People injured in the gunfire attack were taken to the hospital for immediate treatment.
QUITO, Ecuador. 9th. July, 2023. An Ecuadorian presidential candidate known for speaking up against corruption was shot and killed Wednesday at a political rally in the capital amid a wave of startling violence in the South American country
Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has been killed in a gun attack following a campaign rally in the capital Quito, according to the country’s president Guillermo Lasso and local media reports.
Lasso confirmed the killing of Villavicencio on Wednesday and vowed the crime would not go unpunished.
“Outraged and shocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. My solidarity and condolences to his wife and daughters,” Lasso said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“For his memory and his fight, I assure you that this crime will not remain unpunished,” Lasso said. “Organized crime have gone very far, but all the weight of the law will fall on them,” he said.
Lasso said he would host top security officials at an urgent meeting.
Local media reported that Villavicencio, 59, a former legislator who had been polling at 7.5 percent voting intention, was shot dead after a campaign event in Quito.
Videos on social media appear to show the candidate walking out of the event surrounded by guards. The video then shows Villavicencio entering a white truck followed by gunfire.
Pictures from the rally show chaotic scenes as people dived for cover on the floor of a building after the shots were fired.
Several others injured in the gun attack at the Colegio Anderson in the capital were transferred to local hospitals, according to media reports.
Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser, told the Associated Press after the shooting that Villavicencio had received death threats, which he had reported to authorities.
Zuquilanda called on international authorities to take action against the violence, attributing it to rising violence and drug trafficking in the country.
“The Ecuadorian people are crying and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” he said.
“Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”
Villavicencio, from the Andean province of Chimborazo, was a former lawmaker, union member at state oil company Petroecuador, and later a journalist who denounced alleged millions in oil contract losses.
He was one of eight presidential candidates registered to stand in the elections scheduled for August 20.
On Tuesday, Villavicencio made a report to Ecuador’s attorney general’s office about an oil business, but no further details of his report were made public.
Villavicencio was also an outspoken critic of former President Rafael Correa and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation over statements made against the former president. He fled to Indigenous territory within Ecuador and later was given asylum in Peru.
As a legislator, Villavicencio was criticized by opposition politicians for obstructing an impeachment process this year against Lasso, which lead the latter to call the early presidential elections.
“Today more than ever, the need to act with a strong hand against crime is reiterated. May God have him in his glory,” fellow presidential hopeful Jan Topic said in a post on X.