Six Colombians held in connection with assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate

The Ecuadorian police have arrested six suspects and shot dead one during a raid in connection with the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

Police claimed that all of the suspects were Colombian.

The six detainees have been identified as Andres M, Jose N, Eddy G, Camilo R, Jules C, and Jhon Rodriguez, Interior Minister Juan Zapata said at a press conference on Thursday (Aug 10).

Police found a rifle, a submachine gun, four pistols, three grenades, four boxes of ammunition, two motorbikes, and a vehicle that had been reported stolen in the group’s possession.

Villavicencio was shot in the head three times after completing a rally outside a high school in the capital Quito.

The attack came just days before voting begins in the presidential election that has been dominated by concerns over drug-related violence.

Gravitas: Ecuador: Presidential candidate assassinated

The motive of the attack is yet to be determined, Zapta said, adding that officers are working to “discover the motive of this crime and its intellectual authors”, BBC reported.

“The national police now have the first arrests of the alleged material authors of this abominable event and will employ all of their operative and investigative capacity to discover the motive of this crime and its intellectual authors,” Interior Minister Juan Zapata told journalists.

Villavicencio, 59, a former journalist, had been one of the outspoken critics of organised crime and its alleged link with the government officials.

He was among the most vocal candidates on the issue of crime and state corruption.

It was the first assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador, and came less than a month after the mayor of Manta port city, was fatally shot during a public appearance.

Condemning the attack, President Guillermo Lasso blaming the death on “organised crime”, and added that he assassination was an attempt to sabotage the election.

Lasso said that the attackers had thrown a grenade into the street as a distraction as they tried to flee, but that it failed to explode.

The national prosecutor’s office on the X platform posted that a suspect was shot and apprehended amid crossfire with security forces, and had died shortly afterwards.

President Lasso said that despite a national emergency in place, the voting would go ahead as planned on August 20. He also added that he has asked US federal agents to help investigate, with FBI agents due to arrive shortly.

(With inputs from agencies)