{"id":67931,"date":"2023-08-11T09:11:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T06:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=67931"},"modified":"2023-08-11T09:11:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T06:11:20","slug":"ecuador-under-state-of-emergency-after-presidential-candidate-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/ecuador-under-state-of-emergency-after-presidential-candidate-killed\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador under state of emergency after presidential candidate killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By AFP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was tragically assassinated in Quito just days before the upcoming election, intensifying concerns over the surge of organized crime in Ecuador.<\/p>\n

\n

Ecuador declared a state of emergency Thursday and asked the FBI to help probe the assassination of a popular presidential candidate, whose death has highlighted the once-peaceful nation’s decline into a violent hotbed of drug trafficking and organized crime.<\/p>\n

Police said six Colombians have been arrested in the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist and anti-corruption crusader who was gunned down as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Another attacker, also Colombian, was shot dead by security agents, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Interior Minister Juan Zapata said the assailants belonged to “organized crime groups,” without specifying which ones.<\/p>\n

Shocked citizens expressed their frustration with the burgeoning violence in the South American country, which has seen its murder rate soar as drug gangs wage bloody turf wars.<\/p>\n

Housewife Ruth Flores, 65, told AFP people were “outraged” by the murder of a man she saw as “the hope for honesty in our country. A candidate who denounced the corruption of narcopolitics.”<\/p>\n

She described the situation in the country as “very worrying. You can’t walk peacefully… there is no security.”<\/p>\n

President Guillermo Lasso declared a two-month state of emergency, and said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had accepted the country’s request for help, with a delegation arriving soon.<\/p>\n

Villavicencio had complained of receiving threats from Los Choneros, one of the country’s most powerful drug gangs.<\/p>\n

“They told me to wear a (bulletproof) vest. I don’t need it. Let the hitmen come! They may bend me but they will never break me,” the politician told a rally earlier this week in Chone, the gang’s birthplace.<\/p>\n

Electoral officials have also reported threats against them ahead of the snap election on August 20. A popular mayor and aspiring lawmaker have also been assassinated in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Villavicencio was targeted with a hail of gunfire, with the country’s main newspaper, El Universo, reporting he was assassinated “hitman-style and with three shots to the head.”<\/p>\n

His family wept and held each other as his body was transported from a forensic lab to a funeral home for a private wake.<\/p>\n

The attack came a little over a week before the snap election, called by Lasso after he dissolved the opposition-dominated Congress in May to avoid an impeachment trial over alleged corruption.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By AFP Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was tragically assassinated in Quito just days before the upcoming election, intensifying concerns over the surge of organized crime in Ecuador. Ecuador declared a state of emergency Thursday and asked the FBI to help probe the assassination of a popular presidential candidate, whose death has highlighted the once-peaceful nation’s decline into a violent hotbed of drug trafficking and organized crime. Police said six Colombians have been arrested in the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist and anti-corruption crusader who was gunned down as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito on Wednesday night. Another attacker, also Colombian, was shot dead by security agents, authorities said. Interior Minister Juan Zapata said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":67933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"2","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-normal","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"F j, Y g:i a","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"3","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[2002],"class_list":["post-67931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-ecuador"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}