The Ecuadorian presidential candidate who was killed in an armed attack following a rally in the country’s capital had received at least three death threats in the leadup to the fatal shooting, his campaign manager has revealed.
Patricio Zuquilanda told The Associated Press that the threats against Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old who said during his final speech Wednesday that he would fight corruption and imprison more criminals, resulted in one detention after they were reported to authorities.
Villavicencio, an independent journalist who investigated corruption in previous governments before entering politics as an anti-graft campaigner, was seen in social media videos being ushered to an awaiting truck following the rally in Quito before gunshots rang out.
"The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded," Zuquilanda said. "Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society."
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Villavicencio previously has been threatened by affiliates of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that now operate in Ecuador, according to the AP. He said his campaign represented a threat to such groups.
"Here I am showing my face. I'm not scared of them," Villavicencio said in a statement before his death, naming detained crime boss José Adolfo Macías by his alias, "Fito."
Current Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso said the attackers threw a grenade into the street during their escape, but it never went off and police later detonated it with a controlled blast.
Ecuador’s attorney general office later said one suspect in the shooting died from wounds sustained in a firefight while police detained six other people.
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Lasso suggested Villavicencio’s assassination could be linked to organized crime and vowed to push forward with a special election set for Aug. 20, while declaring three days of national mourning and a state of emergency, the AP reports.
"Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended. On the contrary, they have to be held, and democracy has to be strengthened," Lasso said Thursday.
A candidate who was running against Villavicencio, former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, said at a news conference that "We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this."
The AP reports that Villavicencio spoke out against corruption during the previous government of President Rafael Correa between 2007 and 2017, filing judicial complaints against him and other high-ranking members of his government.
Villavicencio was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation over his criticisms of Correa, and fled to Indigenous territory in Ecuador, later receiving asylum in neighboring Peru. He was married and is survived by five children.
Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
