Family and friends of former journalist Fernando Villavicencio are calling for an investigation into who ordered his murder.
An Ecuadorian court has sentenced five people found guilty of conspiring to kill presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio to between 12 and 34 years in prison.
Villavicencio, a journalist-turned-politician, was shot dead as he was leaving a rally in August 2023. The anti-corruption activist’s murder plunged the country into chaos amid escalating violence and prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.
The verdict, read out on Friday by Milton Maroto, one of the court’s three judges, can be appealed by both the prosecution and the defence. The trial began at the end of June.
Prosecutors have accused at least two of the suspects on trial of belonging to Los Lobos, one of 22 criminal organisations that President Daniel Novoa designated “terrorist” in January. The suspects are also suspected of having ties to the government of former President Rafael Correa.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Carlos Edwin Angulo Lara, known as “El Invisible” (the Invisible), ordered Villavicencio’s killing from his cell, while another suspect, Laura Dayanara Castillo, was in charge of planning the assassination.
Both Angulo and Castillo were sentenced to 34 years and eight months in prison.
The remaining three, Eric Ramirez, Victor Flores and Alexandra Chimbo, were sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Villavicencio has long faced threats as a journalist who has exposed corruption and ties between organized crime and politicians.
Prosecutors are conducting a separate investigation into who ordered the murder.
One of the hit men died at the scene of Villavicencio’s murder, and seven other suspects, most of them Colombian nationals, were killed in pre-trial detention in October.
Seven more suspects were subsequently arrested, one of whom died and one of whom was acquitted.
The remaining five were put on trial.
Who ordered the killing?
Villavicencio’s family and friends have denounced repeated delays in the case and called for an investigation into who ordered his killing.
Witnesses who testified during the trial alleged that Villavicencio had a $200,000 bounty on his head because of his campaigns against gangs and corruption.
Witnesses also charged that the suspects were working for individuals with ties to President Correa, who is in exile after being convicted on corruption charges in 2020.
The former president, who lives in Belgium, denies any connection to the murder.
Villavicencio’s widow, Veronica Sauraud, in a post on X on Friday called on the judge to apply the full force of the law against the defendant.
In another post on X, Villavicencio’s daughter Amanda wrote: “We need to know the whole truth so this never happens again.”
Outside the court, family members and supporters shouted slogans and held up pictures of Villavicencio and posters reading “Go to jail for this filthy killer!”
Nearly 10 politicians have been assassinated in Ecuador since 2023.
Once peaceful Ecuador is witnessing an unprecedented wave of violence linked to drug trafficking.
The country, which has a port on the Pacific Ocean, serves as a transit point for cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru and sent to the United States and Europe.
The murder rate in Ecuador, a country of about 17 million people, has soared from 6 per 100,000 people in 2018 to 47 per 100,000 people last year.
