Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was gunned down at a campaign rally ahead of this month’s election.
Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio speaks during a campaign rally in Quito, Ecuador August 9, 2023.
Outgoing Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has declared a countrywide state of emergency for 60 days in response to the killing of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio at a campaign rally in the capital, Quito.
Villavicencio, 59, a vocal critic of corruption and organised crime, was killed at the campaign event on Wednesday amid a surge in violence in 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 said on Thursday in an address broadcast on YouTube.
Local media reported some 30 shots had been fired at an event in the north of Quito. Video footage posted on social media showed Villavicencio getting into a car after the event, before the sound of apparent gunfire and screaming.
“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.
The attorney general’s office said one suspect in the crime later died of injuries sustained in a shootout. The violence injured nine other people, including a candidate for the legislature and two police officers.
The office later said it had arrested six people so far in connection with the crime during raids in Quito.
Ecuador’s police and Interior Ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the details of the killing, but 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 said in the video statement past midnight local time, after meeting with security and electoral officials.
The country’s main newspaper, El Universo, reported that the candidate was assassinated “hitman-style and with three shots to the head”.
The attorney general’s office said later that a suspect had died of injuries received during capture.
“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.
Nine other people were injured during the attack, including a candidate for the legislature and two police officers, according to reports.
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