Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, denounced on Thursday the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, according to Politico.
“This tragic act of violence is also an attack against the institutions and democracy in Ecuador,” Borrell said, demanding “the perpetrators and organizers of this heinous crime must be brought to justice.”
Villavicencio was shot and killed Wednesday during a political rally in Ecuador’s capital Quito. Nine people were injured and the alleged killer was badly injured, local media reported.
Villavicencio was a former journalist who had worked at Ecuador’s national oil company Petroecuador. After becoming a political adviser, he was elected to Ecuador’s National Assembly in 2021. Villavicencio was running as a presidential candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement in the upcoming elections on August 20.
He was known for speaking up against drug cartels, organized crime and corruption.
The upcoming elections — which determine the new president and vice president — will go ahead as planned, incumbent President Guillermo Lasso said after the shooting. The “full weight of the law” will come down on organized crime in Ecuador, Lasso added.
The assassination has been condemned by most South American countries, as well as by the Spanish government, the French foreign minister and the White House.
The EU’s Borrell expressed his support for Ecuador’s “fight against the worsening violence by organized crime,” while demanding strong security measures for all other candidates to ensure a free democratic process in the Ecuadorian elections.