Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist who had collaborated with the Guardian, was shot and killed in a burst of gunfire on a street in Quito as he left a campaign rally on Wednesday evening. Gunfire broke out as he approached his car, sending supporters screaming and diving for cover.
One suspect in the crime died after a shootout with officers soon after the murder, and six others - reportedly Colombian nationals - have been arrested. The government said yesterday that the suspects were all foreign members of organised crime groups, and added that it was pursuing the planners of the assassination.
The killing has sent shockwaves through the Andean country, which is already dealing with a surge in violent crime as rival drug-trafficking gangs perpetrate prison massacres and brazen attacks in public places.
Murder rates have increased fivefold in as many years. Ecuador has gone from being one of the safest countries in Latin America to having one of the highest homicide rates.
Speaking after Villavicencio's murder, the former vice-president Otto Sonnenholzner -another candidate for the presidency - said: "We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this."
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