Three days after the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, some 4,000 soldiers and police officers participated in the transfer to a new high-security prison of the leader of the most powerful gang in the country, accused of having threatened to kill the presidential candidate in Ecuador.
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Soldiers and police entered the Guayaquil prison at dawn this Saturday, August 12, where Adolfo “Fito” Macías, leader of the feared criminal organization ‘Los Choneros’, a gang accused of threatening Fernando Villavicencio, had been detained since 2011. to transfer him to a maximum security prison.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced on X (formerly Twitter) that “Fito” had been transferred to La Roca, a maximum security prison with 150 places, located in the same prison complex, in Guayaquil.
This morning, following Decree 823, the transfer of alias Fito to the La Roca prison for the safety of citizens and detainees has been carried out. Ecuador will recover peace and security.
If violent reactions are generated, we will act with full force… pic.twitter.com/N2cwoEH2zp— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) August 12, 2023
Images released by the security forces show a bearded and corpulent man, with his hands on his head, surrounded by agents and among dozens of prisoners. According to the authorities, “Fito” and his men controlled at least one building in the prison where he was previously detained.
The centrist candidate had denounced last week that this gang leader, sentenced to 34 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking, had threatened him with death, for which the name ‘Fito’ has been in the headlines in Ecuador since that Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead on Wednesday.
Fernando Villavicencio, 59, was in second place in the polls for the presidential election scheduled for August 20. In addition, as a former journalist and congressman, he had investigated drug trafficking in his country, where gangs are powerful in prisons. Since 2021, more than 430 inmates have been killed in clashes between rival prison gangs, and dozens have been dismembered and their bodies burned.
For his murder, six Colombian citizens were arrested and a seventh died in a shootout with the candidate’s bodyguards.
In statements to the press on Saturday in Quito, the widow of Fernando Villavicencio, Verónica Sarauz, attacked the Ecuadorian State and the supporters of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
“My husband was assassinated because he was the only one who confronted the political mafias and drug traffickers in this country,” she said.
One of the main feats of Fernando Villavicencio is having sent Rafael Correa to the bench, thanks to one of his journalistic investigations. Rafael Correa, a refugee in Belgium, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for this case.
The day before his murder, Fernando Villavicencio had filed a complaint with the Public Ministry for alleged irregularities in the renegotiation of oil contracts under the Correa government, with a loss for the country of around 9 billion dollars.
with AFP
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