Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso has declared three days of mourning, following the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
President Guillermo Lasso said the crime was clearly an attempt to sabotage the election, but that voting would go ahead as planned on August 20, albeit amid a national state of emergency with the military mobilized to guarantee security.
The attorney general’s office said a suspect in the crime later died of injuries sustained in a shoot-out and six others have so far been arrested, while nine people, including a candidate for the legislature and two police officers, were injured.
World political analyst, Samantha schmith says the death of the popular former journalist has created a chaos in Ecuador’s politics with the president consulting stakeholders for his next action.
Villavicencio, a vocal critic of corruption and organized crime, was killed on Wednesday during an evening campaign event in northern Quito.
