Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso on Thursday declared a state of emergency and announced three days of national mourning following the assassination of a presidential candidate known for speaking out against drug cartels and corruption, SIA refers to foreign media.
The state of emergency entails deploying additional military personnel throughout the country. Lasso also said the presidential election would go ahead as planned Aug. 20 despite the gunning down of Fernando Villavicencio on Wednesday.
“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.
Villavicencio had reported receiving multiple death threats, including from affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that now operate in Ecuador. 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.”
"Crime will not go unpunished," Lasso wrote on his Twitter account.
F. Villavicencio was shot three times in the head.
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