Followers and relatives of Fernando Villavicencio pay tribute to the murdered candidate in Quito. HENRY ROMERO (REUTERS)
Five people will go on trial for the crime of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, murdered by hitmen on August 9, 2023 when he was leaving a political rally at a school north of Quito, the Ecuadorian capital.
In a hearing that lasted two days, the Prosecutor's Office presented the evidence to link Carlos A., alias
El Invisible
, as the direct perpetrator of the assassination that was planned from the Cotopaxi prison where he was serving a sentence for arms trafficking and to the four others implicated as co-authors and accomplices.
No one was identified as the mastermind of the murder.
One of the main evidence of the Prosecutor's Office is the advance testimony of a protected witness, who gave details of how two alleged leaders of the Lobos criminal gang organized the logistics a month before the attack against Villavicencio.
The crime operation passed into the hands of El Invisible, who was held in Cotopaxi and who hired Colombian hitmen, among them Johan Castillo, alias
Ito
, the 18-year-old hitman who died in the exchange of bullets that August 9.
El Invisible took charge of fulfilling the objective of assassinating Villavicencio after a failed attempt to end his life at another rally in the city of Santo Domingo, which is two hours from Quito.
At the hearing, the prosecutor handling the case read the witness' statement where the motives for the crime were revealed:
- For what reason did they want to kill this person?
- They do this work and they have the right to half of Quito, to the management of prisons.
According to the witness, the crime against the politician allowed this criminal group to "rise in rank", which gave them access to the management of prisons, reduction of sentences and the release of some of them from prison, and for that they already had purchased from some lawyers and officials of the Prosecutor's Office in Quito.
In this case, 13 people were arrested, but six, of Colombian nationality, were murdered in the cells of the Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil.
According to the autopsy, they died from asphyxiation, and another of the detainees was found dead in one of the cells of the lnca prison in Quito, a month after the crime.
The Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office points to Laura C, alias
Flaca,
as the one in charge of logistics.
She managed the purchase of t-shirts and caps from the Villavicencio political party so that the hitmen could mix among those attending the political rally on August 9.
In addition, she handed over weapons, ammunition, motorcycles and vehicles to the hitmen.
She also organized the previous meetings, such as the one the night before the crime, where the gunmen gathered to listen to the instructions of El Invisible, who connected by videoconference from prison, where he ordered them to put fuel on the motorcycles.
Laura C. took the opportunity to tour the exterior of the school coliseum - the scene of the crime - and everyone went to sleep.
The five defendants who will go to trial are being investigated for the crime of murder against a popular election candidate and could face between 22 and 26 years in prison.
“Once the material authors have been identified, it is necessary to go after the intellectual authors;
that is, those who were hindered by Fernando Villavicencio," said Verónica Saruz, Villavicencio's wife in would help reveal who ordered the Lobos criminal group to murder Villavicencio.
The FBI supports the investigations of the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office at the request of the Ecuadorian Government.
The United States offered a reward of five million dollars for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the conspirators and masterminds behind the assassination of the presidential candidate.
The politician was shot in the head on August 9, 2023 when he was leaving a political event in Quito, a few days before the first round of the early elections.
Villavicencio, 59 years old and a journalist by profession, revealed documents that were part of the case called Bribery, in which former President Rafael Correa and more than a dozen officials of his Government were sentenced.
In addition, he denounced links between organized crime and Ecuadorian politics a few days before he was murdered.
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