Sawt Falasteen - Ecuador under state of emergency after presidential candidate killed

Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist and prominent anti-corruption crusader, was gunned down as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito on Wednesday night.

Shocked citizens expressed their frustration with the burgeoning violence in the South American country, which has seen its murder rate soar as drug gangs wage bloody turf wars.

Housewife Ruth Flores, 65, told AFP people were "outraged" by the murder of a man she saw as "the hope for honesty in our country. A candidate who denounced the corruption of narcopolitics."

She described the situation in the country as "very worrying. You can't walk peacefully... there is no security."

Villavicencio had complained of receiving threats, which have also targeted electoral officials in a tense campaign ahead of the snap election on August 20. A popular mayor and aspiring lawmaker have also been assassinated in recent weeks.

Villavicencio had exited the building where he had held a political rally and had just got into his car when the gunfire started, prompting supporters to throw themselves on the ground or sprint to safety.

"There were a lot of shots," said a friend of the candidate, Carlos Figueroa, who called the attack an "ambush."

The country's main newspaper, El Universo, reported that Villavicencio was assassinated "hitman-style and with three shots to the head."

- 'Sabotage' -

The attack came a little over a week before a snap election, called by President Guillermo Lasso after he dissolved the opposition-dominated Congress in May to avoid an impeachment trial over alleged corruption.

He is not seeking reelection.

In a social media post, Lasso blamed the killing on "organized crime."

"This is a political crime... and we do not doubt that this murder is an attempt to sabotage the electoral process," said Lasso, who declared a two-month state of emergency and three days of national mourning.

He had already in July declared targeted states of emergency in some towns gripped by violence.

Villavicencio was the second most popular of eight candidates in the presidential race, according to recent opinion polls.

Like many candidates in the race, which has heavily focused on the security situation, he had been campaigning under police protection, and last week complained he had received threats from an organized crime gang.

Villavicencio's journalistic investigations exposed a vast graft network which led to former president Rafael Correa being sentenced to eight years in prison.

-'A bleak future'-

Giant posters of Villavicencio were still plastered on the walls of the sports complex where the rally was held, as passersby placed candles and bouquets of white roses outside.

A cyclist, who was too afraid to give her name, put up a banner reading: "The damn narcopoliticians will pay."

"I see a bleak future because no one has the guts like him to tackle the situation. They are all lukewarm, including the president who disappointed us," the woman told AFP.

Nine other people were injured in the attack, including a candidate running for the national legislature and two policemen, prosecutors said.

One of the alleged attackers was shot and killed by security personnel, and six people have been arrested.

The United States condemned a "brazen act of violence and assault on Ecuador's democracy."

The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc "stands with Ecuador in its fight against the worsening violence by organized crime."

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said the "appalling killing... underscores the challenges the country and its people face amid the violence."

- Global drug hub -

In September last year, the United States listed Ecuador among the top 22 drug-producing or transit countries in the world.

Ecuador is not known to have large plantations of drug crops or laboratories for refining cocaine.

Instead, the country -- wedged between major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru -- has become a staging ground for foreign mafia, upping the stakes for local gangs who are brutally killing each other as they seek control of drug routes.

Its major port Guayaquil, from where most of the drugs are shipped abroad, is seen as having weaker controls.

In 2022, Ecuador's murder rate almost doubled compared to the previous year to 25 per 100,000.

C.AbuSway--SF-PST