Global Courant
US Secretary of State Blinken announced the reward as part of an ongoing investigation into the death of Fernando Villavicencio.
The United States has announced this a reward of up to $5 million for information on the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
“Multiple assassins attacked Mr. Villavicencio, the Movimiento Construye party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, as he left a campaign event in Quito on August 9,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained in a statement on Thursday .
The killing sent shockwaves through Ecuador, which at the time was eleven days away from general elections.
Blinken’s statement comes ahead of the second election on October 15 to determine Ecuador’s next president.
“The United States will continue to stand with the Ecuadorian people and work to bring to justice those who seek to undermine democratic processes through violent crimes,” Blinken said.
Villavicencio, a former journalist, joined the race as an anti-corruption candidate after years as a prominent critic of former President Rafael Correa and his allies.
But at the end of his campaign rally on August 9, he was shot in the head as he got into his car. One suspect was also killed when security at the event returned fire.
Six other suspects, all from Colombia, remain in the custody of the Ecuadorian National Police. According to Blinken’s statement, they are believed to be part of an organized crime unit.
In recent years, Ecuador has been in the grip of escalating violence, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic significantly weakened the country’s economy.
Experts say gangs have taken advantage of economic uncertainty to expand their reach into Ecuador, a Pacific coast country between the major cocaine-producing regions of Colombia and Peru.
As a result, the murder rate has skyrocketed, rising 500 percent between 2016 and 2022, according to Reuters news agency. That places Ecuador among the countries with the highest murder rates in Latin America – a stark contrast to Ecuador’s previous reputation as a country with relatively low violence.
The country has also recently suffered political unrest when President Guillermo Lasso became the first president to invoke “muerte cruzada,” or “mutual death,” a power enshrined in the constitution.
“Mutual death” allows a president to dissolve Ecuador’s National Assembly – if he or she agrees to hold new elections for both the legislature and the presidency.
Lasso announced “mutual death” last May in light of the impeachment proceedings. He will not stand for re-election.
Instead, the race has come down to left-wing Correa protege Luisa Gonzalez and former National Assembly member Daniel Noboa, a businessman and son of a wealthy banana industry leader.
Security and political violence were central to the campaign as the final two candidates faced court before the October 15 elections.
Lasso, meanwhile, announced in August that he had requested the assistance of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to assist Ecuadorian police in investigating Villavicencio’s death.
“The investigation, supported by the FBI, continues to identify others involved in the killing,” Blinken said Thursday.
