Ecuador murder: Fernando Villavicencio’s running-mate steps in to contest election

The running-mate of a murdered Ecuadorian politician is to contest the presidential election in his place.

Fernando Villavicencio was shot three times in the head after a campaign rally in Quito. Police say all suspects are Colombian.

His Construye party said it would put Andrea Gonzalez forward as its presidential candidate.

The party added that it was in the process of choosing a vice-presidential candidate for the August 20 election.

Ms Gonzalez, 36, whose career has mainly focused on environmental issues, is due to take part in Sunday’s presidential debate in the capital.

The party said on social media that she would “guarantee the legacy” of Mr Villavicencio “and millions of Ecuadorians will accompany her in this purpose”.

The candidate for the vice-presidency would come from “the most trusted of those who have shared the struggles of comrade Fernando Villavicencio”, the party added.

Mr Villavicencio, 59, a former journalist and member of the country’s national assembly, was shot three times in the head as he left a public event in the capital on Wednesday.

One attacker was killed in an exchange of fire with police while several others escaped.

His death has shocked a nation that has largely escaped the decades of drug-gang violence, cartel wars and corruption that has blighted many of its neighbours. Crime has however shot up in recent years, fuelled by the growth of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels.

Mr Villavicencio’s campaign focused on corruption and gangs, and was one of only a few candidates to allege links between organised crime and government officials in Ecuador.

On Saturday, his widow, Veronica Sarauz, told a news conference that she held the state responsible for her husband’s death.

“The state still has to give many answers about everything that happened, his personal guards did not do their job,” she said.

“I do not want to think that they sold my husband to be murdered in this infamous way.”

Ms Sarauz also expressed her displeasure that Ms Gonzalez had been named as her husband’s replacement to contest the presidential election.

According to Interior Minister Juan Zapata, six Colombians have been arrested, who were members of organised criminal groups,

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has called on the FBI to help investigate Mr Villavicencio’s death.

Meanwhile, three men considered highly dangerous by Ecuador’s authorities have been moved from a jail in the port city of Guayaquil where they were inmates in a maximum security prison.

They included Jose Adolfo Macias, known as “Fito”, the leader of one of Ecuador’s main organised crime groups from whom Mr Villavicencio said he’d received death threats.

Mr Villavicencio, who was married and had five children, was one of eight candidates in the first round of the election – although he was not the frontrunner and was polling around the middle of the pack.

Patricia Villavicencio, his sister, said “this crime can’t go unpunished… We are hurting, with a broken soul, there is no justice, there is no protection”.