The six suspects arrested in the assassination of Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio are Colombian nationals, as is the man who died at the scene, Ecuadorian police sources told Efe on Thursday.
Ecuadorian authorities had so far reported that several men participated in Villavicencio’s murder, which also left at least nine injured, including three police officers.
A police source pointed out that the suspects are Colombian, as is the man who was wounded in a shootout and later died in an ambulance.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry stressed that it is waiting for official information about what happened.
This is not the first time that Colombian citizens have been involved in similar situations in other countries, as Colombian mercenaries were also responsible for the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.
The Ecuadorian authorities have also not confirmed whether those responsible belong to any of the organized crime gangs operating in Ecuador.
Villavicencio has vowed to fight these gangs and has reported death threats against him in recent weeks.
The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, confirmed through social networks the presence of the FBI in his country and added that he had asked the United States for the support of this federal investigation agency to solve this crime.
The FBI’s involvement in the murder investigation is part of the close relationship the United States and Ecuador have built over the past two years, especially since Lasso came to power, with cooperation on a range of issues, including security.
The Ecuadorian armed forces are already being deployed across the country, revealed the defense minister, who assured that the army “will respond with full force”.
“It is necessary to understand that the mafia has declared war on Ecuador and that the state and the armed forces will respond with all their might to face the murderers, their accomplices, those who finance them and those who protect them,” assured Luis Lara. , in statements to journalists.
Without specifying the concrete number of soldiers deployed, Luis Lara stressed that “the armed forces will be present in every city and in every parish until the end of the electoral process”.
Following Villavicencio’s assassination, the government declared three days of national mourning and a 60-day state of emergency.
Source: DN
