Prosecutor’s Office of Ecuador targeted a faction of a criminal gang “Wolves” as the person allegedly responsible for murder presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio August 9, 2023, for which he charged six people at a preliminary hearing.

An Ecuadorian judge was able to schedule a trial preparatory hearing on the fourth attempt, after three previous calls that were needed transferred for various reasons, including sudden change of lawyers of the defendants.

According to prosecutors, the order to kill Villavicencio came from Latacunga Prisonlocated in the Andean province of Cotopaxi, approximately 70 km south of Quito, and controlled by Wolves until a month and a half ago, when Armed forces regain control of the prison.

In particular, according to Community servicethe alleged direct perpetrator (who controlled the fact) of the murder of Villavicencio is a prisoner identified as Carlos Edwin A.L.nicknamed “El Invidible”, identified by Ecuadorian authorities as the leader of the Los Lobos faction called “Los Invisibles”.

The prosecutor’s accusation coincides with what the director of investigations of the National Police of Ecuador said on February 7 Freddy Sarzosaduring his speech before the parliamentary commission investigating Villavicencio’s crime.

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Sarzosa identified “El Invisible” as “chief mentalizer” about the murder of Villavicencio and Laura Dayanara CV as coordinator.

Thus, the prosecutor’s office asked to open a trial against Carlos Edwin A.L. as an author-intermediary, Laura Dayanara Resume as co-author and Eric RP, Victor F., Alexandra Ch.F. And Oscar FT as accomplices.

#UPDATE | Based on my indictment, #ProsecutorEk asks to subpoena Carlos Edwin A.L. (direct author), Laura Dayanara K.V. (co-author), Erica R.P., Victora F., Alexandru C.F. and Oscar F.T. (accomplices). #murder Fernando Villavicencio. pic.twitter.com/0Z5WkU9gc0

— Prosecutor’s Office of Ecuador (@FiscaliaEcuador) February 28, 2024

The hearing was adjourned after nearly eight hours and continued on Wednesday. defense arguments accused.

The six defendants at this pretrial hearing are only survivors of fourteen members are believed to be involved in the crime, as eight of them are dead, including seven Colombian hitmen who were involved in the attack.

One of them, the one who shot Villavicencio, died At the crime scene as a result of shots fired by security officers accompanying the candidate, while the other six were allegedly hanged a few weeks later in the Litoral prison, Ecuador’s largest and most populous prison.

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Another person involved in the investigation also turned up dead under similar circumstances in a Quito prison.

Villavicencio died August 9, 2023 being riddled with gunfire leaving a campaign rally in Quito, with only eleven days left before the first round of the snap general elections.

Although videos initially circulated on social media of groups of hooded armed men claiming to have killed Villavicencio on behalf of Los Lobos, there were other videos suggesting otherwise, and in the days leading up to the murder, Villavicencio reported death threats allegedly from Drug dealer Jose Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang.

Villavicencio’s killing brought to an unprecedented level the growing wave of violence that has plagued Ecuador for nearly three years. one of the most violent in Latin Americawith 45 murders per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2023.

Since the beginning of January, both Los Lobos and twenty-one other criminal groups have become are considered terrorist groupswithin the framework of the declaration of “internal armed conflict” made by the current President, Daniel Noboaagainst organized crime.

(EFE)