An Ecuadorian court on Friday sentenced a gang member to nearly 35 years in prison for plotting and ordering from his cell the murder of a journalist turned anti-corruption presidential candidate.
Five people were handed hefty prison sentences for their role in the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead last year just before the country’s election.
Gang member Carlos Angulo, 31, was given 34 years and eight months in prison for planning and ordering the murder, the sentence read out in court said.
Photo: Reuters
Laura Castillo, received the same for providing weapons, money, vehicles and motorcycles to the Colombian assassins who fatally shot Villavicencio on Aug. 9 last year as he was leaving a rally in Quito.
Villavicencio, a former investigative journalist who vowed to combat political corruption and drug trafficking, was killed days before the first round of voting in the presidential election.
Six Colombian men were arrested hours after the shooting, but all of them were killed while in prison two months later. Seven additional suspects were later arrested, one of whom died and another who was acquitted. The remaining five went on trial.
Accomplices Erick Ramirez, Victor Flores and Alexandra Chimbo were sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Flores handled security for the motorcycle on which the assassin who shot Villavicencio was traveling, while Chimbo was in charge of alerting the killers about the candidate’s departure. Ramirez did logistics work.
Some of the suspects were accused of ties to “Los Lobos,” one of the main gangs in Ecuador fighting for control of the drug trade that has led to a spike in violence in the past few years within the small South American country.
A witness who testified during the trial claimed there was a US$200,000 bounty on Villavicencio’s head due to his campaign against gangs and corruption.
The witness also said the suspects were working for individuals tied to the administration of former Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa, who is in exile after he was convicted on corruption charges in 2020.
Correa, who lives in Belgium, denies any link to the assassination.
“We need to know the whole truth and make sure this is not repeated again,” Amanda Villavicencio, daughter of the assassinated candidate, wrote on X.
Outside the court, relatives and supporters chanting slogans held up posters written “jail for cowardly murderers” and pictures of Fernando Villavicencio.
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