A police officer is assisted after being wounded.
Thu 10 August 2023:
60-days state of emergency declared in Ecuador in response to the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio during a campaign rally in Quito.
Villavicencio, 59, a prominent critic of corruption and organized crime, was assassinated during a campaign event on Wednesday, amid an uptick in violence in the Andean country blamed on drug traffickers.
“The armed forces as of this moment are mobilised throughout the national territory to guarantee the security of citizens, the tranquillity of the country and the free and democratic elections of August 20,” Lasso said on Thursday in an address broadcast on YouTube.
He is one of the few candidates to allege links between organised crime and government officials in Ecuador.
A criminal gang called Los Lobos (The Wolves) has claimed responsibility.
Los Lobos is the second-largest gang in Ecuador with some 8,000 members, many of whom are behind bars.
The gang has been involved in a number of recent deadly prison fights, in which scores of inmates have been brutally killed.
Videos posted on social media appear to show Villavicencio walking out of the event surrounded by guards. The video then shows him entering a white truck followed by gunfire.
Ecuador declares state of emergency after Villavicencio’s ‘assassination’
Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was gunned down at a campaign rally ahead of this month’s election.#VillavicencioPresidente2023 pic.twitter.com/yAm8R1kOUc
— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) August 10, 2023
Pictures and video footage from the rally show chaotic scenes as people dived for cover on the floor of a building after the shots were fired.
Local media reported some 30 shots had been fired at an event in the north of Quito. Video footage posted on social media showed Villavicencio getting into a car after the event, before the sound of apparent gunfire and screaming.
The attorney general’s office said one suspect in the crime later died of injuries sustained in a shootout. The violence injured nine other people, including a candidate for the legislature and two police officers.
The office later said it had arrested six people so far in connection with the crime during raids in Quito.
“A suspect, who was injured during the shootout with security personnel, was apprehended and moved, badly injured, to the [attorney general’s] unit in Quito. An ambulance from the fire department confirmed his death, the police are proceeding with collection of the cadaver,” the attorney general’s office said on social media.
Nine other people were injured during the attack, including a candidate for the legislature and two police officers, according to reports.
Villavicencio, from the Andean province of Chimborazo, was a former lawmaker, union member at state oil company Petroecuador, and later a journalist who denounced alleged losses in oil contracts.
He was one of the eight presidential candidates registered to stand in the elections scheduled for August 20.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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