Ecuador chooses its next president in a campaign plagued by violence

Violence has become the protagonist of the electoral campaign in Ecuador. The recent assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and other politicians has highlighted the crisis in the South American country.

Within weeks, the following public figures were assassinated: a candidate for the National Assembly (Rider Sánchez), the mayor of the coastal city of Manta (Agustín Intriago), one of the favorite candidates for the presidency (Fernando Villavicencio) and a local political leader (Pedro Briones).

However, according to local reports from this year alone, more than a dozen public officials, elected officials, police officers, candidates for political office and collateral victims have died from politically motivated violence.

Some experts attribute the increase in violent attacks to the increased presence of drug trafficking in the country, and those who seem most targeted are those who are determined to dismantle organized crime in the nation.

"Ecuador has had a significant increase in violence in recent years. This is mainly due to the increasingly massive and greater presence of drug trafficking, because in Ecuador, it is not necessarily consumption that prevails, but Ecuador ends up being a kind of transit country for drugs and the global drug movement", explained Ecuadorian political consultant and economist, Juan Rivadeneira to the news outlet, América Economía.

Villavicencio willing to expose corruption

Fernando Villavicencio, the second-highest polling candidate before he was assassinated, had investigated several corruption cases allegedly involving several powerful politicians and was determined to expose them. In fact, before his death, the presidential candidate reported that he received threats from an important criminal group linked to the Sinaloa cartel.

Verónica Sarauz, Villavicencio's widow, even explained that it was very likely that the culprits of her husband's death were the criminal gangs that allegedly have links to Correísmo (political movement following the beliefs of former president Rafael Correa).

"They murdered my husband because he was the only one who stood up to the political mafias and drug traffickers of this country," she said.

Intriago: the incorruptible mayor

The mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago, was another of the murdered politicians who spoke out against organized crime. "It's no coincidence that they killed the mayor ... He had no ties to the different organized crime groups that have been operating in Manta for several years," said Wolf Grabendorff, an expert on international relations and Latin American security issues.

Are the mafias in control of Ecuador?

"Who is governing in Ecuador? Is there a legally constituted government or is it the mafias who have taken control of the citizens, of daily life in Ecuador?" Ecuadorian lawyer Cristina Reyes Hidalgo recently questioned after the increase in violence.

This Sunday, Ecuadorians will have to decide between eight presidential candidates (Luisa González, Christian Zurita, Otto Sonnenholzner, Jan Topic, Yaku Pérez, Bolívar Armijos, Xavier Hervas and Daniel Noboa) and the elections could be decisive for drug trafficking gangs in the country.