BUENOS AIRES: Ecuador plunged deeper into crisis after an anti-corruption presidential candidate was assassinated on Wednesday evening, less than two weeks before elections.
Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso on Thursday declared a 60-day state of emergency and mobilised troops nationwide in response to the mafia-style killing.
Lasso, who is not running for president himself, said the early presidential and parliamentary elections are to go ahead as scheduled for August 20. He declared a three-day nationwide state of mourning.
Unknown gunmen fired at presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio as he got in a car following a political rally at a school in Quito around 6:20 pm on Wednesday, local media reported. He was reportedly shot in the head three times.
Media footage showed dramatic scenes from the crime: Victims were seen on pictures and videos covered in blood, with passersby taking shelter on the ground and screaming for help.
One of the suspected attackers was wounded in a shoot-out with police and later died on the way to the hospital, said the president. Six other suspects have been arrested, he added.
The assailants had tried to throw a grenade into the crowd but the device did not detonate.
Prosecutors also said that nine people were injured in the attack, including a parliamentary candidate and two police officers. Lasso called Villavicencio's murder a political crime with elements of terrorism. "We have no doubt that this murder is an attempt to sabotage the electoral process," he said.
The leader stressed that the state would not yield to the "brutality of this assassination."
"We will not hand over power and democratic institutions to organised crime, even if it is disguised as political organisations," said Lasso.
The South American country lies on the continent's cocaine transit route, which is produced mainly in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, and which drug cartels then smuggle to the United States or Europe.
The organised crime is accompanied by large-scale violence and corruption. Last year, the number of homicides rose from 2,115 to 4,603, meaning 25 per 100,000 inhabitants. That was the highest in the country's history, topping that of Mexico and Brazil.
Villavicencio, the presidential candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement, had been campaigning on an anti-corruption platform. A journalist and member of parliament, he had been polling in fourth or fifth place.
He had received threats against him and his team in the last week from a drug lord, according to media reports.
Villavicencio's sister Patricia blamed the government for the attack: "They killed democracy, they did not want corruption to be uncovered and now we, the family, are persecuted. But they will not silence us."
"Before the world and the country, I hold the national government responsible for the great crisis we are living," she said on Thursday.
The killing represents the most prominent in a series of recent political murders in the country. Just two weeks ago, the mayor of the port city of Manta, Agustín Intriago, was killed in a similar attack.
Following Villavicencio's murder, the Organization of American States (OAS) called on Ecuador's government to ensure the safety of candidates in the upcoming election and to fully investigate the crime.
The assassination has only compounded the national crisis Ecuadoral ready finds itself embroiled in, however. Only 17 per cent of citizens support the president's governance, according to polls, and just 20 per centrate the work of parliament as good.
Lasso had called the early elections in May after dissolving the National Assembly in the midst of impeachment proceedings against him for alleged embezzlement.
In recent years, the country, which borders Colombia and Peru and is loved by tourists for its rich wildlife boasting the Amazon rainforest and Galápagos Islands, experienced a huge modernisation thanks to newfound oil deposits. New roads, schools and hospitals,were built. When the price of oil fell, however, economic growth stalled. - dpa
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