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 Build Ecuador Movement, was gunned down after a political rally on Wednesday, a stunning act in a rustic that’s traditionally been peaceable till latest years.
His killing underscores a latest surge in drug-related violence in Ecuador, and has prompted new scrutiny of the rising presence of cartels within the area. Additionally, 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 might be a chilling impact on how confrontational politicians are about corruption. In the wake of this assault, voter fears about safety may additionally cause them to gravitate towards candidates who’ve made this challenge a central a part of their pitch within the upcoming August 20 election.
“You now have organized crime groups operating with impunity,” Will Freeman, an knowledgeable in Latin American politics on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), instructed Vox. “It underscores how far down the path Ecuador is to becoming a narco state.”
Thus 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 demise threats, together with from the gang Los Choneros, which is affiliated with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Since the 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 difficult critic of former President Rafael Correa, somebody he repeatedly condemned for corruption in his administration. Additionally, he was beforehand a member of the National Assembly and had centered his presidential marketing campaign on cracking down on drug trafficking, which has skyrocketed in Ecuador.
At the time of his assassination, Villavicencio was gaining traction however polling in the course of eight candidates, and was probably the most vocal of the group concerning 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 cut back the advantages that main firms had been getting.
“Here I am showing my face. I’m not scared 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 navy deployed to make sure security on the polls. “Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended; on the contrary, they have to be held, and democracy has to be strengthened,” he said.
These elections are happening after Lasso dissolved the National Assembly earlier this 12 months following the beginning of an impeachment continuing towards him relating to embezzlement allegations. Lasso isn’t operating for reelection, nevertheless, and the highest two candidates might must compete once more in an October runoff if nobody secures a ample 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 get together candidate Luisa Gonzalez and former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner — a conservative candidate — didn’t. The capturing might have additionally heightened voters’ concentrate on safety, a difficulty that one other conservative candidate, Jan Topic, has leaned into by stressing an strategy just 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.
“Topic’s tough talk might scoop up some support, given that people are scared. But his proposals on crime are actually quite different and less oriented towards addressing root causes than Villavicencio’s,” says Freeman.
What’s behind rising considerations about drug violence and cartels within the area?
Villavicencio’s killing has shocked 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 price in Ecuador doubled. And gunfire and bomb assaults have grown extra frequent in a number of main cities.
Villavicencio is among the most high-profile Ecuadorian figures to be focused by deadly violence, although his demise 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 change into in Ecuador, which has emerged as the newest battleground for competing drug cartels from Mexico and Albania.
“It shows that the violence in the country is increasing,” pharmacist Leidy Aguirre, 28, instructed the Associated Press. “Politicians supposedly have more security than citizens and this shows that not even they are safe.”
Ecuador is situated between Colombia and Peru, two main cocaine producers, which makes it a primary 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. As a outcome, a number of cartels from Mexico and Albania arrange store within the area in a bid to safe entry.
Policies that the Ecuadorian authorities applied additionally performed a task. In an effort to be extra impartial from the US, Ecuador reduce ties with America’s Drug Enforcement Agency, which led to much less policing of exercise alongside its shores. That choice made it simpler for drug traffickers to function within the nation, the place they needed to take care of much less safety. Criminal teams have additionally discovered allies within the authorities, which have enabled them to determine themselves with out concern of reproach.
“Drug money could permeate the police, the military, the system of justice, and businesspeople,” says University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies Director Carlos de la Torre.
Ecuador additionally isn’t the one place going through this problem: Multiple Latin and Central American nations 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 demise places an enormous highlight on this downside, and presses Ecuador’s authorities — and people of different nations — to work on each strengthening their safety insurance policies and rooting out corruption.
