FBI investigates murder of Ecuadorian candidate Fernando Villavicencio

delegation from FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) USA will come to Ecuador in the coming hours to support the investigation into the murder of a presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, was the victim of an attack by alleged hit men as he was leaving a campaign rally in Quito Wednesday afternoon.

The FBI’s arrival in Ecuador was confirmed this Thursday on social media the president from Ecuador, conservative William Lassowho indicated that he had requested the support of a federal investigative agency from the United States to investigate this crime.

After Villavicencio’s assassination became known, the United States government offered “urgent investigation assistance” to the Ecuadorian executive through its ambassador in Quito. Michael J. Fitzpatrick.

This involvement of the FBI in the murder investigation is part of the close relationship that the US and Ecuador have built over the past two years, especially since Lasso came to power, with cooperation on issues including security.

So far, authorities have identified that several people, believed to be contract killers, were involved in Villavicencio’s murder, and that six foreigners have been detained on suspicion of involvement in the crime.

One of the alleged perpetrators died after being wounded during a firefight between the attackers and security personnel protecting the candidate.

Authorities have not confirmed whether one of the organized crime groups operating in Ecuador was behind the fatal attack, which injured at least nine people, including three police officers.

The murder of Villavicencio, who vowed to fight these gangs head-on and who in recent weeks has denounced death threats against him, shocked the country in the midst of an election campaign that revolves almost exclusively around the security crisis plaguing Ecuador.

For just over two years, there has been an increase in murders by hitmen and murders by armed groups, which the government attributes mainly to organized crime that has gained strength in the coastal zone, where they use Ecuadorian ports as large shuttles for cocaine, which enters Europe And North America.

Villavicencio was one of eight presidential candidates registered in this snap election scheduled for Sunday, August 20, after Lasso proclaimed “death on the cross”, the constitutional mechanism by which he dissolved National Assembly (Parliament)with an opposition majority when he was about to vote for his dismissal.

(EFE)

Source: Aristegui Noticias

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