Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead as he was leaving a political rally in the capital just days ahead of elections amid increasing gang-driven violence in the South American country.
Video of the moment showed Villavicencio, 59, surrounded by supporters and being escorted by security guards as he was led to a vehicle when gunshots rang out.
Several shots were fired as panic-stricken people took cover amid loud screams.
President Guillermo Lasso said he was “outraged and shocked by the assassination” and blamed organised crime behind the slaying.
“I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Mr Lasso said in a statement. “Organised crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.”
“For his memory and his fight, I assure you that this crime will not remain unpunished,” he said.
One suspect in the assassination was killed in police custody from wounds sustained in the firefight following the killing, Ecuador‘s attorney general’s office said.
Around six suspects linked to the killing were also detained in raids in Quito.
At least nine others were left injured in the shooting, including officers and a congressional candidate, in what was described as a “terrorist act” by authorities.
The assassination of the politician who was known for speaking up against drug cartels and corruption comes amid a shocking rise in violent crime in the country where rival drug trafficking gangs perpetuate mass killings in prisons and murder rates have more than doubled in the last two years.
Villavicencio, a former journalist who exposed corruption in previous governments and later entered politics as an anti-graft campaigner, had alerted authorities of receiving multiple death threats, including from affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
The cartel is one of a slew of international organised crime groups that now operate in Ecuador.
In the last speech he made before he was killed, Villavicencio vowed to a roaring crowd to weed out corruption and lock up the country’s “thieves”