Outgoing Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has declared a national state of emergency for 60 days in response to the killing of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio at a marketing campaign rally within the capital, Quito.
Villavicencio, 59, a vocal critic of corruption and organised crime, was killed on the marketing campaign occasion on Wednesday amid a surge in violence within the Andean nation blamed on drug traffickers.
“The armed forces as of this moment are mobilised throughout the national territory to guarantee the security of citizens, the tranquillity of the country and the free and democratic elections of August 20,” Lasso stated on Thursday in an deal with broadcast on YouTube.
Local media reported some 30 photographs had been fired at an occasion within the north of Quito. Video footage posted on social media confirmed Villavicencio getting right into a automotive after the occasion, earlier than the sound of obvious gunfire and screaming.
“Outraged and shocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. My solidarity and condolences to his wife and daughters,” Lasso stated on X, the social media platform previously often called Twitter.
The lawyer basic’s workplace stated one suspect within the crime later died of accidents sustained in a shootout. The violence injured 9 different folks, together with a candidate for the legislature and two cops.
The workplace later stated it had arrested six folks up to now in reference to the crime throughout raids in Quito.
Ecuador’s police and Interior Ministry didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark concerning the particulars of the killing, however Lasso confirmed police safely detonated a grenade left behind by the killers.
“This is a political crime, which has the character of terrorism, and we do not doubt that this murder is an attempt to sabotage the electoral process,” Lasso stated within the video assertion previous midnight native time, after assembly with safety and electoral officers.
The nation’s most important newspaper, El Universo, reported that the candidate was assassinated “hitman-style and with three shots to the head”.
Videos posted on social media seem to indicate Villavicencio walking out of the occasion surrounded by guards. The video then exhibits him coming into a white truck adopted by gunfire.
Pictures and video footage from the rally present chaotic scenes as folks dived for canopy on the ground of a building after the photographs have been fired.
The attorney general’s workplace stated later {that a} suspect had died of accidents obtained throughout seize.
“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 lawyer basic’s workplace stated on social media.
Nine different folks have been injured in the course of the assault, together with a candidate for the legislature and two cops, in keeping with reviews.
Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s marketing campaign adviser, instructed The Associated Press information company after the capturing that Villavicencio had obtained demise threats, which he had reported to authorities.
Zuquilanda referred to as on worldwide authorities to take motion in opposition to the violence, attributing it to rising violence and drug trafficking within the nation.
“The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” he stated.
“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 firm Petroecuador, and later a journalist who denounced alleged losses in oil contracts.
He was one of many eight presidential candidates registered to face within the elections scheduled for August 20.
On Tuesday, Villavicencio made a report back to Ecuador’s lawyer basic’s workplace about an oil business, however no additional particulars of his report have been made public.
Villavicencio was additionally an outspoken critic of former President Rafael Correa and was sentenced to 18 months in jail for defamation over statements in opposition to the latter. He fled to Indigenous territory inside Ecuador and was later given asylum in Peru.
Journalist Gordon Durnin, talking to Al Jazeera from Quito, stated 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 stated.
As a legislator, Villavicencio was additionally criticised by opposition politicians for obstructing an impeachment course of this 12 months in opposition to Lasso, which lead the latter to name 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 stated in a submit on X.
