A presidential candidate in Ecuador who had been outspoken about the link between organized crime and government officials was assassinated on Wednesday evening at a political rally in the capital, just days before an election that was expected to be dominated by concerns over drug-related violence.
The candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist, was gunned down outside a high school in Quito after speaking to young supporters.
“When he stepped outside the door, he was met with gunfire,” said Carlos Figueroa, who worked for Mr. Villavicencio’s campaign and was at the rally. “There was nothing to be done, because they were shots to the head.”
Mr. Villavicencio, 59, was polling near the middle of an eight-person race. He was among the most vocal candidates on the issue of crime and state corruption.
It was the first assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador and came less than a month after the mayor of Manta, a port city, was shot to death during a public appearance. Ecuador, once a relatively safe nation, has been consumed by violence related to narco-trafficking in the last five years.
“Outraged and shocked by the assassination,” President Guillermo Lasso wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, late Wednesday, blaming the death on “organized crime.”
The national prosecutor’s office said an hour later, on the same platform, that a suspect had been shot and apprehended amid crossfire with security forces, and had died shortly afterward.
This is terrible, I think this further hammers that they need to tackle corruption and organized crime.
As long as there is a demand for drugs like coke (and while the production remains illegal), countries like Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia will probably still see these issues. Look what happens when a candidate speaks out against corruption. Would you want to run in his place?
Demand is not the issue, criminalization is. Legalize, regulate and tax all drugs like a normal product to take the supply chain out of the hands of organized crime. Use part of the income of the taxes to treat addiction as a medical issue and not a criminal one.
Why are drugs even illegal in the first place? It’s not like drugs are a new thing. Recreative drug use has been common for millennia without it being criminalized and society functioned just fine. This whole war on drugs is just beyond stupid.
Here’s a great documentary which answers this question. It focuses on cannabis but I guess the reasons are similar for hard drugs: money, politics and racism.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/nJyCqhpplZs
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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Oh, I know why; the question was meant metaphorically.
You’re 100% right but even in a country like Canada the money put into prevention for addiction of gambling or alcohol as two examples is so goddamn piss poor it’s a joke.
The underlying problem is we know the solution and you just stated it but it’s toothless when you halfass which is all we do.