Suspect Who Assassinated Ecuadorian Presidential Candidate Killed Without Questioning

Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, 59, was assassinated on Wednesday after attending a campaign rally in Quito.

Villavicencio was shot while entering a vehicle outside of his campaign event.

In total, there were six suspects apprehended after the shooting but one suspect was shot and killed in a shoot-out.

Here are the moments that led up to the shooting:

https://twitter.com/RickyDoggin/status/1689660174183837696

Take a look at one of the suspects:

https://twitter.com/CBKNEWS121/status/1689446850120609793

Here’s what ABC reported:

An Ecuadorian presidential candidate who recently pledged to root out corruption and lock up the country’s “thieves” was fatally shot at a political rally in the capital as the South American country reels from drug-related crime and violence.

Fernando Villavicencio, 59, who was known for speaking up against cartels, was assassinated Wednesday, less than two weeks before a special presidential election. He was not a front-runner, but his death deepened an organized crime crisis that has already claimed thousands of lives and underscored the challenge that Ecuador’s next leader will face.

Video of the rally in Quito posted on social media appeared to show Villavicencio walking out of the rally surrounded by guards. The footage then showed the candidate getting into a white pickup truck before gunshots were heard, followed by screams and commotion around the truck.

The sequence of events was confirmed to The Associated Press by Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser.

The candidate had received at least three death threats before the shooting and reported them to authorities, resulting in one detention, Zuquilanda said.

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“The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” the adviser said. “Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”

Former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, who also is seeking the presidency, bemoaned the loss at a news conference: “We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this.”

The assassins threw a grenade into the street to cover their flight, but it did not explode, President Guillermo Lasso said. Police later destroyed the grenade with a controlled explosion.

Operations carried out in different sectors of Quito resulted in six arrests. One suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight, the attorney general’s office said.

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Suspect in killing of Ecuador candidate Villavicencio dead-attorney general's office https://t.co/8ukskCts3A pic.twitter.com/yTuS38R3wx

— Reuters Politics (@ReutersPolitics) August 10, 2023

Per Reuters:

A suspect in the killing of Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has died from injuries sustained during the shootout that lead to his capture, the attorney general’s office said on Wednesday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Villavicencio’s party Movimiento Construye said on X that armed men attacked its Quito offices.