After the assassination attempt on presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Ecuador, the United Nations and human rights organizations have called for a full investigation into the crime. It is important to call those responsible to account through an immediate, transparent and independent investigation, said UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk. Violence against political candidates is a serious threat to democratic decision-making, Türk emphasized.
The 59-year-old Villavicencio was shot dead by unknown persons after an election campaign appearance in the capital Quito on Wednesday. At least nine people were injured. Six suspects have been arrested just hours after the assassination of the presidential candidate. Interior Minister Juan Zapata announced at a press conference on Thursday evening that they belong to organized crime. Weapons, grenades and submachine guns were found on them. A suspect died after an exchange of gunfire with security forces.
The President declared a state of emergency for 60 days
In the past, the liberal candidate Villavicencio had repeatedly criticized the complicity between organized crime and politics. In a CNN interview in May, he said Ecuador was ruled by the Mexican drug cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the Sinaloa cartel, also from Mexico, and the Albanian mafia. It is impossible for the drug trade to establish itself in and subjugate a society without the consent and connivance of political power.
The US federal police FBI is now to help with the investigation. “I have asked the FBI for assistance in investigating the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio Valencia. The FBI has complied with our request and a delegation will arrive in the country in the next few hours,” Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso wrote on Twitter on Thursday. The President also declared a state of emergency for 60 days and mobilized the armed forces. Amnesty International pointed to a sharp increase in the killing rate and a number of killings of candidates for public office in recent weeks in connection with the attack.