Fernando Villavicencio.Photo:API via AP

Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio waves an Ecuador national flag during a campaign event at a school minutes before he was shot to death outside the same school in Quito

API via AP

Fernando Villavicencio, a candidate who was running in Ecuador’s presidential election and spoke out against corruption and organized crime, was assassinated Wednesday.

TheNew York Timesreported that Villavicencio, 59, a former journalist, was leaving a campaign rally in the country’s capital of Quito when he was fatally shot.

On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, thenational prosecutor’s officeannounced that a suspect, who was badly injured in an exchange with security personnel, was apprehended and later died in police custody. The office added that raids were conducted and six people linked to the case were detained, per theNew York Times.

Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated in Quito on Aug, 9, 2023.AP Photo/Juan Diego Montenegro

A bullet-riddled vehicle is surrounded by police as they guard the hospital where several of the injured were taken after the attack on which presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot to death in Quito, Ecuador,

AP Photo/Juan Diego Montenegro

The death of Villavicencio comes 10 days before Ecuador was to hold its presidential election, which will go on as planned, Electoral Council President Diana Atamaint said, perCNN. Villavicencio was in the middle of the pack of eight candidates running for presidential office, behind frontrunner Luisa González.

Lasso, who is not seeking re-election, perCBS News, later added in the statement: “Organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law is going to fall on them.”

Galo Valencia, an uncle of Villavicencio, blamed the government for the lack of security for his nephew’s killing. Speaking from the scene of the shooting, he said, perTheGuardian: “What we witnessed was like a horror film. The death of my relative. I have no words for what’s happening in the country. They just killed democracy."

Ecuador’s upcoming presidential election comes as the country is experiencing turmoil amid the influx of organized crime due to a rise in drug trafficking, perBBC News. Ecuador’s homicide rate increased two-fold from 2021 to 2022, reported CBS News.

Villavicencio, who served in Ecuador’s National Assembly, said if elected as president he would crack down on the gangs. In May, he told CNN En Español Conclusiones that his nation had become a “narco state” and called for a fight against the “political mafia.”

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“Electorally speaking, this year is the most violent in our history,” Arianna Tanca, an Ecuadorian political scientist, told theNew York Times.“I think that what is going to change is the way we conceive of politics. I think that from now on it becomes a high-risk profession.”

Voting in the presidential election will go on as planned on Aug. 20 with the military mobilized to guarantee security, perReuters.

source: people.com