Fernando Villavicencio, an Ecuadorian presidential candidate who ran closely on an anti-corruption message, has been assassinated lower than two weeks earlier than the nation’s presidential elections. Villavicencio, a centrist candidate for the Construct Ecuador Motion, was gunned down after a political rally on Wednesday, a stunning act in a rustic that’s traditionally been peaceable till current years.
His killing underscores a current surge in drug-related violence in Ecuador, and has prompted new scrutiny of the rising presence of cartels within the area. Moreover, it raises questions on how organized crime — which Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso blamed for the capturing — has been emboldened to intrude within the democratic course of, and if there can be a chilling impact on how confrontational politicians are about corruption. Within the wake of this assault, voter fears about safety might additionally cause them to gravitate towards candidates who’ve made this subject a central a part of their pitch within the upcoming August 20 election.
“You now have organized crime teams working with impunity,” Will Freeman, an skilled in Latin American politics on the Council on International Relations (CFR), advised Vox. “It underscores how far down the trail Ecuador is to changing into a narco state.”
So far, six international nationals with ties to organized crime teams have been arrested in relation to the killing, and a suspected shooter was killed after exchanging gunfire with police. Villavicencio had beforehand mentioned he was the topic of dying threats, together with from the gang Los Choneros, which is affiliated with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
For the reason that killing, Lasso has declared a state of nationwide emergency and three days of mourning and has dedicated to accountability for the assassination. Protesters have additionally marched in a number of cities to sentence the assault.
Who was Fernando Villavicencio?
Villavicencio was a longtime investigative journalist, union chief, and hard critic of former President Rafael Correa, somebody he repeatedly condemned for corruption in his administration. Moreover, he was beforehand a member of the Nationwide Meeting and had centered his presidential marketing campaign on cracking down on drug trafficking, which has skyrocketed in Ecuador.
On the time of his assassination, Villavicencio was gaining traction however polling in the midst of eight candidates, and was probably the most vocal of the group in regards to the relationship between corruption within the authorities and the rise of the cartels. He had beforehand threatened to place drug traffickers in jail, and to renegotiate oil contracts the federal government signed to scale back the advantages that main companies had been getting.
“Right here I’m exhibiting my face. I’m not frightened of them,” Villavicencio had mentioned of threats that he’d confronted from organized crime teams.
What does this imply for Ecuador’s upcoming elections?
Lasso has mentioned the nation’s presidential election, which is slated for August 20, will go on, with extra army deployed to make sure security on the polls. “Given the lack of a democrat and a fighter, the elections should not suspended; quite the opposite, they should be held, and democracy must be strengthened,” he acknowledged.
These elections are happening after Lasso dissolved the Nationwide Meeting earlier this 12 months following the beginning of an impeachment continuing towards him concerning embezzlement allegations. Lasso just isn’t operating for reelection, nevertheless, and the highest two candidates could should compete once more in an October runoff if nobody secures a adequate proportion of the vote.
A handful of candidates suspended their campaigns after the assault, though different frontrunners within the polls, together with Correa supporter and socialist occasion candidate Luisa Gonzalez and former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner — a conservative candidate — didn’t. The capturing could have additionally heightened voters’ deal with safety, a problem that one other conservative candidate, Jan Subject, has leaned into by stressing an method much like El Salvador’s authoritarian chief Nayib Bukele, who has instituted mass arrests and a hardline crackdown on crime on the expense of civil liberties.
“Subject’s robust speak would possibly scoop up some assist, on condition that persons are scared. However his proposals on crime are literally fairly totally different and fewer oriented in direction of addressing root causes than Villavicencio’s,” says Freeman.
What’s behind rising issues about drug violence and cartels within the area?
Villavicencio’s killing has surprised the nation and will immediate a reckoning with escalating drug violence each in Ecuador and in Latin America extra broadly. Between 2020 and 2022, the murder charge in Ecuador doubled. And gunfire and bomb assaults have grown extra widespread in a number of main cities.
Villavicencio is likely one of the most high-profile Ecuadorian figures to be focused by deadly violence, although his dying follows that of one other capturing in July that killed Manta Mayor Agustin Intriago and a February capturing that focused a Puerto Lopez mayoral candidate. Their deaths emphasize how commonplace such violence has develop into in Ecuador, which has emerged as the newest battleground for competing drug cartels from Mexico and Albania.
“It exhibits that the violence within the nation is rising,” pharmacist Leidy Aguirre, 28, advised the Related Press. “Politicians supposedly have extra safety than residents and this exhibits that not even they’re secure.”
Ecuador is situated between Colombia and Peru, two main cocaine producers, which makes it a major hub for cartels seeking to transport the drug.
There are just a few causes cartels now have a bigger presence within the nation than they beforehand did, Freeman beforehand wrote for CFR. A 2016 peace settlement between the Colombian authorities and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) opened up competitors when it got here to regulate over cocaine transport routes in Ecuador. Consequently, a number of cartels from Mexico and Albania arrange store within the area in a bid to safe entry.
Insurance policies that the Ecuadorian authorities applied additionally performed a task. In an effort to be extra unbiased from the US, Ecuador minimize ties with America’s Drug Enforcement Company, which led to much less policing of exercise alongside its shores. That call made it simpler for drug traffickers to function within the nation, the place they needed to cope with much less safety. Prison teams have additionally discovered allies within the authorities, which have enabled them to determine themselves with out concern of reproach.
“Drug cash might permeate the police, the army, the system of justice, and businesspeople,” says College of Florida Middle for Latin American Research Director Carlos de la Torre.
Ecuador additionally isn’t the one place going through this problem: A number of Latin and Central American international locations together with Colombia and Costa Rica have additionally seen sharp upticks in sure crimes as totally different cartels have sought to claim dominance in these areas over the past couple of years. Villavicencio’s dying places a large highlight on this drawback, and presses Ecuador’s authorities — and people of different international locations — to work on each strengthening their safety insurance policies and rooting out corruption.
