Current:Home > StocksSlain Ecuador candidate fearlessly took on drug cartels and corruption -Elite Financial Minds
Slain Ecuador candidate fearlessly took on drug cartels and corruption
View
Date:2025-04-12 23:17:39
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — The Ecuadorian presidential candidate fatally shot at a political rally fearlessly took on his country’s criminal networks and the political elite that he accused of corruption at the hands of organized crime.
Fernando Villavicencio, a journalist before entering politics, waged a yearslong battle against the forces that he saw transforming Ecuador, including crime seeping into nearly every aspect of life. The quest made some of his country’s most powerful people into his enemies.
The 59-year-old received multiple threats and he linked some to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, a powerful drug-trafficking network on the rise in Ecuador. Regardless of the danger, Villavicencio promised in his final speech that he would lock up the “thieves.”
“Here I am showing my face. I’m not scared of them,” Villavicencio told reporters before he was killed.
Born in a rural part of Ecuador, Villavicencio moved to the country’s capital, Quito, with his family as a teenager. He would study at night and work during the day, he told local newspaper El Universal this month.
Villavicencio began taking on the powerful at 18, when he founded a small newspaper, Prensa Obrera, which focused on workers’ rights, and went on to study journalism at the Central University of Ecuador.
After working at a state-run oil company, he went on to write books and articles for national media about corruption and the environmental damage caused by the petroleum industry.
Among his biggest scoops as a journalist was reporting on a trove of documents that pointed to inflated prices, shoddy workmanship and extravagant kickbacks that were involved in some of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, including some built by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. The evidence he uncovered was later used to help convict former Vice President Jorge Glas on bribery charges.
Villavicencio also wrote about obscure deals in which former President Rafael Correa’s leftist government took billions in loans from state banks in China in exchange for oil shipments.
The oil deals, harshly criticized by Villavicencio, have since been restructured by President Guillermo Lasso to give the OPEC nation more financial breathing room at a time when the dollarized economy has been losing competitiveness to its neighbors, all of which have flexible exchange rates that have helped buoy exports.
For his fearless reporting and whistleblowing, Villavicencio paid a high price.
He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for defaming ex-president Correa, but went on the run and sought refuge in the dense jungles of Ecuador’s indigenous territory.
As he dodged authorities closing in on him, he survived by eating crocodile, bird and monkey meat, and dodged police checkpoints by wading through jungles and rivers, according to a 2014 Committee to Protect Journalists profile.
“The president wants me to get down on my knees and apologize,” Villavicencio told CPJ from a safehouse, where he was writing a book. “But I will never do that.”
In 2017, he fled into exile in Peru. Upon his return home, he could be seen shuttling around the capital, Quito, with armed bodyguards. When he returned, he began to work in politics.
Villavicencio has also filed judicial complaints against high-ranking government officials. The most notorious case, often referred to as “Las Torres,” ended in the prosecution of Comptroller General Pablo Celi on corruption charges.
The anti-corruption complaints made Villavicencio “a threat to international criminal organizations,” said Edison Romo, a former military intelligence colonel.
Groups from Mexico and Colombia largely focused on narcotrafficking have increasingly flocked to Ecuador in recent years, leading to an uptick in violence as traffickers use the country’s ports to ship cocaine.
Gunfire is heard in many major cities as rival gangs battle for control, and gangs have recruited children.
The greatest violence in decades has left Ecuadorians reeling, and put critical voices like Villavicencio’s in greater danger.
Yet he continued with his work as a leftist politician and started to serve in 2021 as a deputy in Ecuador’s congress, a representative of the Honesty Alliance. As a legislator, he would regularly denounce energy and oil companies that had contracts with the government.
Villavicencio stayed in that role until President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the legislature in May as he was facing impeachment charges for alleged embezzlement.
Villavicencio then ran as an anti-corruption candidate for Ecuador’s presidency for the leftist Build Ecuador Movement. One of eight candidates, Villavicencio spoke often about the rising levels of violence in his country, but was not the frontrunner in the race.
Despite that, the candidate had received at least three death threats before the shooting and reported them to authorities, resulting in one detention, according to Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser. His death was met by an outpouring of grief by other candidates, campaign staff, supporters and even Lasso.
“The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” Zuquilanda said. “Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”
___
Janetsky reported from Mexico City.
veryGood! (41769)
Related
- Federal court filings allege official committed perjury in lawsuit tied to Louisiana grain terminal
- Kelly Ripa Shares How Miley Cyrus Influenced Daughter Lola’s Music Career
- Incarcerated fathers and daughters reunite at a daddy-daughter dance in Netflix documentary
- From Biden to Gabbard, here’s what Harris’ past debates show before a faceoff with Trump
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- 2024 Olympics: Australian Breakdancer Raygun Reacts to Criticism After Controversial Debut
- Can I use my 401(k) as an ATM? New rules allow emergency withdrawals.
- Two men were shot to death before a concert at a raceway in Iowa
- Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
- How to get relief from unexpectedly high medical bills
Ranking
- Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
- Maryland house leveled after apparent blast, no ongoing threat to public
- What is French fashion? How to transform your style into Parisian chic
- Kelly Ripa Shares How Miley Cyrus Influenced Daughter Lola’s Music Career
- Have Dry, Sensitive Skin? You Need To Add These Gentle Skincare Products to Your Routine
- The US Navy’s warship production is in its worst state in 25 years. What’s behind it?
- Inside the Stephen Curry flurry: How 4 shots sealed another gold for the US in Olympic basketball
- Perseids to peak this weekend: When and how to watch the best meteor shower of the year
Recommendation
Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
Jury selection to begin for ex-politician accused of killing Las Vegas investigative reporter
Horoscopes Today, August 10, 2024
Horoscopes Today, August 10, 2024
Don't let hackers fool you with a 'scam
Isaac Hayes' family demands Trump stop using his song at rallies, $3M in fees
EXCLUSIVE: Ex-deputy who killed Sonya Massey had history of complaints involving women
For increasing number of immigrants, a ‘new life in America’ starts in South Dakota