Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead on Wednesday afternoon after attending a campaign rally in Quito. The attack took place in a school in the capital, where the applicant came from. Villavicencio, fourth or fifth in most polls among the opponents who will be in contention to succeed Guillermo Lasso on August 20, presented himself as a battering ram against corruption under the motto “It’s time for the brave”.
The 59-year-old politician was a member of the assembly until its dissolution and chaired the audit committee. He has been criticized for his handling of Lasso’s impeachment trial because that commission issued a report favorable to the President that was unsupported by other lawmakers. The attack comes just 11 days before the elections in a country choked by an unprecedented crisis. During the election campaign, the mayor of Manta, a major drug trafficking port, and a candidate for the assembly were assassinated.
Carlos Figueroa, a personal friend of Villavicencio, assured in a video broadcast on social networks that the candidate died after the shooting, although he was transferred to the Women’s Hospital, a medical center near the scene of the shooting, Eph reports.
News in development.
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