QUITO: All six suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio are foreigners. The police have confirmed this. During this one accused was shot, he was also a foreigner.
The six armed suspects were hiding in a house in the country’s capital Quito, Xinhua news agency quoted a police report as saying. Describing the murder as a “political crime of a terroristic nature”, Interior Minister Juan Zapata confirmed that all the suspects were foreigners, but did not specify which country they belonged to.
The minister said the police would continue the investigation and seek the motive of the crime. Villavicencio, a candidate for the August 25 presidential election, died in an attack on Wednesday after a political rally in Quito. President Guillermo Lasso declared three days of national mourning and a 60-day state of emergency throughout the country.
Lasso said in a statement on Thursday night that the killing, which the government blamed on organized crime, occurred amid an election campaign that would proceed as planned. Villavicencio, 59, was a journalist and former National Assembly member who built his political career on the issue of corruption. According to the survey, he was in fourth place in the upcoming elections.
Breaking🚨 Ecuadorian right-wing presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio assassinated after political rally. Got hit three times in the head and didn’t survive. Full video-compilation of assassination, arrest, hospital-rush and death confirmation: #Ecuador #Fernando… pic.twitter.com/CgfrNis24T
— Sander (@Sander_2021) August 10, 2023
