2023-08-10 01:38:46
“Organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on them,” wrote Lasso.
SÃO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS)
The current president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, used social media to mourn the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, 59, a presidential candidate shot dead during a campaign rally in Quito. Lasso also stated that the crime will not go unpunished and promised rigor against organized crime.
“Indignant and shocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. My sympathy and condolences to his wife and daughters. For his memory and for his fight, I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished”, wrote the president in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Lasso added the convening of an emergency meeting at the Carondelet Palace, the seat of government, with authorities such as the leaders of the National Electoral Council, the State Attorney General and the National Court of Justice.
“Organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on them,” wrote Lasso.
The attack against Villacencio took place around 6:20 pm, according to the local press, on Wednesday afternoon (night in Brazil). It is not yet known how many were injured in the attack, but people close to the campaign told local press vehicles that there are around eight, some of whom were admitted to a clinic close to the site of the event. The police cordoned off the surrounding streets.
Villavicencio was a former congressman and center-right candidate for the Construye Movement. In a survey released this Wednesday morning on the candidate’s profile on social networks, he appeared with 13.5%, in second place, behind leftist Luísa González, with 26%.
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Ecuador is currently experiencing political instability and a serious crisis related to drug trafficking and violence, which has grown in the last year. The homicide rate jumped from 14 to 25 per 100,000 inhabitants from 2021 to 2022, and cities like Guayaquil, in the southwest of the country, have been the scene of a wave of violence with deaths in armed attacks.
In the city, the country’s largest, in April, a clash between rival gangs in a prison killed 12 people, and riots have been constant since 2021. In July, 31 inmates died and 14 people were injured in another clash in a Quayaquil penitentiary.
Once seen as peaceful, Ecuador is located between Peru and Colombia, the world’s biggest cocaine producers. Ecuadorian ports on the Pacific Ocean attract criminal organizations due to the potential for exporting production.
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