A few weeks earlier, the dead Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio had denounced threats from a criminal group. The Ecuadorian politician told the media that Los Choneros, a local armed wing of the Sinaloa cartel, warned him that if they continued to refer to them, they would attack him and his campaign group. “It confirms that our campaign proposal is indeed having a serious impact on these criminal structures.” And here I am, showing my face. I’m not afraid of them. “I have been campaigning against these criminal structures in this country for 20 years and I emphasize once again: I am not afraid of them,” he said in the pictures published on the Internet.
Villavicencio’s murder was committed this Wednesday afternoon after a campaign rally in Quito, the Ecuadorian capital. The 59-year-old deceased was a member of the Assembly until its dissolution and headed the Supervisory Commission before leading the Movimiento Construye’s candidacy. In most polls, he was ranked fourth or fifth among the eight candidates to succeed Guillermo Lasso. So far, the elections are still scheduled for August 20, 11 days from now. Under the slogan “It’s time for the brave”, Villavicencio presented himself as a battering ram against corruption.
The country is being smothered by an unprecedented wave of crime and insecurity, a situation that had prompted the candidate to launch a vigorous discourse against criminal groups. In several of his public appearances he repeated the sentence: “The time for threats is over.” “In a year and a half we will curb drug trafficking. I’m not afraid of them […] The only thing they can do is kill me and we’ll liberate an entire town. “I’m not afraid of death because I’ve already conquered it,” he told his followers in early July.
Villavicencio reiterated in other files that he was advised to take some precautionary measures as a result of the threats. “They told me to wear a vest [antibalas]. Here I am sweaty shirt dammit. You are my bulletproof vest, I don’t need it! “You come from a brave people and I’m brave like you,” he cried excitedly. And he continued: “Here I am. They said they would break me […] Let the drug lords come, come. Let the killers come. The time for threats is over.”
In the video broadcast on networks in which he denounced the threats, one name stood out: Alias Fito, the leader of Los Choneros. The criminal group, one of the most powerful in the country, emerged in the 1990s in the coastal city of Manta. He currently works for the Sinaloa Cartel in the cocaine trade. And it faces other groups like Los Lobos, the Tiguerones and the Chone Killers, three gangs running logistical operations to traffic this narcotic for the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).
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