Six suspects linked to assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Francisco Villavicencio identified as Colombian nationals, including one facing murder and drug trafficking charges

• Colombian nationals Andrés Mosquera; José López; Adey García; Jules Castaño; and Jhon Rodríguez are in custody for the murder of Francisco Villavicencio 
• The name of a sixth suspect, also Colombian, has not been released; a seventh suspect, also Colombian, was killed in a shootout with police Wednesday
• Villavicencio, an Ecuadorian presidential candidate, was shot moments after he walked out of a campaign event in Quito on Wednesday 

Six suspects linked to the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio have been identified as Colombian nationals, the government revealed Thursday.

The government added that the six men, who are in custody, are members of criminal organizations, but did not specify which ones they belong to.

The apprehensions took place following the murder of Villavicencio as he walked out of a campaign event in the northern province of Quito on Wednesday night, less than two weeks before the elections.

The suspects, Andrés Mosquera; José López; Adey García; Jules Castaño; and Jhon Rodríguez, were arrested following the raid of homes in Quito town of Conocoto and several other cities, the government revealed during a press conference Thursday.

The name of the sixth suspect has not been released. 

García had been arrested on drug trafficking and murder charges in November 2018, Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported. 

Ecuadorian authorities have six suspects in custody linked to Wednesday’s assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. A seventh suspect was wounded in a shootout with police and died while he was in an ambulance rushing him to a hospital

Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed after leaving a campaign event at a school in Quito on Wednesday. His party, the Better Ecuador Movement, announced Thursday that a decision on his replacement will be made this week. The elections remain scheduled for August 20

A Colombian gunman was arrested at the scene following a shooting with police and died in an ambulance while he was being rushed to a hospital.

The individual’s name has not been released, although the government did say that he was arrested on weapons charges in July.

‘The national police now have the first arrests of the alleged material authors of this abominable event and will employ all of their operative and investigative capacity to discover the motive of this crime and its intellectual authors,’ Interior Minister Juan Zapata told reporters. 

Zapata said that two of the suspects were spotted at the scene of the murder, where nine people, including three police officers were wounded.

Authorities confiscated a rifle, machine gun, four pistols, three grenades, ammunition, two motorcycles and a car that had been reported stolen.

President Guillermo Lasso said that Villavicencio’s murder was an attempt to sabotage the elections, which remain scheduled for August 20. He also declared three days of mourning. 

Andrea González (center), vice-presidential running mate of the late Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, attends a press conference Thursday 

Relatives of late Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio arrive at the morgue of the National Forensic Science Service in Quito, Ecuador, on Thursday

The killing of the right-wing candidate comes after he revealed in an interview with Colombian television news network NTN24 that the Sinaloa Cartel, the Mexican criminal organization co-founded by Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, along with the group’s top ally, José ‘Fito’ Macías, were behind some of the death threats that have been issued against him.

‘What these threats that come from the Sinaloa Cartel do is demonstrate is that our government program is a program that precisely aims to break and dismantle these criminal drug trafficking structures in collusion with political actors, and this is perhaps the most important thing,’ Villavicencio said during a virtual interview after he had cancelled an in-person sit down with the network’s program director Ruth Del Salto.

As one of the eight candidates running for president, Villavicencio stressed that Ecuador was not going to fear criminal organizations.

‘They pretend to have a country on its knees as they already did in Colombia, as they did and are doing in Mexico,’ he said. ‘A brave president has to arm himself with the courage of his people and tell the criminals, these gangs of hitmen, drug traffickers and members of criminal structures that they are not going to win.’   

Villavicencio, who was running under the Build Ecuador Movement, was a former member of Ecuador’s National Assembly before it was dissolved in May and was polling at 7.5 percent.

He was one of the most critical voices against corruption, especially during the government of former president Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2017, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation over statements made against the former president.

He fled to Indigenous territory within Ecuador and later was given asylum in Peru.

Supports of slain Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio display a sign reading, ‘They Killed Our President. Cowards,’ outside the cemetery in Quito on Thursday. Villavicencio was laid to rest a day after he was assassinated following a campaign event

People are seen taking cover as gunshots were fired following a campaign rally in Quito, Ecuador, on Wednesday

However, Villavicencio was criticized by the opposition for obstructing an impeachment process this year against President Guillermo Lasso, which led the latter to call the early elections.

Lasso, who was at risk of being impeached when he dissolved the National Assembly and called the elections, said at the end of May that he would not run for re-election.

The Build Ecuador Movement party on Thursday rejected what it said was ‘political use’ of Villavicencio’s murder and called for a speedy investigation in a statement posted on X, the social media site previously known as Twitter. 

Candidate Luisa Gonzalez, who is running for Correa’s party and leading with 29.3% support, expressed horror at the killing, but did not suspend her campaign.

Indigenous candidate Yaku Perez and law-and-order hopeful Topic both suspended their campaigns, while businessman Otto Sonnenholzner begged the government to take action.

Perez said on Thursday he had spoken with Sonnenholzner and three minor candidates and left messages for Gonzalez and Topic. He hoped to hold a meeting with the candidates and the Catholic Church to discuss a ‘national security agreement,’ Perez said, without providing further details.

The Build Ecuador Movement had discussions Wednesday about possibly suspend campaigning due to recent political violence, including the July murder of the mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago.

Villavicencio was against it because he saw it as an act of cowardice.

His vice-presidential running mate, Andrea González, attended a press conference wearing a bulletproof vest and heavily guarded cops, and announced that the party would be announcing a replacement in the coming days. 

‘We are deeply saddened by the loss of our brave president and friend Fernando. In these moments of pain we ask for the unity and peace of citizenship,’ González said. ‘That those of us who still believe in Fernando’s promise, respect and share only the information that comes from official sources.’

The party can choose another candidate, the electoral court said, but ballots have already been printed and distributed and Villavicencio’s name and photo appear on them.

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