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Who is behind the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio

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The Ecuadorian presidential candidate for the Construye Movement, Fernando Villavicencio, was assassinated this Wednesday after receiving three shots to the head during an electoral rally in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, which was taking place within the framework of the elections on August 20. According to the statements of the first witnesses to the event, the former trade unionist received several shots from a revolver by “a short man” from the opposite window of the vehicle in which he was leaving the electoral act.

The shooting has also left eight injured, of whom seven have had to be transferred to the hospital. It is believed that a group of hitmen could be behind the murder. “Organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on them,” said the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, on his official Twitter account.

“The murderers, to cover their escape, threw a grenade that did not detonate in the street and was later destroyed through a controlled detonation,” the head of state stressed.. “The investigations continue and we will apply all the rigor of the law so that those responsible for materials and intellectuals pay with the maximum penalty,” he added.

He fought against mafias and criminal gangs

For now, the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office and the Police have arrested six suspects after carrying out several raids in Conocoto and San Bartolo (Quito), reports the newspaper El Diario Ecuador. According to the information collected by the aforementioned local media, in a vehicle parked in one of the raided houses in Conocoto, a suitcase with weapons and grenades was found inside.

Another person has died during the shooting when exchanging shots with the security personnel present at the time of the event. In fact, he has been considered a suspect in the attack.

The murder of Villavicencio has occurred at a time when the country is experiencing an escalation of violence due to the action of criminal gangs. One of the objectives for which Villavicencio sought to be president was to “confront and defeat the mafias that have co-opted the State and have society on its knees.”

Thus, he assured that he was going to dismantle the mafias, since “we have a criminal economy financed by drug trafficking, illegal mining and the resources of overpricing and bribery from corruption in the public sector,” he declared.. For his memory and for his fight, I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished..

The Security Cabinet will meet in…

— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) August 10, 2023

In fact, the threat to Villavicencio by one of the leaders of the Los Choneros criminal gang, a local armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel, was made public.. The presidential candidate then assured that he was not afraid of these threats and added that the creation of a maximum security prison would be “one of the first that I will promote as soon as I take office,” as reported by El Diario Ecuador.

Threats from the Los Choneros criminal group

Villavicencio assured that “Fito and other drug lords, hit men and other criminals” would be transferred to said prison, where they will be completely isolated.. Fito is the criminal leader linked to the Sinaloa Cartel. It was on July 28 when several subjects approached one of the collaborators of the candidate's campaign to deliver a message from said leader.. “It is the last time that your candidate touches the name of Fito, the next we are going to give him and all those who are with him,” the message could be read.

Fernando Villavicencio's speech hours before his murder
Fernando Villavicencio's speech hours before his murder

According to local media, Los Choneros is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Ecuador, linked to drug trafficking, closely linked to the Sinaloa Cartel. José Adolfo Macías, alias 'Fito', is currently the leader of the gang after the murder in 2020 of the former Jorge Luis Zambrano González, alias Rasquiña. 'Fito' has been incarcerated in a maximum security module of the Litoral Penitentiary for approximately a decade.

As local media outlet El Universo details, he has been detained since 2012 and was sentenced to 34 years in prison “for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.”

Another criminal group claims the murder

Without yet having confirmed the responsibility for the events, an organization called 'Los Lobos' has published a video on social networks, which has been shared by the journalist Benjamin Rubinstein, in which they claim to be responsible for the assassination of the presidential candidate. “We, the organization, assume responsibility for the events that occurred this afternoon and it will be repeated when the corrupt do not keep their words,” highlights one of the subjects in the video.