Tribute to Fernando Villavicencio in Quito on August 11th. HENRY ROMERO (Portal)
The United States government announced a five million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the conspirators and intellectual authors behind the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The politician was shot in the head on August 9 as he left a political event in Quito, days before the first round of early elections. The announcement was made by Foreign Minister Antony Bliken on X: “as a demonstration of our commitment to justice and the fight against organized crime.”
Under the Organized Crime Rewards Program, the United States also made a second reward offer of up to $1 million for information that “identifies and locates individuals who hold key leadership positions in the transnational organized crime group responsible for Villavicencio’s murder.” is,” the document says.
It is the first time that the North American government has intervened with such a measure in Ecuador, explains Carlos Estarellas, professor of international law at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil and former undersecretary of state for foreign affairs in Ecuador. “He didn’t do it when they murdered the famous deputy Lenin Hurtado,” he added, who was shot dead by hitmen as he left the congress building in 1997. For Estarellas, the announcement leaves one reading: “The Ecuadorian state cannot even take over the investigation of this case because we live in a corrupt judicial system.” The police cannot investigate, the government cannot coordinate its actions and we have all functions in the crisis.”
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, who has just arrived from a 10-day trip to the United States, thanked Blinken for “the support of the United States to ensure that justice is served for the murder of Fernando Villavicencio” and recalled that the FBI group that he arrived in Ecuador at the request of his government and continues to cooperate with the investigations in the country, although no progress is yet known.
The United States’ offer comes in the midst of an election campaign leading up to October 15, when Ecuadorians go to the polls again to elect a new president. For security analyst Luis Carlos Córdova, it is a response from the United States that “comes after the meeting that Lasso had, during his visit to that country, with a group of 13 Republican congressmen who propose the use of military force to combat the cartels .” “Mexicans blaming President Joe Biden for ineffectiveness in the fight against organized crime due to the fentanyl crisis in that country.”
To date, 13 people have been arrested for Fernando Villavicencio’s crime. The hitman who attacked the politician’s life died on the day of the crime and, according to initial police information, the defendants are part of one of the criminal organizations operating in the country called Los Lobos. They are all in preventive detention and chose to remain silent at the last hearing.
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