Presidential candidate shot: State of emergency in Ecuador
Presidential candidate shot QUITO: Ecuador was underneath a state of emergency Thursday after the assassination of a well-liked presidential candidate simply days earlier than an election dominated by considerations over the once-peaceful nation’s descent into brutal violence linked to drug trafficking.
Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist and anti-corruption crusader, was killed in a hail of machine gun hearth as he left a marketing campaign rally within the capital Quito. His supporters sprinted away or threw themselves to the ground because the pictures rang out within the newest episode of stunning violence within the South American nation, which has seen its homicide price soar amid bloody turf wars between drug gangs.
Villavicencio had complained of receiving threats, which have additionally focused electoral officers in a tense marketing campaign forward of the snap election on August 20. A preferred mayor and aspiring lawmaker have additionally been assassinated in latest weeks.
President Guillermo Lasso declared a two-month state of emergency, which is able to permit troopers to patrol the streets. He had already in July declared focused states of emergency in some cities gripped by violence.
In a social media put up, he stated he was “outraged and shocked” by the killing he blamed on “organized crime.”
“This crime is not going to go unpunished,” stated Lasso. Lasso additionally declared three days of nationwide mourning, and different presidential candidates suspended their campaigns.
“This can be a political crime and we don’t doubt that this homicide is an try to sabotage the electoral course of,” stated Lasso. Lasso, who took workplace in 2021, referred to as the snap election after he dissolved the opposition-dominated Congress in Could to keep away from an impeachment trial. He’s not in search of reelection. Villavicencio was the second hottest of eight candidates within the presidential race, based on latest opinion polls. The US condemned a “brazen act of violence and assault on Ecuador’s democracy.” The European Union’s overseas coverage chief Joseph Borrell stated the bloc “stands with Ecuador in its battle towards the worsening violence by organized crime.”
‘They ambushed him’ Villavicencio was a fierce anti-corruption crusader, whose journalistic investigations uncovered an enormous graft community which led to former president Rafael Correa being sentenced to eight years in jail. In an election marketing campaign dominated by anxieties over safety, he had pledged to construct a most safety jail within the Amazon to take care of the nation’s rise in violence.
Carlos Figueroa, a pal of Villavicencio who was with him on the time of the assault, instructed native media that the assailants fired round 30 pictures.
“They ambushed him outdoors” the sports activities middle the place the rally was going down, Figueroa stated. “Some (of these current) even thought they had been fireworks.”
The nation’s most important newspaper, El Universo, reported that Villavicencio was assassinated “hitman-style and with three pictures to the pinnacle.”
9 different individuals had been injured within the assault, together with a candidate working for the nationwide legislature and two policemen, prosecutors stated.
One of many alleged attackers was shot and killed by safety personnel, and 6 individuals have been arrested.
A video of a gaggle of armed males, hooded and wearing black, circulated on the web, with the lads claiming duty for the assassination — with out mentioning Villavicencio — and claiming to be from the Los Lobos gang.
Its origin couldn’t be verified by AFP, and safety consultants warned it could be an effort to govern the small print of the crime.
‘Very harm and really nervous’
Nationwide Court docket of Justice president Ivan Saquicela referred to as Villavicencio’s homicide “very painful for the nation.”
“I’m very harm and really nervous about Ecuador,” he stated.
In September final yr, the USA listed Ecuador among the many prime 22 drug-producing or transit nations on the earth.
Ecuador isn’t recognized to have massive plantations of drug crops or laboratories for refining cocaine.
As a substitute, the nation — wedged between main cocaine producers Colombia and Peru — has develop into a staging floor for overseas mafia, upping the stakes for native gangs who’re brutally killing one another as they search management of drug routes.
Its main port Guayaquil, from the place many of the medication are shipped overseas — usually in containers of bananas or in authorized shipments by entrance corporations — is seen as having weaker controls.
In 2022, Ecuador’s homicide price nearly doubled in comparison with the earlier yr to 25 per 100,000, a determine consultants say will enhance to 40 this yr.
The nation has seized about 530 tons of narcotics since 2021, based on official figures. Jail violence between gangs has left greater than 430 lifeless in the identical interval, based on an AFP rely.
