Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed following a campaign rally in the capital Quito, while a suspect in the killing later died from injuries sustained during a shootout that lead to his capture, the country’s president and other authorities said.
Lasso confirmed the killing of Villavicencio on Wednesday and promised the crime would not go unpunished.
“Outraged and shocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. My solidarity and condolences to his wife and daughters,” Lasso said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“For his memory and his fight, I assure you that this crime will not remain unpunished,” Lasso said. “Organised crime has gone very far, but all the weight of the law will fall on them,” he said.
Lasso said he would host top security officials at an urgent meeting.
Villavicencio, 59, a former legislator, was shot dead after a campaign event in Quito.
The country’s main newspaper, El Universo, reported that the candidate was assassinated “hitman-style and with three shots to the head”.
Videos posted on social media appear to show the candidate walking out of the event surrounded by guards. The video then shows Villavicencio entering a white truck followed by gunfire.
Pictures and video footage from the rally show chaotic scenes as people dived for cover on the floor of a building after the shots were fired.
Ecuador’s attorney general’s office said later that a suspect in the killing of Villavicencio had died of injuries sustained during capture.
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“A suspect, who was injured during the shootout with security personnel, was apprehended and moved, badly injured, to the (attorney general’s) unit in Quito. An ambulance from the fire department confirmed his death, the police are proceeding with collection of the cadaver,” the attorney general’s office said on social media.
Several others injured in the gun attack were transferred to local hospitals, according to media reports.
Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser, told the Associated Press after the shooting that Villavicencio had received death threats, which he had reported to authorities.
Zuquilanda called on international authorities to take action against the violence, attributing it to rising violence and drug trafficking in the country.
“The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” he said.
“Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”
Villavicencio, from the Andean province of Chimborazo, was a former lawmaker, union member at state oil company Petroecuador, and later a journalist who denounced alleged millions in oil contract losses.
He was one of eight presidential candidates registered to stand in the elections scheduled for August 20.
On Tuesday, Villavicencio made a report to Ecuador’s attorney general’s office about an oil business, but no further details of his report were made public.
Villavicencio was also an outspoken critic of former President Rafael Correa and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation over statements made against the former president. He fled to Indigenous territory within Ecuador and later was given asylum in Peru.
Journalist Gordon Durnin, speaking to Al Jazeera from Quito, said Villavicencio was a well-known critic of Correa, who was president from 2007 to 2017.
“He had brought many, many charges and evidence against the Correa government for corruption,” Durnin said.
As a legislator, Villavicencio was also criticised by opposition politicians for obstructing an impeachment process this year against Lasso, which lead the latter to call the early presidential elections.
“Today, more than ever, the need to act with a strong hand against crime is reiterated. May God have him in his glory,” fellow presidential hopeful Jan Topic said in a post on X.
Source: BBC
BDST: 0938 HRS, AUG 10, 2023
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