Barely a week before a pivotal run-off election in Ecuador, prison authorities reported that all six men, suspected of involvement in the country’s anti-corruption presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio’s assassination, were murdered in prison.
The men were killed inside a prison in Guayaquil, the South American nation’s largest city, the office of the attorney general said on Friday.
Ecuador’s government promptly denounced the killings. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the outgoing President Guillermo Lasso vowed “neither complicity nor cover-up” in uncovering the truth behind the killings of the prisoners.
“Here the truth will be known,” he said.
According to a statement by the SNAI prisons agency, the six men were all Colombian nationals.
The prison gave no more details of the killings. However, the government has said authorities are determined to identify those behind Villavicencio’s murder.
Villavicencio, a well-known journalist, was fatally shot as he exited a campaign event in Quito, the country’s capital, less than two weeks before the first round of the general election.
Police arrested the six Colombians on the day of Villavicencio’s assassination. A seventh suspect, also Colombian, was shot and killed by police, while other suspects were later arrested, Reuters reported.
The second round run-off vote is scheduled for October 15, the culmination of an election cycle marred by numerous incidents of violence.
Business heir Daniel Noboa, who holds a narrow lead in some polls ahead of the run-off, said in a social media post that the government must provide details of what occurred at the prison and that peace must be restored in the country.
His main rival for the presidency is Luisa Gonzalez, a protege of leftist former President Rafael Correa. She has said that surging crime is unprecedented and that voters should not allow “terror” to stop them from voting for change.