Villavicencio, the face of the wave of murders in Ecuador

Fernando Villavicenciothe candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador assassinated last Wednesday, he has become the most recognizable face of the wave of murders that in recent months has taken the lives of politicians, prosecutors, judges and prison directors, without distinguishing positions or ideologies.

The murder of Villavicencio, at the hands of alleged Colombian hitmen, has focused international attention on a phenomenon of violence and murders attributed to organized crime and drug trafficking that has been merciless against authorities at all levels, the last of them Pedro Briones, a leader local related to correísmo assassinated this Monday.

These murders are particularly concentrated on the coast, and especially in Esmeraldas, Manta and Guayaquil, key areas for criminal gangs that control drug trafficking routes and that use Ecuadorian ports as large shuttles for cocaine that reaches the United States and Europe. , coming mainly from Colombia and also from Peru.

Political violence already took over the country in the local elections held last February, when on the eve of the vote, Omar Menéndez, a candidate for mayor of the coastal municipality of Puerto López for the Citizen Revolution, the political movement led by the Former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

Menéndez, who the following day posthumously won the election with the 46.22% of the votes, was riddled with bullets on February 4 in a commercial area.

Within the framework of that same electoral campaign, the lawyer Julio César Farachio, candidate for mayor of the coastal city of Salinas for the leftist movement Popular Unity, was also shot dead while carrying out a proselytizing act where he was left lying in the middle of a pool of blood. .

Other candidates also suffered attacks, such as former Ecuadorian soccer player Frickson Erazo, who during his aspiration to be mayor of Esmeraldas denounced two attacks against his home with explosive devices where his car was set on fire.

mayors in sight

In May, Luis Chonillo, mayor of Durán, one of the municipalities in the Guayaquil metropolitan area where there are usually collection centers for cocaine that is later shipped to the port, survived an attack in which two of his bodyguards and a woman were killed. person more, which led him to spend time in hiding and dispatch electronically.

However, Miguel Santos, director of Terrenos de Durán, who at the beginning of August was assassinated by three armed persons, did not suffer the same fate.

In these extraordinary elections, the first fatality was Rider Sánchez, candidate for assembly for Esmeraldas from the Actuemos alliance, led by former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, when he was shot while driving in his vehicle.

Just five days later, the assassination of Agustín Intriago, the mayor of Manta, the third most populous city in Ecuador, who had been re-elected in the February elections 61.25% of the votes

The deadly attack against Intriago shook the country, in the midst of an electoral campaign where the crisis of insecurity and violence from organized crime has been practically the only topic of discussion on the table.

In this spiral of violence, the murder of Villavicencio occurred, among whose suspects as the alleged mastermind is “Fito”, capo of the criminal gang Los Choneros, whom the journalist himself and former assemblyman had pointed out as the possible author of the death threats he had received days before.

However, both his family and his colleague Christian Zurita, who has assumed his candidacy (still awaiting qualification), also point to five former assembly members whom Villavicencio accused in April of planning a possible attempt on his life with hitmen.

More cases are added

Only one day after the murder of Villavicencio, Estefany Puente, a candidate for assembly for the alliance led by the presidential candidate Yaku Pérez, denounced having been the victim of an attack when she was shot while traveling in her car, and this Monday Pedro was assassinated Briones.

Along with politicians, magistrates have also been the target of attacks in the last year, such as prosecutors Leonardo Palacios and Édgar Escobar, riddled with bullets in Durán and Guayaquil, respectively; and Judge Nelson Yánez, in Lagro Agrio; while the attorney general, Diana Salazar, denounced in June having received death threats.

Likewise, Santiago Loza, director of the El Inca prison in Quito, was shot in December in the Ecuadorian capital and the directors of the women’s prisons of Esmeraldas and Guayaquil also suffered similar attacks in March where they managed to get out alive.

Source: EFE