[ad_1]
Videos on social media purportedly from the campaign event showed people taking cover and screaming as gunfire sounded. Others appear to show the candidate walking out of the event surrounded by guards. A video then shows Villavicencio entering a white truck followed by gunfire: information that was confirmed to the Associated Press by Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser.
According to opinion polls, Villavicencio’s support was at 7.5 per cent, ranking him fifth out of eight presidential candidates for the August 20 vote.
Villavicencio, from the Andean province of Chimborazo, was a former union member at state oil company Petroecuador and later a journalist who denounced alleged millions in oil contract losses.
He had on Tuesday made a report to the attorney-general’s office about an oil business, but no further details of his report were made public.
As a legislator, Villavicencio was criticised by opposition politicians for obstructing an impeachment process this year against Lasso, which lead the latter to call the early elections.
“Today more than ever, the need to act with a strong hand against crime is reiterated. May God have him in his glory,” fellow presidential hopeful Jan Topic said in a post on X.
Villavicencio was married and is survived by five children.
Early accounts show that several others were injured from shrapnel, though authorities did not confirm how many.
Lasso said he would host top security officials at an urgent meeting.
Police confirmed that several others were injured, including officers, describing the incident as a terrorist act and promising to get to the bottom of the killing.
Zuquilanda, the campaign adviser, said the candidate had received death threats before the shooting, which he had reported to authorities. He called on international authorities to act against the violence, attributing it to rising violence and drug trafficking.
“The Ecuadorian people are crying and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” he said. “Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”
Other candidates echoed Zuquilanda in their demands for action, with former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner saying in a news conference, “We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears and we do not deserve to live line this. We demand that you do something”.
Reuters, AP
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
[ad_2]
Source link