Authorities have revealed that six people detained in connection with the murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio are Colombian citizens and members of gangs. This revelation prompted a call for action from a former vice president concerned about the rising violence in the South American country.
The congressman and anti-corruption activist Villavicencio was shot and killed during a campaign event in the capital city of Quito on Wednesday, August 9. He had been a vocal critic of the violence fuelled by drug trafficking in the nation.
His murder occurred ten days before the primary election for president. As crime and corruption have reached epidemic proportions in recent years in Ecuador, Villavicencio's campaign had pledged to end the bloodshed.
Fernando Villavicencio Assassination
The alleged gunman died while in police custody Wednesday after a gunfight with security forces, according to the Office of the Attorney General of Ecuador.
In addition to the killer, six people were detained. On Thursday, August 10, Ecuador's Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata, told reporters that early information suggests suspects are part of organized criminal gangs. He then told CNN that the accused were indeed Colombians. There is yet no information on the alleged gunman's nationality.
Zapata stated that during overnight searches, officials recovered two motorbikes, a stolen car, a rifle, a machine gun, four handguns, three grenades, two rifle magazines, four boxes of ammo, and a rifle.
President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador tweeted that he had asked the FBI for assistance after the assault and that a team from the United States would soon be traveling to Ecuador to investigate.
Lasso also called for three days of national mourning and declared a state of emergency that would last for 60 days. The military would be mobilized immediately throughout the country.
The United Nations' top human rights chief, the US, and the European Union were just some of the many international entities that voiced their disapproval of the killing.
According to a statement released by the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office on Friday, August 11, a court has ordered the preventive arrest of the six Colombian citizens apprehended on suspicion of murdering Villavicencio. The suspect inquiry, said the Prosecutor's Office, will take 30 days.
Extremely High Levels of Violence
Otto Sonnenholzner, a former vice president of Ecuador and a current presidential contender, told CNN in an exclusive interview on Thursday that the present level of violence in the country is something that has never been seen before.
"It's something new. It started maybe one and a half or two years ago. It's a spiral of violence that is completely out of control and demands concrete government action that we are not seeing."
Most of the recent bloodshed in Ecuador has occurred on the country's Pacific coast as criminal gangs fight for dominance in the distribution of illegal drugs like cocaine.
