Ecuador arrests six Colombians as suspects in slaying of anti-corruption presidential candidate
Associated PressQUITO, Ecuador — The six men arrested as suspects in the assassination of an anti-corruption Ecuadorian presidential candidate are Colombian nationals, a police report said Thursday as authorities investigated the motive for a crime that shocked a nation already reeling from a surge in drug-related violence. Villavicencio had said he was threatened by affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that now operate in Ecuador. “Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.” Former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, who also is seeking the presidency, bemoaned the loss at a news conference: “We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this.” The assassins threw a grenade into the street to cover their flight, but it did not explode, President Guillermo Lasso said. Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio waves an Ecuadorean flag during a campaign event at a school minutes before he was shot to death outside the same school in Quito, Ecuador, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023 Lasso suggested the slaying could be linked to organized crime and insisted on proceeding with the election scheduled for Aug. 20.