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Ecuador: Suspects tied to candidate's murder killed in jail

October 7, 2023

The six inmates who were killed in the infamous Guayas 1 prison were suspected of assassinating of Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in August.

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Members of the forensic police enter the Guayas 1 prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador
Ecuador's government has assured that authorities are determined to identify those behind Villavicencio's murderImage: Gerardo Menoscal/AFP

Six inmates were killed in a Guayaquil jail in Ecuador on Friday, in the latest bout of prison unrest. The inmates were the suspects in the assassination of a leading presidential candidate, officials confirmed.

They "are of Colombian nationality and were accused of the murder of the former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio," the National Service of Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) said in a statement. The SNAI is Ecuador's prison authority.

The statement came after Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso temporarily called off a visit to Seoul and returned from a trip to New York to handle the incident.

The country's government has since condemned the prison killings.

Lasso ordered an immediate meeting of the Security Cabinet and assured "neither complicity nor cover-up" in getting to the bottom of the crime. "Here the truth will be known," he said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. 

What do we know about the killings?

Earlier in the day, the SNAI released a statement informing the public about the prison killings, without confirming that they were the suspects in Villavicencio's assassination case.

The public prosecutor's office said that its agents, along with police and the military, were "executing security protocols... in light of the disturbance that occurred Friday afternoon."

"In the coming hours, specialized military personnel will carry out the first raids and reconnaissance of Cellblock 7, where the incidents originated, to take control of the situation,” it added in a statement on X.

Prison riots are common in Ecuador where rival drug-trafficking gangs are also known to smuggle in weapons into prison. In July, a riot in the Guayas 1 prison left more than 30 people dead. 

Presidential candidate assassinated at rally in Ecuador

mk/dj (Reuters, AFP)