The widow of Fernando Villavicencio, a candidate for president of Ecuador who was murdered in early August after leaving an election rally, was the victim of an attempted attack this Wednesday (27), in Quito.
Information about what happened was released by Villavicencio’s replacement at the polls, Christian Zurita. According to him, Verónica Sarauz was in a car in the Ecuadorian capital, when she was approached by a man on a motorcycle, who tried to attack her.
The criminal was of Venezuelan origin and carried a gun, according to police. Despite the scare, the victim was not hit and the accused was arrested shortly after the crime.
At the time of the presidential candidate’s assassination, on August 9, six Colombians were arrested and another man accused of shooting the politician died in a confrontation with one of the candidate’s security guards.
Ecuador is the target of a recent wave of violence linked to drug trafficking, a problem that arose after the country became an important route for transporting drugs to the United States and others, through its ports.
The country currently lives in a state of exception, decreed by President Guillermo Lasso, after the prisons were taken over by power struggles between criminal organizations, which have already taken hundreds of security agents hostage inside the prisons.
Presidential elections
Amid attacks against politicians in the country, Correista Luisa González and businessman Daniel Noboa officially started last Sunday (24) the campaign for the second round of the presidential elections, scheduled for October 15th.
González, the favorite candidate in the electoral race, recently stated that she received death threats from criminals. She attributed the messages to the fact that she is leading polls on voting intentions to be the next head of state in Ecuador.
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