A politician was killed in northwestern Ecuador on Monday, his party announced, less than a week after the assassination of one of the candidates in the August 20 presidential election.
One of the presidential candidates, Luisa González, confirmed that Pedro Briones, a member of Revolución Ciudadana and one of the leaders of the party in Esmeraldas province, was killed.
“My solidarity with the family of comrade Pedro Briones, a new victim of violence,” said González, a supporter of former left-wing president Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
“Ecuador is in its bloodiest period,” the candidate added on the social network X (formerly Twitter), criticizing “the total abolition of an inept government” and a “state taken over by the mafia.”
So far, neither the police nor the government have confirmed the incident.
According to the Ecuadorian press, citing a local police source, Briones was shot dead at his home in the city of San Mateo by two men who arrived on a motorbike and managed to flee after the shots were fired.
Despite the best efforts of family members and neighbors, Briones was pronounced dead from two gunshot wounds to the neck upon arrival at a hospital in Esmeraldas province, which borders Colombia.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry responded to the murder of Pedro Briones on Monday: “The government rejects these criminal acts against Ecuadorian democracy and trusts that those responsible will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
In a statement, the government added that Colombia “renews its solidarity with the Ecuadorian people, its leadership and the political groups fighting for democracy in the brother country of Ecuador”.
This is the second murder of a politician in Ecuador in less than a week.
Fernando Villavicencio, 59, a candidate of the Ecuadorian political movement Construye, was shot dead outside a rally last Wednesday.
The crime led to the arrest of six people of Colombian nationality, although it is still unknown who ordered the killing.
Ecuador’s National Electoral Commission decided to keep the election date at August 20, despite Villavicencio’s assassination and the declaration of a state of emergency in most of the country.
To replace Villavicencio in the presidential race, Construye appointed Christian Zurita, who worked for 15 years on the corruption investigations that brought Villavicencio to the public eye in Ecuador.
Seven of the eight candidates for Ecuador’s presidency who attended Sunday night’s televised debate pledged increased security in an event that has been the target of a strong police and military operation due to the country’s escalating violence.
Ecuador is experiencing the biggest insecurity crisis in the country’s history, which authorities attribute to drug trafficking.
Source: DN
