Violence takes over democracy in Ecuador

The assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, the best known of the six candidates competing in the presidential elections to be held on the 20th in Ecuador, is yet another example of how drug-trafficking-led crime continues to take power in some Latin American countries. 

The economic power of the drug trade and its export to the United States and Europe is overpowering the laws and advocates of democratic authorities who, despite any goodwill they may have, are failing in their attempts to impose order. Many well-meaning politicians know they have lost.

"Drug traffickers control everything, sometimes with millions and often resorting to violence, which after all is cheaper for them", said a Mexican sociologist recently, expressing his pessimism about the power that drugs were gaining in a war without quarter, which leaves victims, imposes decisions, mediates the independence of justice and has no qualms about bribing, terrorising and killing. Politicians and, above all, journalists who dare to report and denounce are the scapegoats. 

Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, who tried unsuccessfully to get the traditionally peaceful country to put an end to this fusion of criminal gangs, the maras, who sow violence and impose a lack of control on a cowed citizenry, reached a point where he could no longer bear the situation. 

He is the only president to head a conservative government in the midst of Sandinista republics and demagogic regimes, and he chose to resign, dissolve parliament and call elections six months in advance so that the voters themselves could elect someone more capable than him to restore peace.

The political atmosphere in Ecuador has long been poisoned by the shadow of former President Rafael Correa, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption and has since been living in Belgium, where he continues to take advantage of the popularity he left behind to complicate the stability sought by his successors. 

In the elections to be held in nine days' time, the candidate who represents him, Luisa González, is anticipated to be the favourite among the six aspirants who will compete in the polls. One of them, Fernando Villavicencio, a veteran journalist who took a risk in the face of chaos, was not among the favourites and yet was murdered for his criticism of drug trafficking.

At the end of a rally in which he once again criticised the situation into which Ecuadorian society has fallen, gunmen fired three bullets into his head, killing him in a matter of seconds. Several times he had repeated, denouncing the criminals who were threatening him, that he was not afraid. He lived under round-the-clock threat and had a bodyguard who is now being accused of being ineffective in failing to protect him. One more doubt in the controversy that the distressing news has awakened. 

President Lasso, who remains in office until the election of his successor, declared a state of emergency and the other five candidates suspended their campaigns.

One of the assassins was shot by security agents and died hours later while six accomplices have been arrested. According to the police, all six are Colombian, proving that the drug cartels have their own international organisations to further complicate their persecution. 

The Mexican president quickly denied that the perpetrators were members of any of his cartels, but the reality shows that Mexican cartels have considerable experience in assassinating, particularly journalists who denounce their actions.