Ecuador: Another Politician Killed Ahead of Snap Elections

Facts

• Pedro Briones, a local left-wing leader in Ecuador's violence-torn Pacific province of Esmeraldas, was shot dead on Monday, making him the second politician to be slain in the country in less than one week.¹
• Though police have not officially commented on the murder, local media reported that two gunmen on a motorbike attacked him at his home in San Mateo, south of the city of Esmeraldas. The FBI has joined the investigation into the murder, for which the motives are still unclear.²
• The fatal shooting of the coordinator for Citizen Revolution — the party of former Pres. Rafael Correa and frontrunner presidential hopeful Luisa González — comes days after presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed in broad daylight.³
• At least two other politicians were killed in Ecuador earlier this year. Agustín Intriago, the mayor of the country's sixth largest city, Manta, was shot dead last month, while candidate-elect Walker Vera was killed in May before taking office in Muisne, a city in Esmeraldas province.⁴
• Once a relatively peaceful country in South America, Ecuador has seen its murder rate jump from 5.8 homicides per 100K people in 2016 to 25.6 last year, as foreign drug syndicates settled in the country to work with local criminal gangs.⁴
• In the run-up to the August 20 snap presidential election, surveys of more than 3K Ecuadorian adults showed that violence and insecurity are top concerns for citizens, with González in the lead and security-focused former soldier Jan Topić climbing rapidly in the polls.⁵

Sources: ¹Times, ²BBC News, ³Guardian, ⁴CNN, and ⁵AS/COA.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by The Economist. These are shocking tragedies, but this string of killings shouldn't come as a surprise for those closely observing Latin America, as the region has seen political violence on the rise for a some time amid growing political populism. For instance, scores of politicians — including 35 candidates — were killed ahead of Mexico's 2021 midterm elections. Though sad, these figures aren't rare in South America.
• Narrative B, as provided by Spectator UK. The fact that multiple politicians have recently been slain in Ecuador doesn't mean that there has been a surge in specifically political violence, especially as it comes amid a rise in power among cocaine gangs. It should have been clear, especially after the assassination of Villavicencio, that drug trafficking groups are to blame for all this violence, as they are seeking to turn the country into a narco-state.