The brazen assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio at a crowded political rally deepened country's sense of vulnerability to crime that's spread across country in recent years
Villavicencio's assassination took out the highest public figure eliminated yet in Ecuador's battle with organised crime. But not the only one.
He and even other mayors lived under police guard, and officials recorded at least 15 attacks on candidates in the last municipal elections, most in the coastal provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas, where there is a large presence of traffickers moving cocaine by ship out of the country. He described organised crime, illegal mining and the drug trade as “part of the same criminal structure” but no criminal case has publicly emerged.Government authorities say the national wave of violence was triggered by the disappearance of Jorge Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña," the leader of the Choneros. His disappearance was followed by a power vacuum and a riot that broke out simultaneously in three prisons in 2021 and left 79 prisoners dead.
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