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2023-10-10 Caribbean-Latin America
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Who else will be shot in Ecuador: pre-election killings continue
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 Direct Transalation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Olga Kuznetsov
[REGNUM] Friday evenings are famous for interesting events and are sometimes extremely far from the concept of tranquility. And the residents of Ecuador were once again convinced of this when they saw in the news information that all six suspects in the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio were killed during another riot in the Litoral prison. All six - by the way, citizens of Colombia - were arrested on the same day, August 9, not far from the scene of Villavicencio’s murder. The detainees were found in possession of large-caliber weapons, several grenades, boxes of ammunition, and, according to all the canons of the genre and the specifics of the region, drugs.
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It is possible that they were all mercenaries. And in this regard, the story of their murder is suspiciously reminiscent of the fate of the liquidators of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. They were also Colombian mercenaries, carried out the “order”, were arrested, and then disappeared in one of the Haitian prisons, allegedly contracting one of the many local infections.
It is noteworthy that on the eve of his death, the suspects in the murder of Villavicencio asked to be transferred to another, safer prison. However, these requests for protection were ignored by the Ecuadorian authorities. Is it a coincidence?
Result guaranteed
Immediately after the massacre was officially confirmed, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso convened an emergency meeting of the security cabinet and, canceling his visit to the United States, immediately returned to the country. Also, amid unrest in prisons and due to a “crisis in the entire local penitentiary system,” a planned trip to South Korea was postponed.
Strictly speaking, the declared “crisis in the penitentiary system” did not begin in Ecuador last week.
The country has become famous throughout the world for the terrible prison showdowns in the genre of horror films, which were organized among themselves by representatives of such gangs as Los Lobos, Los Choneros and many others. At the right moment, the bandits found themselves in the hands of communications equipment, firearms, and all possible types of piercing and cutting weapons. However, in some cases they made do with whatever was at hand. For example, one of the local “traditions” is cutting off the enemy’s head and then desecrating the body.
We won’t be too surprised if we assume that this happened this time too - it’s not for nothing that the Ecuadorian authorities announced that a special examination was needed to identify the dead.
And, frankly speaking, sending persons to one of the prisons in Guayaquil, not supported by security or an agreement with representatives of the criminal community, greatly increases the chances that these persons will not live to see any trial. The result, as they say, is guaranteed.
We shouldn’t rule out the possibility that they got rid of the mercenaries on purpose - after all, they not only fulfilled the order, but also paved the way for much more interesting events.
A little about the “postponed” visit
Information about the postponed visit of the Ecuadorian president to the United States caused some confusion among people unfamiliar with the issue of the politician’s close relationship with the White House and the surrounding area.
Let's start with the fact that President Lasso flies to the States with enviable regularity, but with an unenviable reason - to visit oncologists.
At the same time, medical visits often coincide with private meetings of a work nature, and the cancellation (or rather, the reduction in duration) of one of them will do little to change the relationship between Washington and the Latin American politician, who visits the American administration almost more often than anyone else on the continent.
Just over a week before the murder of the suspects in the liquidation of Villavicencio, Guillermo Lasso - and with him the leadership of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Internal Affairs - flew to a closed briefing at the White House. Representatives of the Pentagon, the US Coast Guard and individual congressmen were also present.
No one officially released the details of the meeting, but it was no secret that the meeting was related to the assassination of a presidential candidate, as well as the development of a joint approach to ensuring security in Ecuador.
Soon, some conservative media published materials that at a briefing, the Ecuadorian authorities entered into an agreement to station part of the American military contingent in the country. And not only on land, but also in the water area.
Even if something like this had happened, it would not have caused any particular difficulties - if we are talking about legal subtleties - for the parties.
The United States and Ecuador have long had agreements on jointly combating the illegal drug trade (which also involves regulating defense-related issues), as well as a number of agreements with the Coast Guard and other units of the US Navy. The latter, for example, have long been patrolling the waters of Ecuador and the related waters of the Galapagos Islands, where Chinese fishing vessels like to illegally visit.
And at the end, the Ecuadorian government ratified another agreement with the United States on tracking and intercepting civilian aircraft suspected of drug trafficking.
With a high degree of probability, the last briefing in Washington concerned the activities of the FBI team investigating the murder of Villavicencio and so “successfully” missed the destruction of all suspects in this case, as well as events related to the second round of the presidential election, which is scheduled for this Sunday, 15 October.
Preparing for the elections
The leaders in the second round of the presidential election are currently the leader of the center-left (often characterized as right-wing) movement “National Democratic Action” (and also the son of one of the richest businessmen in the country) Daniel Noboa, as well as the head of the left-wing coalition “Civil Revolution ” Luisa Gonzalez .
The “Civil Revolution,” by the way, responded to the murder of six prisoners, saying that responsibility for what happened “falls on the Ecuadorian state” and there was an attempt to hide the masterminds of this crime.
Representatives of Noboa also commented on what happened, but a little softer - they just demanded the truth about what happened in the Litoral prison.
According to first-round results released in August, 33.25% of voters voted for Gonzalez. For Noboa - 24.15%. However, by the beginning of October, some local experts began to say that they believed more in Noboa’s victory - especially against the backdrop of the fact that Gonzalez promised to make ex-President Rafael Correa , who is currently hiding in Belgium from corruption charges, one of the advisers.
Noboa, while refraining from zealous criticism of Gonzalez, on the contrary, made the most striking promises to give local youth jobs and attract foreign investment to the country.
In addition, many have noticed that the current confrontation between candidates is very reminiscent of past elections, where the “Civil Revolution” also competed with the young socialist Andres Arauz and the conservative millionaire Guillermo Lasso .
Arauz also won the first round by an impressive margin, also earned 33% of the vote, managed to go to friendly negotiations in Washington, but “suddenly” disgraced himself by having connections with Colombian militants and providing false information about working at the Central Bank.
Then Lasso also became involved in several corruption scandals, but managed to turn the enemy’s scandals to his advantage, reduce the lead, and then win altogether. It is possible that in these elections Noboa (a graduate of several American universities, including Harvard) will be able to repeat this. Despite the fact that no one at one time even expected second place from him in the first round.
One way or another, we will find out the identity of the new president of Ecuador very soon. So far, both candidates promise to deal with gangs and drug cartels, restore order in prisons and address security issues. You shouldn’t be deluded by such assurances - this has been the rhetorical formula of almost every local politician over the past ten years.
One can only hope that no one else will be shot before October 15th. And even then without excessive optimism. Indeed, the day after the murder of six accused of liquidating a presidential candidate, a seventh was killed in prison.
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