The victims were accused of murdering Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, prison authorities said
Six Colombians who were held in a prison in Guayaquil, in the southwestern part of Ecuador, were killed yesterday Friday. The victims were accused of murdering Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, penitentiary authorities (SNAI) announced.
An outspoken critic of corruption and organized crime, Villavicencio, 59, was shot dead by gunmen on August 9 as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito.
Police arrested the six Colombians hours after Villavicencio’s murder, while a seventh was killed in a shootout with security forces.
Some of Ecuador’s prisons have become centers of gang operations, fighting for power and control of the drug trade. Since February 2021, at least 430 inmates have been murdered inside the country’s prisons.
Once an oasis of peace in Latin America, Ecuador, between Colombia and Peru – the two countries where the largest quantities of cocaine are produced in the world – has been plagued in recent years by a wave of violence linked to organized crime and drug trafficking. The homicide rate has quadrupled compared to 2018, from six to 26 per 100,000 residents.
Source :Skai
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