Quito, Ecuador (AFP) – Ecuadorian journalist Christian Zurita, chosen to replace assassinated presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, believes that transnational crime is behind the assassination of his friend and research partner, some of which made powerful politicians and criminals uncomfortable.
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Zurita, 53, took the place in the electoral campaign of Villavicencio, 55, shot dead on August 9 by an allegedly Colombian hitman. The crime, for which six other Colombians are in custody, has not been clarified.
The new presidential candidate suspects that some of his proposals focused on attacking the business and drug routes that operate with gangs motivated the homicide.
Penetrated by cocaine traffickers seeking to get their merchandise from the Pacific coast, Ecuador is experiencing an unprecedented wave of violence.
“I am almost certain that he was assassinated because he said that he would militarize the ports and we are going to maintain that as a principle,” Zurita said Thursday in a meeting with international media.
For the communicator, the Ecuadorian authorities must clarify the links between Ecuadorian gangs with the gunmen coming from Colombia, a country that supplies drugs to Ecuador through the common border.
“There is a transnational mafia after his death,” claimed Zurita, accompanied by private bodyguards and a policeman with a rifle.
We cannot continue the investigations if we do not have the participation of Colombia. To understand Villavicencio’s crime we need to make an agreement and form new ties with Colombia, the world’s leading producer of cocaine, he added.
Before his death, Villavicencio denounced that he was threatened by alias ‘Fito’, leader of ‘Los Choneros’, a gang that has been linked to dissidents of the Colombian FARC guerrilla.
According to a recent statement, the Ecuadorian police have only turned to their Colombian counterpart to obtain the criminal records of the alleged perpetrators of the crime.
suitable successor
Zurita was an ally of Villavicencio when as journalists they put the magnifying glass on corruption networks.
After their most important investigation, they denounced that the former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) had agreed financial support with businessmen for his presidential campaign in exchange for giving them state contracts.
Correa, who denies the accusations, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison and is in exile in Belgium.
He also put Correa’s successor, Lenín Moreno (2017-2021), on the ropes for an alleged corruption network in a hydroelectric plant in a case that has not been sentenced.
Another of his investigations crossed borders, when he involved former Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba, a friend of Correa, with Alex Saab, accused of money laundering by the US Justice.
Due to his proximity to Villavicencio, Zurita considered himself an ideal successor to take over their banners.
“Not to have done it (replace him) would have been a betrayal of his fight, a betrayal of his name,” he said.
Villavicencio’s mother, Gloria Valencia, gave him her blessing: “Christian Zurita is the only one who can replace my son Fernando,” she told the newspaper ‘El Universo’.
“I have witnessed an incredible friendship, it is difficult to talk about Christian without Fernando, and vice versa,” added Valencia.
Zurita will face in the first round the correísta Luisa González, the indigenous leader Yaku Pérez, the rightist Jan Topic and the former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner, the main candidates for power.
Before his death, Villavicencio was second in voting intentions (12.5%), according to the firm Cedatos. González led that poll (24%), one of several that exist in the country, but without the necessary percentage (40%) to avoid the second ballot.
AFP
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