The General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency, headed by Guillermo Lasso, reported on the dismissal of two senior officers of the Ecuadorian Police, as well as the director of the Guayaquil Penitentiary, where some of those involved in the murder of the presidential candidate were murdered. , Fernando Villavicencio, last August.
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The presidential decision is part of a “reorganization” of law enforcement in the country, while investigations continue into the death of seven implicated in the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio on August 9, which shocked Ecuador. Alain Luna, general director of Investigation of the National Police and Luis Ordóñez, director of the SNAI, were the police commanders removed from their positions.
The specific dismissal of Ordóñez occurs after the Ecuadorian Government denounced negligence on the part of the organization he commanded, since despite having an order to transfer those accused of the political crime against a presidential candidate for security reasons, The SNAI ignored it.
Another of those affected was the director of ‘CPL Guayas 1’ – Guayaquil prison – who, in addition to being removed from his position, is being criminally investigated for possible involvement in the death of six Colombian citizens who were held in the prison. , accused of being part of the attack that ended Villavicencio’s life.
“The President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, has ordered (…) the presentation of the criminal complaint against José M, deputy director of the CPL Guayas 1 (Guayaquil Penitentiary), who has already been detained by the National Police, so that he may surrender. version before the Prosecutor’s Office,” said the statement published on X’s profile of the Ecuadorian government agency.
The National Government informs citizens of the decisions it has made regarding the violent events that occurred in the last 24 hours in the prison system: pic.twitter.com/ZXgQG06v3M
— Communication Ecuador 🇪🇨 (@ComunicacionEc) October 7, 2023
The Ecuadorian head of state was scheduled to travel to South Korea these days, however, the diplomatic visit was canceled so that Lasso could “address the crisis of the prison system,” as the president explained in a publication on his social networks.
Investigations to find the intellectual author of the assassination are still underway
Almost two months since the murder of the journalist turned presidential candidate, attention remains on the Ecuadorian investigations to find the mind behind the crime, however, the death of the suspects hinders the path to reaching the person responsible.
The Ecuadorian Ministry of the Interior revealed on October 6 that an investigation report in relation to the case is already ready, although it has not been published so far. The United States Government raised its hand to help the investigations and has offered a reward of up to five million dollars to anyone with information about the candidate’s murder.
Despite the government’s efforts, the case remains full of loopholes. The non-profit organization ‘SOS Cárceles Ecuador’ had already warned about the possibility that the lives of the suspects in the assassination were in danger in the prisons of Guayaquil and Quito, going so far as to present an appeal to the Prosecutor’s Office and the SNAI for their transfer, although this was ignored by both agencies.
Fernando Villavicencio was a harsh critic of the corrupt links between the government and private economic power, in addition to denouncing on multiple occasions death threats from criminal gangs such as ‘Los Choneros’, whose leader ‘Fito’ is the main person accused of orchestrating the death of the candidate.
The second round in the Ecuadorian presidential elections will take place on October 15. Some elections where clarity in the investigations into the murder of Villavicencio could be fundamental for the results.
With Reuters and EFE
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