Colombian nationals arrested after Ecuadorian presidential candidate assassinated

Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon during a political rally in the country's capital of Quito just days before the election.

Late Thursday, Ecuador's interior minister, Juan Zapata, announced that six suspects had been arrested in connection to the killing, saying all were Colombian nationals, according to the New York Times.

The six were arrested in Quito soon after Villavicencio's assassination, authorities said.

The assassination was confirmed by Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, who called a Security Cabinet Meeting in response.

Video of the shooting posted online shows the 59-year-old former journalist being escorted outside a high school into a white pickup truck. As he enters the vehicle, around a dozen gun shots are heard in footage that has not been verified by UPI.

Carlos Figueroa, a close friend of Villavicencio and present during the shooting, said in a video posted online that was reported on by local TV network Ecuavisa that Villavicencio was shot in the head three times.

"Outraged and shocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio," Lasso said in a statement. "For his memory and for his fight, I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished."

The president seemingly placed blame for the shooting on "organized crime," stating "the full weight of the law is going to fall on them."

A suspect badly injured during a shootout with police was apprehended, but died from his injuries, the attorney general's office said in a statement published to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

"An ambulance from the fire department confirmed his death," the statement said. "Police proceeds with the removal of the cadaver."

At least nine people have been reported injured in the attack, including a National Assembly candidate and two police officers, the attorney general's office said, adding the shooting was under investigation.

Villavicencio, president of the center-right Movimiento Construye party, was assassinated less than two weeks before the general election scheduled for Aug. 20.

His death also comes amid a swath of political violence that has rocked the country.

Late last month, Agustin Intriago, the mayor of Ecuador's central coast port city of Manta, was shot and killed in an attack that Lasso has also blamed on organized crime. Ariana Chancay was also killed, seemingly as a collateral victim.

In February, Omar Menendez, a candidate for the mayor of Puerto Lopez, was also assassinated.

Following Intriago's assassination, Movimiento Construye said there was discussion on whether to suspend Villavicencio's campaign a few days or beef up security, but the party said their president was adamant to keep going.

"Fernando Villavicencio courageously confronted the mafias and his voice did not tremble to denounce his connections with politics," the party said in a statement. "We demand responses from the state, from justice, so that Fernando's murder does not go unpunished."

Villavicencio was one of eight candidates running for president. Following his death, at least three candidates -- Yaku Perez Guartambel, Bolivar Armijos and Jan Topic -- announced the suspensions of their campaign activities.

"This is an attack against the country, democracy and peace of all Ecuadorians," presidential candidate Daniel Noboa Azin said in a statement on X.