2023-08-10 01:12:51
– Presidential candidate shot dead in Ecuador
The centrist Fernando Villavicencio, one of the eight candidates in the 1st round of the presidential election on August 20, and ranked 2nd in voting intentions, was assassinated on Wednesday following a meeting
Posted today at 03:12 Updated 1 hour ago
Fernando Villavicencio in Quito on August 8, 2023.
AFP
A presidential candidate in Ecuador, Fernando Villavicencio, was shot dead at the end of an electoral rally Wednesday evening in Quito, announced Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso.
Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old centrist, was one of eight candidates in the first round of presidential elections scheduled for August 20. According to the latest polls, Fernando Villavicencio ranked second in voting intentions with around 13%, behind lawyer Luisa Gonzalez, close to former left-wing president Rafael Correa.
“Organized crime has gone very far”
“I am outraged and shocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio,” President Lasso wrote on X, the new name of the social network Twitter. “I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” he promised. “Organized crime has gone very far, but the full weight of the law will fall on it,” he added. Guillermo Lasso urgently convened a meeting of senior security officials in the evening.
In recent years, Ecuador has faced a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking which, in the midst of the electoral process, has already resulted in the death of a mayor and a candidate for Parliament. The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint had also indicated on Wednesday that several members of this authority responsible for supervising the ballot had received death threats.
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