The family of a presidential candidate who was murdered in Ecuador is suing the government and police chiefs for failing to sufficiently protect him, their lawyer said Friday.
Fernando Villavicencio, 59, a journalist and anti-corruption crusader who was polling second ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, was gunned down outside a campaign event on August 11.
He had reported receiving several threats, and should have had his security boosted, said lawyer Marco Yaulema.
Six Colombians with criminal records were arrested, and a seventh was killed at the scene of the crime.
Villavicencio “was threatened by the mafias and everyone knew it,” Yaulema told a press conference.
Former Assembly member and presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, gestures outside the Attorney General’s Office in Quito on August 8, 2023. (Photo by Rodrigo BUENDIA / AFP)
A video filmed during the attack showed the victim enter the right side of a non-armored vehicle. From the other side, a hitman shot him twice in the face and once in the temple, the lawyer explained.
Yaulema — accompanied by the victim’s uncle and eldest daughter — blamed the lack of sufficient protection on President Guillermo Lasso, Interior Minister Juan Zapata, police chief Fausto Salinas and intelligence chief Manuel Samaniego.
He said the family was suing them for “murder by omission.”
In a statement, the ministry of government affairs expressed its “complete rejection of the allegations” and called for the case not to be “politicized” so that investigations can continue.
Villavicencio was a journalist who had carried out scores of investigations, including exposing a vast graft network which led to former president Rafael Correa being sentenced to eight years in prison.
Correa fled the country to avoid jail time and has been exiled in Belgium for six years.
Relatives of slain Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio mourn during his funeral at the Vertical Cemetery during his funeral in Quito on August 11, 2023. (Photo by Rodrigo BUENDIA / AFP)
Villavicencio has been replaced in the election by a friend and fellow reporter Christian Zurita, who was also involved in the corruption probes.
The murder has highlighted the violence engulfing the once-peaceful nation, which in recent years has become a hub for foreign mafia seeking to export cocaine from its shores, stirring up a brutal war between local gangs.
