The assassination of Ecuadoran presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in the runup to the August 20 election has sent shock waves in the South American country, which is plagued by the violence of drug traffickers and other gangs in the country. He was killed in northern Quito on Wednesday.

A suspect in the crime died of injuries and nine others have been arrested, according to the attorney general’s office. President Guillermo Lasso said that the assassination was an attempt to sabotage the election, and he said that the election would be held on August 20 as scheduled, and in a state of emergency in the wake of the violent incident.

Lasso has also declared three days of mourning for Villavicencio, who was a former journalist and a staunch critic of former president Rafael Correa on the issue of corruption. Correa filed a damages case against Villavicencio, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison. But Villavicencio chose to escape, first in Ecuador itself and then went into exile into Peru. He returned to Ecuador after Correa left office. Villavicencio has his own party, Movimiento Construye.

The party had denounced a viral video which showed a gang called The Wolves claiming responsibility for the death of Villavicencio, which turned out to be fake. Movimiento Construye has demanded a quick investigation into the case. Villavicencio had refused to suspend campaigning in the face of growing political violence when the issue came up for discussion before his party in July after a mayor of Manta was assassinated, and he felt it would be cowardice to call off the campaign.

Ecuador has witnessed 3500 deaths in the first of the year, according to the police, and most of the violence took place in the largest city in the country, Guayaquil. Indigenous candidate Yaku Perez had suspended the campaign and he wanted to hold discussions with the other candidates and the Catholic Church to arrive at a ‘national security agreement’.

Former president Correa, who now lives in exile in Belgium, said on X (earlier Twitter): “Ecuador has become a failed state. Hopefully who try to sow more hate with this new tragedy will understand that will only continue to destroy us.” Ecuador like Peru and Colombia has been sucked into the drug wars though it does not have poppy cultivation nor does it have factories to refine the opium. But according to observers, Ecuador has served as a staging point for drug trafficking. And political corruption is seen as a big issue in the situation. The 59-year-old Villavicencio has been a fierce anti-corruption campaigner though in the election he stood in the fifth place among the eight candidates.

Ecuador is caught in the cycle of violence generated by poverty and crime, which is a common theme in many of the Latin American countries. The fact that the United States, the advanced economy and a democracy, does not seem to have any positive influence on these countries because the attempt on the part of the druglords in these countries is to smuggle drugs into the United States. The Americas also want to exert their own political pressure on these countries, and that sets off political resistance among the people. So, instead of being a positive influence, the Americans emerge as players in the internecine battles within the Latin American countries. The US is seen as the Big Brother among the Latin American countries, and there is resentment about its role in the continental politics. But Ecuador and other countries have to set their own houses in order, and it would be a more effective way of countering the influence of the US in their affairs.