The United States opted for caution this Friday and avoided attributing responsibility for the assassination of Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
(You can read: Fernando Villavicencio: what is known about the funeral of the murdered Ecuadorian candidate)
In a telephone press conference, John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, stressed that the investigation is “active” and referred any questions about possible culprits to the Ecuadorian Executive.
(Keep reading: The prison benefits he received in Colombia when he was captured for assassination in Ecuador)
The authorities in Quito, in effect, continue the investigation into the murder of Villavicencio, in which they have the help of a team from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and in which they have as main suspects six Colombians who were detained by the police and who were ordered by a judge on Thursday to enter pretrial detention.
(You can read: The call between Gustavo Petro and the president of Ecuador: what did they talk about?)
In an extraordinary meeting held virtually on Thursday by senior Colombian Police officers with Ecuadorian authorities and FBI agents, relevant information was analyzed to clarify the case that is shocking Ecuador today, a few days before the extraordinary elections called for next Sunday 20th of August.
(Keep reading: Ecuador: the car in which the candidate for the Assembly was mobilized was shot at)
The six Colombians captured in Ecuador in the raid for the crime of Villavicencio.
The Ecuadorian Police assured that it has probative material against those captured, which includes four seized cell phones and call reports.
According to what was known, in these records there are telephone conversations between the detainees with at least three alleged politicians from Ecuador, whose identities, at the close of this edition, had not been revealed.
(Of interest: Gustavo Bolívar’s hypothesis about the murder of Fernando Villavicencio)
In a statement, the authorities of the neighboring country indicated that, “due to the preliminary information collected, it was confirmed that those apprehended belong to organized crime groups.”
The truth is that, for analysts, the arrest of the six Colombians as suspects in the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, who was second in the polls for voting intentions, shows that transnational crime has very long tentacles that recruit hitmen and mercenaries capable of acting anywhere.
(You can read: “It is something similar to what happened with Luis Carlos Galán”, widow of Fernando Villavicencio)
In Colombia there is a crime industry that has been fermented for a long time, since the time of the drug cartels in the 80s and many people have arrived to that crime industry.
“This has nothing to do with the fact of being Colombian; In Colombianness there is nothing that justifies violence, what there is in Colombia is a crime industry that has been fermented for a long time, since the time of the drug cartels in the 80s and many people have arrived in that crime industry ”, he told the agency efe analyst Jorge Iván Cuervo, a researcher at the Externado de Colombia University.
(Also read: Villavicencio case: in calls from Colombian detainees there are contacts with politicians)
Meanwhile, dozens of people went this Friday to the Quito Exhibition Center, where they brought the coffin of the murdered presidential candidate, to say goodbye.
![Fernando Villavicencio](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/08/11/64d6d35417ffe.jpeg)
Supporters pay their respects during an event organized by the Movimiento Construye party and friends at the Quito Exhibition Center.
After having been watched in an intimate and private way by relatives and relatives in a funeral home in the Ecuadorian capital, the coffin with the mortal remains left first for the cemetery and, after performing there a brief ceremony, he left for a fairground where his close circle had planned a posthumous tribute before returning him to the cemetery and proceeding with his burial.
(Keep reading: In preventive detention, the 6 suspected of murdering Fernando Villavicencio in Ecuador)
WILLIAM MORENO HERNANDEZ
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP and EFE
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