QUITO, Ecuador — An Ecuadorian presidential candidate known for speaking up against cartels and corruption was shot and killed Wednesday at a political rally in the capital, amid a startling wave of gang-driven violence in the South American country.
President Guillermo Lasso confirmed the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio and suggested organized crime was behind his slaying, less than two weeks before the Aug. 20 presidential election.
“I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Lasso said in a statement. “Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.”
Ecuador’s attorney general’s office said that one suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight after the killing, and police detained six suspects following raids in Quito.
In his final speech before he was killed, Villavicencio promised a roaring crowd that he would root out corruption and lock up the country’s “thieves.”
Prior to the shooting, Villavicencio said he had received multiple death threats, including from affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that now operate in Ecuador. He said his campaign represented a threat to such groups.
“Here I am showing my face. I’m not scared of them,” Villavicencio said in a statement, naming detained crime boss José Adolfo Macías by his alias “Fito.”
Villavicencio was one of eight candidates, though not the front-runner. The politician, 59, was the candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement. / AP