2023-10-15 07:01:00
The mafia conspiracy that has Ecuador plunged into political chaos, on the verge of electing its next President, has as protagonists seven Colombians, allegedly hired to carry out the assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio, and who were murdered in an apparent criminal operation to eliminate loose ends.
Their deaths not only caused confusion among several of their relatives, who claim not to know of their alleged criminal activities, but also unleashed a storm in the Government that left several high-level officials fired.
To understand the complexities of this case, let’s start with the day that plunged Ecuadorians into uncertainty: 6:14 pm on August 9, 2023, eleven nights from the initial date set for the presidential elections.
Outside an educational coliseum in Quito, a group of hitmen shot down the candidate Fernando Villavicencio. They broke through his three security rings with suspicious ease and shot him as he boarded an unarmored van.
The bodyguards reacted and a shootout broke out that left nine injured, including one of the attackers, the Colombian Johan Castillo López. Another anomalous situation occurred with him, because instead of taking him to a hospital, the police took him to the Flagrant Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office, where the 18-year-old young man from Cali bled to death on the floor.
First catches
Between that night and the next morning, the authorities raided several houses in the Argelia Baja, San Bartolo, Monjas, Gamaní and La Ecuatoriana sectors of Quito, capturing six Colombians suspected of participating in the assassination.
They were Adey Fernando García García, Jules Osmín Castaño Alzate, Andrés Manuel Mosquera Ortiz, Jhon Gregore Rodríguez Góngora, José Neider López Hitas and Camilo Andrés Romero Reyes, almost all of them from the Pacific Coast.
At the hearing to classify flagrancy and formulate charges, the Prosecutor’s Office presented 22 pieces of evidence against him.
“The autopsy indicates that the victim was shot from long distance, while the ballistics report determined that the 2.23 caliber shells match one of the rifles found in the raids, in addition to a fingerprint found on a motorcycle abandoned by those now prosecuted.” , reported the accusing body.
The sextet was interned in the Litoral Penitentiary, in Guayaquil, to the surprise of some of their loved ones in Colombia.
In conversations with the press, they said that Andrés Mosquera and José López, aged 30 and 24, were from the Potrero Grande neighborhood of Cali; that the first was a father of two children and sold scrap metal, while the second was a construction bricklayer. They claimed not to know how they ended up in Ecuador.
Mosquera had investigations in Colombia for qualified theft, illegal possession of weapons, violence against public servants and personal injuries.
Adey García, 36 years old, was from Timbiquí (Cauca) and had been in the neighboring country for several years. Both he and Jules Castaño had been arrested in July 2023 for the crime of receiving, but a judge had granted them the benefit of conditional freedom.
García also had a record of homicide, theft and drug trafficking, for having joined a gang of freight forwarders in Cali; and Castaño, 40 years old and originally from Florencia (Caquetá), a four-year sentence for drug trafficking (2016) and notes for theft and conspiracy to commit a crime.
Finally, John Rodríguez was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison for theft (1997).
Second batch of captures
In the subsequent investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office identified seven other suspects, thanks to statements from informants and telephone interceptions.
For allegedly providing logistical support to the hitmen, between September 7 and 8, six Ecuadorians and another Colombian, named Víctor Alfonso Flórez (also from Cali), were arrested.
The arrests were in the provinces of Pichincha, Chimborazo and Cotopaxi.
At the hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office explained that “one day before the murder, the defendants conducted a reconnaissance of the surroundings of the school where the candidate was going to participate in a political rally (…). The order to carry out the murder would have come, via calls and WhatsApp messages, from the phone of one of the now accused, who was imprisoned at the Cotopaxi Social Rehabilitation Center on the day of the crime.”
The prisoner who would have given the green light for the assassination is, apparently, the Ecuadorian Carlos Edwin Angulo (detained), and the one who received his message was the Cali native Johan Castillo, killed at the crime scene. By analyzing his cell phone, investigators unraveled that clue.
The dead Colombian was also key to linking another of those captured in the second round, Laura Dayanara Castillo Velin, to the assassination. Apparently, she toured the coliseum the night before, in a stolen white car, escorted by two motorcycles.
The authorities accuse her of being the leader of a gang that commits crimes in the south of Quito, dedicated to extortion, contract killings and drug trafficking, among other behaviors.
Laura had already been arrested on June 17 in another case of illegal possession of weapons, along with the late Johan Castillo, but a court released them.
prison horror
With 13 alleged material and logistical perpetrators behind bars, investigators felt that they were already close to reaching those who ordered the crime. But the mafia is not willing to leave loose ends.
On October 6, Colombians Adey García, Jules Castaño, Andrés Mosquera, Jhon Rodríguez, José López and Camilo Romero were hanged in their cells at the Litoral prison. Days before, the Prosecutor’s Office had requested his transfer, due to an imminent risk of death, but the National Service for Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) ignored the request.
The next day, they killed Ecuadorian José Leonardo Montaño Cuadro, another person linked to the case (captured in the second round), in the El Inca prison in Quito.
The deaths of these prisoners worsened the institutional crisis in that country. President Guillermo Lasso dismissed the commander and the director of Police Investigations; to the head of the SNAI and the directors of the prisons involved, who are under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The six survivors, including the last of the Colombians, Víctor Flórez, were transferred to other prisons. The prosecution managed to protect a key witness, a member of Laura’s gang, who is giving important information about the masterminds. At the moment, it is known that the hitmen would have received $200,000 dollars for the assignment.
Regarding who ordered the assassination, there are still no arrest warrants, beyond accusations against former president Rafael Correa and his followers, rivals of candidate Villavicencio.
The DEA and the Colombian Police are tracking one of the alleged financiers of the event, a drug trafficker from Valle del Cauca, nicknamed “Flaco Rico”, who would have business with the criminal organization “los Lobos”, which in turn is a sponsor of the Laura’s band in Quito.
It is presumed that he would have links with the Cali people involved in the case. Perhaps by untying that knot in our country, researchers will find the common thread that is missing from this entire conspiracy.
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ANNEX: Presidential elections in Ecuador
– The early presidential elections in Ecuador are scheduled for this Sunday, October 15, after those of August 20 had been postponed, due to the murder of the candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
– The elections are early because last May, President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly (Congress) of Ecuador, through a constitutional remedy known as “crossed death”, just when that corporation was preparing to dismiss him for alleged embezzlement of funds. public. Since then he has ruled by decrees.
– In that country, prisoners are allowed to vote, so inmates began voting on October 12. This Sunday, the day on the streets will be from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm
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