Ecuador’s president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, expressed dismay this Wednesday at the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and promised that the crime will not go unpunished.
“Outraged and appalled by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. My solidarity and condolences to his wife and daughters. For his memory and for his struggle, I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Lasso wrote on social networks.
The president also said he had convened a meeting of the security cabinet: “I have asked the president of the CNE [Conselho Nacional Eleitoral], Diana Atamaint; the Attorney General, Diana Salazar; the president of the national court, Iván Saquicela; and to other government agencies who urgently participate in this meeting to deal with this event that has shaken the country,” he added.
“Organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on it,” declared the head of state, during whose mandate the country’s biggest insecurity crisis has exploded due to the proliferation and violent actions related to it. with international drug mafia groups, according to authorities.
Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed this Wednesday, shot by unknown persons as he left a rally, during a campaign rally in the capital Quito.
Interior Minister Juan Zapata said the attack was carried out by assassins who also injured others.
Villavicencio, identified as a critic of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), traveled with police protection despite the threats he had received weeks before.
The fight against crime is one of the main promises of the candidates to succeed the conservative Guillermo Lasso as president in the extraordinary general election scheduled for Sunday.
Besides Villavicencio, the candidates for the presidential election are environmental activist Yaku Pérez, former deputy Luisa González, security expert Jan Topic, former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner, politician Daniel Hervas, businessman Daniel Noboa and independent Bolívar Armijos.
Source: DN
