Who was Fernando Villavicencio, the presidential candidate stubborn in fighting corruption in Ecuador

Fierce in his fight against corruption, the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio filed complaints of irregularities in state contracts until days before he was shot dead in the capital of Ecuadorafter participating in a political rally.

One of his journalistic investigations brought the former president to the bench Rafael Correa (2007-2017). The report made with his colleague and friend Christian Zurita uncovered a bribery scheme that put the ex-president and his government officials on the ropes for having received bribes from businessmen.

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In this case, Correa, who is taking refuge in Belgium and to which Villavicencio referred as “the fugitive”, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison.

His investigations earned him prison orders. In 2014 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted him precautionary measures after being sentenced to 18 months in jail for insulting Correa. On that occasion, he hid in the Amazon jungle to avoid serving his sentence.

Two years later, a judge ordered his imprisonment for allegedly revealing classified information with hacked emails to the Correa administration to support investigations into corruption in oil deals.

So he took refuge in Lime until 2017 when he returned to the country under the government of the Lenin Moreno (2017-2021), distanced from Correa.

Last week, Villavicencio twice denounced threats against his life and his campaign team. The candidate had police custody when he was shot at as he left a meeting with supporters.

“Despite the new threats, we will continue fighting for the brave people of our #Ecuador”, Villavicencio, now called X, wrote on Twitter, denouncing intimidating messages.

Aged 59, Villavicencio ranked second in the polls, behind the correísta candidate Luisa Gonzalezaccording to the pollster cedatos.

sponsored by the movements build and Good peoplethe journalist and ex-assembly member was seeking for the first time the presidency of Ecuadorin atypical elections to be held on August 20.

MORE INFORMATION: The OAS condemns the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Ecuador

Early elections take place after the president William Lasso dissolved the National Assembly.

“Against the oil industry”

Among Villavicencio’s proposals was the construction of a maximum security prison in the Amazon.

“My government is going to be a government with a strong hand against violence, but we are going to mainly attend to unemployment”, he recently declared to the press.

Born in the Andean town of alausiin the province of Chimborazo (south), Villavicencio was the eldest of six children and grew up in the countryside until his family migrated to Quito.

From a very young age he workedpeeling fish, shells” of “waiter, waiter”, according to what he recounted in a recent interview with the newspaper The universe.

He became involved with the oil industry -of which he had extensive knowledge- when he held a position in the community relations area of ​​the state-owned company Petroecuador.

“My work was against the oil industry because what I did was investigate and record the impacts of the oil industry.“, he pointed.

He added that “always ended up issuing reports against the company itself”.

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When he left the oil sector, he dedicated himself to practicing journalism in the portals Plan V, Strudel and Investigation journalism.

Villavicencio, whom his sympathizers called Don Villacame to occupy a place in the National Assembly, where he presided over the Control Commission that he called Lasso to impeach for an alleged case of corruption, something with which the candidate did not agree.

The last complaint that Villavicencio presented splashes the former vice president Jorge Glasformer minister of the Correa government, and Petroecuador for alleged illegal contracts in the award of 21 oil wells to foreign companies.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.