Ecuador’s Fernando Villavicencio Said He Wasn't Afraid of the Cartels. Then He Was Assassinated.

The assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador’s upcoming election Wednesday underscores the drug-related violence that has enveloped a country that only recently was one of Latin America’s most peaceful and stable. 

Fernando Villavicencio, 59, was gunned down at a political rally at a high school in the capital Quito just 10 days before the first round of the presidential election was to take place, on August 20. A centrist candidate, he was polling near the middle of eight candidates, but had been rising in the polls in recent weeks and was considered a serious contender. 

A video circulating online purportedly showed masked members of Ecuador’s Los Lobos gang claiming responsibility for the murder because, they claimed, he didn’t fulfill his promises after they financed his campaign with millions of dollars, an unsubstantiated allegation. Los Lobos, or The Wolves, is allied with the powerful Mexican cartel Jalisco New Generation, a major player in Ecuador’s drug war. 

But many in Ecuador immediately questioned the video’s veracity and said it was an attempt to delegitimize Villavicencio, who was among the most outspoken candidates on issues of corruption and police violence. In recent weeks, Villavicencio announced that he’d been threatened by the leader of another Ecuadorian gang known as the Choneros, which is backed by Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. 

“What this confirms is that our campaign proposal does indeed seriously affect these criminal structures,” Villavicencio said of the threats in footage shared online. “And here I am, showing my face. I’m not afraid of them. For 20 years, I have gambled in this country against these criminal structures, and I repeat: I am not afraid of them.” 

The questions surrounding the assassination have added a level of intrigue to a bloody situation that has further destabilized an already chaotic election.

Ecuadorian journalist Arturo Torres said some of the presidential candidates have rejected offers of police protection from the government because they fear the security forces are corrupted by organized crime. He said Villavicencio had accepted security and was assigned 20 police officers. “It’s incomprehensible that, with this kind of security team, he was killed,” Torres said. “The responsibility lies directly with the government.”

 Villavicencio’s assassination highlights what had already become the dominant themes of Ecuador’s election—security, violence and drug trafficking. The country’s homicide rate soared 245 percent between 2020 and 2022, a stunning increase that has little precedent in a country that’s not at war. Car bombs, brazen shootouts, and decapitated bodies left hanging from bridges have become regular occurrences as cartels and gangs seek to intimidate rivals and government officials alike.

The violence has been fueled by the incursion of powerful Mexican cartels as well as the Albanian mafia, one of Europe’s most dominant criminal groups. They have teamed up with Ecuadorian gangs to move unprecedented quantities of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia to Ecuador’s ports and onto massive shipping containers destined for countries all over the world.

For years, the Choneros was Ecuador’s most powerful criminal group, in part because of its ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. But the gang has lost turf in recent years to gangs affiliated with Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Sinaloa’s rival.

A former muckraking journalist, Villavicencio had more than one enemy. He was outspokenly critical of former leftist President Rafael Correa, who transformed Ecuador in the 2000s by pouring profits from the booming oil economy into education and health care.

Villavicencio accused Correa of corruption and environmental pollution. In 2010, he alleged that Correa was “promoting political chaos” after government forces carried out an armed assault on a hospital, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Correa countered by filing a defamation lawsuit against Villavicencio. Villavicencio fled and went underground in the Amazon jungle after an Ecuadorian court upheld an 18-month sentence against him. 

Footage of Villavicencio’s assassination has ricocheted on social media. It shows Villavicencio walking away from the rally surrounded by his police officers and onlookers. As he climbs into the backseat of a vehicle, gunshots can be heard. A police officer slams the door behind Villavicencio as people duck for cover. Villavicencio was married and had five children.

Right-wing President Guillermo Lasso has struggled to control the violence and called for new elections well ahead of his term’s expiration in 2025. Lasso, who is not seeking reelection, said he was outraged by Villavicencio’s murder and blamed it on organized crime.

The national prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday night that a suspect had been shot during crossfire with security forces and died shortly afterward.