The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency after the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Furthermore, he confirmed that the elections on sunday 20 will be carried forward anyway under this measure. Meanwhile, the legal case for the crime already has six detaineesall of them Colombians, and the FBI will join the investigation.
The President made the announcement in a statement on YouTube where he informed that “from now on the Armed Forces will mobilize throughout the national territory to guarantee the safety of citizensthe tranquility of the country and the free and democratic elections on August 20″. He also explained that “in the next few hours a delegation -from the FBI- will arrive in the country”.
Regarding the murder of Villavicencio, Lasso expressed: “This It is a political crime that takes on a terrorist character and we do not doubt that this murder is an attempt to sabotage the electoral process.“.
The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint, accompanied the President in the statement and pointed out that the Armed Forces and the Police “they will redouble the security in all the electoral precincts” so that the elections “are carried out with guarantees for choose freely, in peace and security“.
The assassination of Fernando Villavicencio
The presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, 59, was shot yesterday as he left a meeting with supporters at a school in Quitoamid a wave of criminal violence in Ecuador attributed to a war between drug gangs, which is also being waged in prisons.
The murdered man, candidate for the Construye and Gente Buena movements of the center, had denounced threats against him last week and his campaign team.
The Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata, confirmed that “with the preliminary information collected” The authorities know that the detainees “belong to organized crime groups”. Hours later, security sources revealed that the detainees are Colombians and that at least cFour of them have records for arms trafficking, homicides and drug trafficking.
In addition, the authorities reported that a suspect in the attack died after being injured in the middle of a confrontation with the security of Villavicencio.
Villavicencio’s death gave way to an impact within the alliance that took him to the front of their ballots and there were spontaneous acts -some last night and others today- of followers and leaders in plazas and party venues in Loja, Cuenca, Guaranda and Riobamba.
Facing the elections, the Construye Movement must designate who will replace Villavicencio for the electionsbeyond the fact that the tickets are already printed and will carry your name and photo.
Source: Ambito
