Trial begins for the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Ecuador

The National Court of Justice of Ecuador began this Tuesday the trial for the assassination of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in which the material authors of the incident will be prosecuted.

Relatives and friends of the politician have held protests in front of the Court to demand speed in the trial process. crime that shocked the country.

For the murder, among others, Carlos Angulo, one of the leaders of the criminal organization Los Lobos, whom the prosecution points out as the coordinator of the crime, will be prosecuted; Laura Castillo, accused of co-authorship because she gave the gunmen vehicles, weapons and money, and three other people identified as accomplices.

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According to the Prosecutor’s thesis, Angulo, in his capacity as leader of a faction of the Los Lobos criminal group that operated in the south of the capital, was the organizer of the crime, which was recorded in messages to cell phones.

A month after the shooting murder, which occurred on August 9, 2023, seven of the 13 detainees were murdered inside prisons in Guayaquil and Quito, where they were in preventive detention.

Villavicencio, 59, was also an assembly member and a figure recognized for having denounced various corruption cases that took ministers and other high officials to prison, especially from the government of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

Strong police guard was installed very early on outside and in the access corridors to the National Court of Justice, carefully checking each person who entered the premises.

If found guilty, the defendants could receive a sentence of between 22 and 26 years in prison.

The authorities have not yet identified the intellectual authors of the Villavicencio crime, who had also denounced links between politics and organized crime.

The candidate was attacked with high-caliber weapons when he got into his vehicle as he left a rally at a school in the north of the capital. The police security fence could not prevent the assassination.

Villavicencio was one of the eight candidates registered for the August presidential race but was not among the favorites. Before his death he had reported threats from organized crime.

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