![]() ![]() Villavicencio was one of eight presidential candidates running in early elections due to be held on 20 August. Lasso said after Wednesday’s killing: “Organised crime has gone too far but they will feel the full weight of the law.” The assassination comes amid a shocking surge in violent crime in the small South American country, as rival drug-trafficking gangs perpetrate prison massacres and murder rates have more than doubled between 20. Police officers guard the hospital where Villavicencio was taken after being shot at a rally in Quito. “What insecurity we live in … if a man who fought more than 20 years, the most likely to win the elections, is silenced. I have no words for what’s happening in the country. ![]() “What we witnessed was like a horror film. Speaking at the scene of the shooting, Villavicencio’s uncle, Galo Valencia, blamed the state for not giving his nephew enough security and described how he thought the gunshots were fireworks launched by supporters until “we saw that there were wounded falling, blood, injured people”. “I want to say to those who want to threaten the state, we will not hand over the power and the democratic institutions to organised crime even though it is disguised as political organisations,” he added.Ī suspect in the killing died from injuries sustained during the shootout that ensued, the attorney general’s office said, with six arrests made in connection with the attack. He announced three days of national mourning. In a televised address made after midnight, the country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, said the elections would continue as planned, though under a two-month state of emergency in which soldiers would guard polling stations.įlanked by cabinet members and electoral authorities, he said: “We agree in the face of the loss of a patriot and a fighter, elections should not be suspended on the contrary, they should be held and democracy should be strengthened.”
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