Violence threatens Ecuador's democracy

The attack against presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio just ten days before the elections has put Ecuadorian democracy in check and has unleashed alarm over the risk that the country could become a narco-state. The 59-year-old journalist was shot dead as he left a rally in the capital and had precisely based his campaign on the promise of a tough hand against the cartels that sow terror in Ecuador, which has become one of the strategic ports of the city.

Exit of the

What

and

(main world producers) export to the US and Europe.

The laxity in Ecuadorian border controls has paid for a business that has encouraged the expansion of

, who are nurturing their ranks of young people without a future following a devastating Covid pandemic that drastically reduced living standards. And the rivalry with Mexican organizations for control of drug distribution has only increased a spiral of violence that has reached unthinkable levels. Villavicencio was fighting against this, who, in addition to being an anti-corruption candidate, also confronted the former president.

, fugitive from justice and refugee in Belgium to avoid an eight-year prison sentence for illegal financing. It was Villavicencio who unveiled the plot in his time as a journalist.

The country recorded the highest rate of violent deaths in its history last year. Bloody riots in prison, shootings in the street, executions, attacks on businesses and public transport... They are the routine of a population that has security as its main concern in the face of the elections, which finally

. Villavicencio has not been the only politician killed in the campaign, during which two other attacks have ended the life of

, popular mayor of the city of Manta, and

, candidate for deputy for the province of Esmeraldas.

President Guillermo Lasso, who forced the electoral advance to avoid facing impeachment for corruption accusations, has decided to maintain the call under a strong military deployment. The question is whether such a decision

. The escalation of violence in a country until now relatively quiet within a volatile region is disturbing, especially considering that others in the environment also suffer it, such as Guatemala, which celebrates on the same day 20 the second round of a presidential election marked by uncontrolled crime.

The murder opens a scenario of dangerous political uncertainty in Ecuador, which

It must watch carefully and that it can serve populism to win votes at the polls. We have seen it in El Salvador, where Nayib Bukele has taken advantage of the war against the maras to entrench his illiberal drift.

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