A shooting without victims was recorded this Thursday during one of the closing acts of the candidate’s campaign to the Presidency of Ecuador Daniel Noboa, sources from his presidential campaign informed EFE about an event that the government ruled out as an attack against the businessman and former assemblyman.

The event occurred during a caravan that the candidate, protected with a bulletproof vest, was carrying out in Durán, a municipality in the metropolitan area of Guayaquil known for being one of the areas of greater crime of Ecuador, and designated by the authorities as an area that drug traffickers use to store cocaine that is then taken to the port.

Although the members who accompanied him denounced at first that it was an attack against the candidate, the Minister of the Interior of Ecuador, Juan Zapata, ruled out that it was an armed attack against Noboa.

Zapata indicated that there are personnel from the National Police of Ecuador deployed in the area, from which the caravan quickly left the place. to put Noboa to safety, as can be seen in some videos of the participants published on social networks. According to local media, it could have been a confrontation between local gangs. However, Noboa later insisted that it was an attack on his caravan.

“They have just attacked the caravan in which we were traveling in Durán. Thank God, we came out unscathed“wrote the candidate, son of magnate and five-time presidential candidate Álvaro Noboa. “Intimidation and fear have no place in the country we want and for which we are committed to changing once and for all. We will continue the closing caravan in Guayaquil, taking care of ourselves but with a lot of faith, optimism and determination. Thank you for your messages and encourage us to continue,” said Noboa, who is presenting for the ADN alliance.

Eight days after the death of Villavicencio

The event occurred eight days after presidential candidate Fernando Villavicenci was assassinatedor, riddled with bullets by alleged Colombian hitmen on August 9 at the exit of a rally that he held at a school campus in the commercial case of northern Quito. Days before, Villavicencio had denounced death threats received against him, allegedly coming from Adolfo Macías “Fito”, the boss of Los Choneros, one of the criminal gangs in Ecuador dedicated to organized crime and drug trafficking that the candidate had promised to combat.

Noboa also denounced last Sunday having received death threats, in statements offered upon entering the presidential debate, which he attended with strong security measures and a bulletproof vest that was not removed throughout the meeting with the rest of the candidates.

The candidate is one of the eight who choose to succeed the current president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, and complete the 2021-2025 period, interrupted in May, when the president invoked the constitutional mechanism of the “cross death” to dissolve the National Assembly (Parliament), dominated by the opposition, at the time it was preparing to vote on his dismissal.