyguards, and six other Colombians are being held.
The new presidential candidate suspects that Villavicencio’s proposals to put an end to the business and the routes of drug traffickers who operate with gangs motivated the murder.
“I am almost certain that he was assassinated because he said he would militarize the ports, and we will maintain that as a principle,” said Zurita this Thursday at a meeting with the international press.
Before his death, Villavicencio claimed that he was threatened by an individual known as Fito, leader of “Los Choneros”, a gang that has been linked to dissidents from the FARC and the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
– Well –
Zurita was a close associate of Villavicencio when, as journalists, they uncovered cases of corruption during Correa’s tenure.
In one of their investigations, they revealed that Correa had made deals with businessmen to receive financial support for their campaigns in exchange for granting state contracts.
The former president, who denies these accusations and lives in exile in Belgium, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison.
They also put Correa’s successor, Lenn Moreno (2017-2021), in trouble for his alleged involvement in a corruption network related to a hydroelectric plant, a case that has yet to be judged.
Another of his investigations crossed the borders of Ecuador by involving former Colombian senator Piedad Crdoba, a friend of Correa, with Alex Saab, an alleged figurehead of the Venezuelan chavismo detained in the United States.
Due to his close relationship with Villavicencio, Zurita considered himself a suitable successor to continue his fight. “Not to do it (replace him) would have been betraying his fight, betraying his name”, he expressed.
Villavicencio’s mother, Gloria Valencia, gave her approval: “Christian Zurita is the only one who can take my son’s place”, he commented to the newspaper El Universo.
Before his death, Villavicencio held second place in polls of voting intentions (12.5%), according to the specialized company Cedatos. Gonzlez led that poll (24%), one of several in the country.
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