The president of Ecuador, the conservative William Lassohas decreed this Thursday the state of emergency for 60 days across the country after the assassination of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicenciovictim of shots by alleged hitmen at the exit of an electoral rally in Quito.

In a message to the nation after a long meeting of the State Security Committee, Lasso confirmed that the extraordinary general elections will be held next 20th of Augustas planned, but with a deployment of the military throughout the national territory as part of the state of emergency.

During the night of this Thursday, six people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder of Villavicencio. The arrests were made during a series of raids carried out in Conocoto and San Bartolo, two neighborhoods of the Ecuadorian capital, as reported by the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office through its official channels. At the same time, the Prosecutor’s Office proceeded with the removal of Villavicencio’s body from the medical center where he had been transferred after the attack and sent it to a morgue for autopsy.

The Public Ministry also reported the death of a suspect in the crime, captured after a shootout with security personnel. According to the same Prosecutor’s Office, which did not report the identity of the deceased, this alleged perpetrator of the attack was taken first to a Quito court and then to a medical center, on the way to which the fire brigade ambulance that was transporting him confirmed his death. .

As a result of the attack, at least nine other people were also injured and were also taken to a medical center, including a candidate for assembly and two police officers.

Dismay in Ecuador

Villavicencio59 years old, was one of the eight candidates registered to succeed the current president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, in the extraordinary general elections called for next Sunday, August 20, and like the rest, he had been provided with a police escort.

The journalist and former assemblyman had denounced weeks ago have received death threatsin the midst of an electoral campaign that revolves around the worst security crisis that has plagued Ecuador, which closed 2022 with a rate of 25.32 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest since records have been kept.

Lasso decrees the state of emergency in Ecuador after the shooting of Fernando Villavicencio

The vehicle in which Fernando Villavicencio, Ecuador’s presidential candidate, was shot dead | PA

This rise in homicides is mainly linked, according to the Government, to organized crime and drug trafficking, which in recent years has become strong in the country’s coastal zone, where it has turned Ecuadorian ports into large springboards for cocaine arriving to Europe and North America.

Villavicencio, who due to his journalistic revelations about corruption had become a staunch enemy of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), proposed a frontal fight against corruption and against the mafias that operate in Ecuador. The assassination of the candidate has shocked Ecuador, plunged into deep consternation that has led some of his rivals to suspend their electoral campaigns.