Ecuador's Presidential Campaign Ends Amid Tight Security And Bulletproof Vests

The election campaign for the presidential election in Ecuador ended on Thursday with tight security protection for the candidates. Former investigative journalist Christian Zurita chose the capital’s iconic Shyris Avenue, the scene of the country’s largest social demonstrations. It was his first and last political rally after taking the baton of Movimiento Construye’s presidential candidacy following the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, who was gunned down in Quito on August 9. Zurita wore a helmet and bulletproof vest under a white T-shirt with the face of his friend and former partner in journalistic investigations. The event began with a Mass in Villavicencio’s honor, attended by his closest family members. They too all wore bulletproof vests and were surrounded by a police escort. The security operation included snipers in surrounding buildings and Zurita was being transported in armored vehicles, unlike Villavicencio, who was traveling in a state-supplied unarmored van when he was shot.

Meanwhile, a campaign rally organized by Daniel Noboa, the son of tycoon and five-time presidential candidate Álvaro Noboa, broke up amid a shootout in the town of Durán, fifteen minutes outside of Guayaquil. Vehicles with Noboa’s trailers were traveling down the main street when gunfire was heard nearby. Noboa, who always wears a bulletproof vest, said on social networks: “Intimidation and fear have no place in the country we want and want to stand up for once and for all.” Interior Minister Juan Zapata later ruled out that it the shots were an attack on the candidate. Shootings are common in Durán, where drug gangs are engaged in a turf war. Between Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón, three neighboring communities also in the grip of criminal organizations, 1,636 violent crimes have been recorded so far this year and the combined homicide rate in the three areas is 50.7 per 100,000 people.

Luisa González of the Citizen Revolution Movement attends the closing rally of her campaign. HENRY ROMERO (Portal)

Luisa González, the presidential candidate of the Citizen Revolution Movement – former President Rafael Correa’s party – which led the polls until before Villavicencio’s assassination, chose Guayaquil’s Cristo del Consuelo sector for her final day of campaigning: the same location as a year ago , the first terrorist bombing occurred in a populated urban area. Arriving two hours late, González strolled the streets of the neighborhood before attending a live music concert where Correa delivered a speech via video conference. During her own intervention, González delivered a speech with the message: “We’ve already done it.”

Jan Topic during a campaign closing ceremony in Guayaquil. SANTIAGO ARCOS (Portal)

Otto Sonnenholzner, a former vice president under Lenín Moreno, devoted his final day of campaigning to a peace march that began in the coastal city of Machala, where he dedicated a speech to security, and then marched to a political rally at the Coliseo model in Guayaquil.

At another closed location, the Guayaquil Convention Center, presidential candidate Jan Topic ended his campaign with a speech calling attention to “a sordid campaign that has magically surfaced in the past 24 hours,” referring to the publication of contracts involved the purchase of surveillance cameras containing alleged irregularities, as denounced by the municipality of Guayaquil, which has requested an audit from the State Audit Office, in which Topic’s family business has a stake.

Presidential candidate Yaku Pérez and Vice President Nory Pinela wear bulletproof vests at a rally in Quito.HENRY ROMERO (Portal)

The sole indigenous candidate, Yaku Pérez, also wore a bulletproof vest and ended his campaign with a rally at the top of the famous Panecillo Mountain in Quito’s historic center. There he symbolically signed his first presidential decree, declaring security to be the country’s national priority. He also participated in an ancestral ceremony. Xavier Hervas, who is running for the presidency for the second time, has ceased all campaigning activities after Villavicencio’s assassination. Neither he nor Bolívar Armijos, the candidate of the AMIGO movement, had planned to end the campaign. Now the country will enter a period of electoral dormancy, during which Ecuadorians will ponder how to vote on August 20 amid a wave of violence and the threat of terrorist attacks.