One evening this August, Fernando Villavicencio, a prominent candidate for the presidency of Ecuador, had just finished a campaign rally at a school in northern Quito. The longtime journalist and trade unionist was running under the banner of a centrist conservative party, though much of his rhetoric hewed to outsider populism. The country’s political leaders were too corrupt to govern effectively, he said, and a shake-up was needed if its people were to break free of organized crime. “For years, rivers of money have flown to the pockets of white-collared criminals,” he told the hundreds of people in attendance. He’d been in the middle of the presidential pack for a while, but one recent poll now had him in second place.
As he stepped outside the school, a team of tall, beefy security staff in blue puffer jackets scanned the throngs of press and supporters, as did a group of police officers. Supporters hollered and shoved around Villavicencio as he walked to his silver SUV. Just as the vehicle’s door closed, however, 12 gunshots pierced the din. As the crowd scattered, the security staff and police found that Villavicencio had been shot several times, including in the head. (The car wasn’t bulletproof.) He was rushed to a nearby clinic, where he was pronounced dead.
