This is Not Good

Ecuadorian Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was just assassinated in Qito.

He was in the middle of the pack, but it is still a shocking development, and a part of the political turmoil in the country recently, but this is exponentially worse:

Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has been shot dead as he left a campaign event in Quito, just days before an election where the central issue is the country’s slide into violence and crime.

Videos on social media show Villavicencio, a former journalist who has worked for the Guardian and was outspoken about alleged links between organised crime and politics, surrounded by supporters and being escorted by security guards to a waiting vehicle when gunshots ring out as people start to scream and take cover.

The country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, said he was “outraged and shocked by the assassination” and would convene a meeting of his security cabinet. “For his memory and his fight, I assure you that this crime will not remain unpunished,” he said.

It should be noted that Guillermo Lasso is responsible for much of the recent political instability, having dissolved the national assembly and subsequently ruling by decree in response to an upcoming impeachment vote for corruption.

………

The assassination comes amid a shocking surge in violent crime in the small South American country, as rival drug trafficking gangs perpetrate prison massacres and murder rates have more than doubled between 2020 and 2022. Lasso said in the wake of Wednesday’s killing: “Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.”

Color me dubious of their being an organized conspiracy to kill Villavicencio.  It's much easier just to cultivate some unstable people, and one of them does the job on his own.  (Stochastic Terrorism)

Also, color me dubious Lasso's ability or inclination to pursue any conspiracy if one does exist.  He has proven ineffective in office and, according to US Representative Raul Grijalva, he is profoundly corrupt.

Given ongoing US efforts to destabilize governments in the region, Venezuela, Peru and Columbia have been seen support for destabilizing governments that Washington found insufficiently deferential, that region is a powder keg.