Ecuador Presidential Candidate Villavicencio Assassinated

Facts

• Ecuadorian presidential hopeful Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated after leaving a campaign event at a school in the capital, Quito, on Wednesday, less than a fortnight before voting is due to take place.¹
• Local media reported that Villavicencio was killed "hitman-style" with three shots in the head, as assailants fired around 30 shots. In response to this crime, outgoing President Guillermo Lasso declared a nationwide 60-day state of emergency.²
• Los Lobos, the second-largest criminal gang in Ecuador with some 8K members, appeared to claim responsibility for the attack. However, men claiming to be gang members posted a video saying it wasn't them. Another gang, Los Choneros, who threatened Villavicencio last month, have also been suspected.³
• Officials said a suspect later died of wounds sustained in a shooting, with six others so far arrested for the crime that reportedly injured another nine people, including two police officers and a legislative candidate.⁴
• The 59-year-old anti-corruption crusader and former journalist was recently polling second with 13%, behind Luisa González, who is close to former left-wing president Rafael Correa. The elections, set for Aug. 20, will go ahead as planned.⁵
• Once a peaceful country, Ecuador has become a hub of drug trafficking and violence in recent years. It is now ranked 31st out of 193 nations on the global Organized Crime Index, with a homicide rate higher than Mexico.⁶

Sources: ¹Wall Street Journal, ²Al Jazeera, ³BBC News, ⁴Reuters, ⁵CBS, and ⁶The Telegraph.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by The Epoch Times. A fierce critic of the convicted and corrupt former socialist president Rafael Correa, Villavicencio had been threatened by drug traffickers as violence and drug cartels have been a hot topic in his campaign. It's not hard to realize that his assassination has exposed some of the covert links that are turning Ecuador into a narco-state — now it's time to connect the dots and take action.
• Narrative B, as provided by The Economist. Though undoubtedly a shocking tragedy, this killing shouldn't come as a surprise for those closely observing Latin America, as the region has seen political violence on the rise for a while amid growing populism. The mayor of the Ecuadorian port city of Manta was killed last month, and scores of politicians — including 35 candidates — were killed ahead of Mexico's 2021 midterm elections. Though it's sad, the data show this isn't rare.