QUITO, Aug 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency for 60 days throughout the country after the shooting murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
“The Armed Forces as of this moment are mobilized throughout the national territory to guarantee the security of citizens, the tranquility of the country and the free and democratic elections of August 20,” Lasso said in an address broadcast on YouTube.
The gang-driven violence afflicting Ecuador over the last two years reached an unprecedented level when a presidential candidate known for speaking up against drug cartels and corruption was shot and killed at a political rally in the South American country’s capital.
The assassination of Fernando Villavicencio in Quito happened Wednesday, less than two weeks before a special presidential election. He was not a frontrunner, but his killing, which President Guillermo Lasso suggested could be linked to organized crime, furthered a crisis that has already claimed thousands of lives and underscored the deep challenge that the country’s next leader will face.
Lasso declared three days of national mourning and a state of emergency that involves additional military personnel deployed throughout the country.
“Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended; on the contrary, they have to be held, and democracy has to be strengthened,” Lasso said Thursday.
In his final speech before he was killed, Villavicencio, 59, promised a roaring crowd that he would root out corruption and lock up the country’s “thieves.”
The attorney general’s office of Ecuador said one suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight after the politician’s assassination. Various operations carried out in different sectors of Quito resulted in six arrests.
Villavicencio, one of eight candidates running for president, was the candidate of the Build Ecuador Movement.
Just last month, the mayor of the port city of Manta was shot and killed. On July 26, Lasso declared a state of emergency covering two provinces and the country’s prison system in an effort to stem the violence.
Lasso said “the murderers” threw a grenade into the street to cover their flight, but it didn’t explode. Police later destroyed the grenade with a controlled explosion, he added.
Villavicencio was one of the country’s most critical voices against corruption, especially during the 2007-2017 government of President Rafael Correa.
He was an independent journalist who investigated corruption in previous governments before entering politics as an anti-graft campaigner.
Lasso, a conservative former banker, was elected in 2021 on a business-friendly platform and clashed from the start with the left-leaning majority coalition in the National Assembly.
A snap election was called after Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree in May, in a move to avoid being impeached over allegations that he failed to intervene to end a faulty contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company.
Ecuador’s constitution includes a provision that allows the president to disband the assembly during a political crisis, but then requires new elections for both the assembly and the presidency.
Authorities said that at least nine others were injured in the Wednesday shooting, including officers and a congressional candidate, in what they described as a “terrorist act.”
The killing was met with an outcry by other candidates who demanded action, with presidential front-runner Luisa González of the Citizen Revolution party saying “when they touch one of us, they touch all of us.”
Villavicencio was married and is survived by five children. — NNN-AGENCIES
