Ecuador: Slain Candidate's Party Names New Replacement

Facts

• The political party of Ecuador's assassinated presidential hopeful Fernando Villavicencio announced on Sunday that his friend and close associate Christian Zurita will contest the Aug. 20 election.¹
• Movimiento Construye had previously nominated vice-presidential candidate Andrea González to take the spot, but reversed this decision amid worries that her candidacy would be rejected by election authorities.²
• This comes as Villavicencio's widow Verónica Sarauz on Saturday deemed Construye's first replacement arbitrary and unlawful, as vice presidential candidates are not allowed to step down.³
• Sarauz also alleged the state was "directly responsible" for the murder of her husband, as it allegedly failed to protect him while being in charge of his security.⁴
• Known as an anti-corruption crusader, Villavicencio was assassinated "hitman-style" by three shots to the head last Wednesday after a campaign event at a school in the capital.⁵
• Six Colombian men were detained in connection with the killing, while the notorious Los Choneros gang leader Adolfo "Fito" Macías was moved from a lighter-security jail to a maximum-security prison on Saturday.⁶

Sources: ¹Time, ²Al Jazeera, ³Reuters, ⁴CNN, ⁵ITN, and ⁶Associated Press.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Washington Post. Democracy is on the ballot in the upcoming Ecuadorian election, as the country desperately needs to tackle organized crime. If the nation refrains from electing candidates representing authoritarian ideas both from the right and the left, then Washington must ramp up security cooperation with Quito to show that lawful methods do work against violent drug gangs.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Craig Murray.
• One must be disturbingly naive at best to believe that further US interference is what Ecuador needs after the killing of a presidential candidate who had long been a CIA asset. Though Villavicencio fabricated lies to boost the Russiagate invention and resolutely obstructed the impeachment of US-backed Guillermo Lasso, his candidacy had turned him into a liability for the Agency.