The Attorney General's Office of
Ecuador
asked this Tuesday to bring to trial six suspects involved in the
murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio
in August of last year.
He argued that his death was planned from a maximum security prison cell by an organization linked to the criminal group Los Lobos.
According to the Prosecutor's Office,
the order to kill Villavicencio came from the Latacunga prison
, located in the Andean province of Cotopaxi, about 70 kilometers south of Quito, and controlled by Los Lobos until a month and a half ago, when they entered permanently the Armed Forces to regain control of the prison facility.
At the trial call hearing, which lasted all day, the Prosecutor's Office
pointed out Carlos Angulo, alias Invisible
, one of the members of that gang, as allegedly responsible for having ordered the murder of the candidate.
He also pointed out
Laura Castillo as an alleged co-author
, and attributed to her the obtaining and delivery of the vehicles, weapons and money for the execution of the crime, perpetrated on August 9, a few days before the presidential elections.
He accused the other four of being accomplices, although the intellectual author of the assassination was not identified.
The hearing was suspended after nearly eight hours to continue on Wednesday with the defense arguments of the accused.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, the person responsible for ordering the crime
coordinated the murder by cell phone from his cell
, where he had high-speed internet and other luxuries, with the gunman who ended Villavicencio's life.
Video
It was at the exit of a political meeting in the north center of Quito.
At least 10 explosions are heard.
Three shots hit him in the head.
A judge must decide on Wednesday whether to accept the prosecutor's request and call the five Ecuadorians and one Colombian linked to this case to trial.
This is the third hearing, the first two were not held because some defendants changed lawyers or filed appeals at the last minute.
The judicial complex where that session was held, had a strong external police contingent from the early hours of the morning.
Inside the room, specialized agents searched for explosives or any other threat.
What was the murder of Fernando Villavicencio like?
The crime occurred eight months ago when Villavicencio, recognized for his
denunciations against corruption and the links between politics and organized crime
, was leaving a rally in the north of the capital and was attacked with high-caliber weapons in the street. when getting into your vehicle.
A month later, seven of the detainees were murdered inside prisons in Guayaquil and Quito, where they were in preventive detention.
The murder, in the midst of the rise in drug violence, occurred at the exit of the Anderson School Coliseum, in the financial center of the capital of Ecuador.
Villavicencio, 59 years old and one of the eight candidates registered for last year's presidential race, was the only presidential candidate who, by his own decision, did not have the police custody that the Government offered to all applicants.
Video
It happened at the exit of a party meeting of the candidate who opposed Correism.
He had publicly and recently denounced, on repeated occasions, the receipt of death threats against him and his campaign team.
According to him, the person responsible for the intimidation was the leader of a local drug group that would have relations with the Sinaloa cartel.
He was also a well-known figure for having denounced in the past various cases of alleged government corruption that led to ministers and other high officials being imprisoned, especially from the government of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
With information from agencies.
IS