Sections of the police are guarding the National Service of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Ecuador, where the remains of Fernando Villavicencio were taken. KAREN TORO (Portal)
Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso announced Thursday that an FBI delegation will arrive to assist in the investigation into Wednesday’s assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The mission of the agents sent by the United States is to participate in the investigation to determine the causes of the murder and to name the mastermind. The author of the shots that killed Villavicencio died at the scene of the attack, which took place after a campaign rally in northern Quito. The public prosecutor reported the arrest of six other people this Thursday, all of them Colombian nationals.
Villavicencio was shot dead seconds after getting into his truck. The hitman fired from outside at the glass opposite the door through which the candidate had entered. The vehicle was not armored and Villavicencio was not wearing a bulletproof vest, although he himself had denounced threats from local criminal groups, which he linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. Interior Minister Juan Zapata and Police Commander Fausto Salinas were unable to clarify what went wrong with security measures for Villavicencio, who was under armed police custody. They also gave no information about the motive for the crime.
At a press conference in Quito, officials limited themselves to reporting the arrest of six “foreigners” with criminal records. The suspects had been arrested a month earlier, but the judge did not order preventive detention. The Colombians were released with the obligation to appear regularly in court. However, they missed the final court date, which was scheduled for August 2. Last Wednesday, two hours before Villavicencio’s murder, the judiciary declared him a fugitive. The police eventually captured her in the south of the city of Quito. Two of them had another arrest warrant for fraud.
“Six people were arrested in various raids in the Conocoto sector and in the south of the city: Andrés M., José N., Adey G., Camilo R., Jules C., Jhon R., all foreigners,” the interior minister said. Police found a rifle with two chargers, a submachine gun, four pistols, three grenades, four cases of ammunition, two motorcycles and a vehicle reported stolen.
Villavicencio, who suggested a strong hand to solve the problem, had received intimidating messages from aka Fito, the leader of the Los Choneros Gang, a local group rumored to be in the service of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Mexican drug organization faces the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel over control of drug production, collection and smuggling in Ecuador.
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