Union chief. Muckraking journalist. Legislator. Presidential candidate. And now, murderer’s sufferer.
Fernando Villavicencio, who was gunned down at a rally on Wednesday, had an extended historical past in Ecuadorean public affairs, largely as an antagonist to these in energy. He rose to prominence as a union chief on the state oil firm, Petroecuador, and later performed an important function in exposing a corruption scandal involving the administration of former President Rafael Correa.
Mr. Correa, a socialist, was Ecuador’s longest-serving democratically elected president, main the nation for a decade, by way of 2017. A commodities increase helped him elevate hundreds of thousands out of poverty, however his authoritarian fashion and the corruption allegations that trailed him deeply divided the nation.
And Mr. Villavicencio was “all the time contesting the facility” of Mr. Correa, in keeping with Caroline Ávila, an Ecuadorean political analyst.
As a journalist, Mr. Villavicencio obtained paperwork a couple of authorities surveillance program that he despatched to WikiLeaks however ultimately revealed himself. A few of his work led to demise threats and costs that have been broadly criticized as politically motivated. He fled to Peru in 2017 to hunt political asylum.
There, he met with a good friend from his undergraduate days on the Central College of Ecuador. He had no cash to battle the fees towards him, and had been compelled to go away behind his spouse and two younger youngsters.
“He felt bullied and diminished,” mentioned the good friend, Grace Jaramillo, who’s now a political scientist on the College of British Columbia.
However later that yr, Mr. Correa left workplace, and Mr. Villavicencio returned residence. He received a seat within the Nationwide Meeting, the place he served till Might, when the legislature was dissolved by President Guillermo Lasso, who was dealing with impeachment proceedings over embezzlement accusations.
Mr. Lasso’s transfer additionally triggered a presidential election, with a vote set for Aug. 20. For his presidential run, Mr. Villavicencio, 59, solid himself because the anticorruption candidate. He was representing the Construct Ecuador Motion, a broad coalition, and in addition campaigned on points like private security, in a rustic that has been consumed by violence associated to narco-trafficking.
Mr. Villavicencio was polling close to the center of an eight-person race, however remained hopeful about his possibilities, in keeping with Ms. Jaramillo. However he was gunned down earlier than voters may ship their verdict.
Quickly after the killing, Mr. Correa, the previous president, issued a lament on social media.
“They’ve assassinated Fernando Villavicencio,” Mr. Correa wrote. “Ecuador has change into a failed state.”
