A view of the rally site where Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed at a campaign event in Quito, Ecuador August 9, 2023.
REUTERS/Karen Toro/File PhotoAug 10 (Reuters) - Ecuador was reeling on Thursday from the slaying of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio the night before, less than two weeks before elections were to take place.
The killing of Villavicencio, a vocal critic of corruption and drug crime that have beset Ecuador, underlines a deteriorating security situation in much of South America.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SECURITY IN ECUADOR?
Verisk Maplecroft similarly attributed an "unprecedented surge in brutal criminality" to growing " trans-national drug-trafficking organizations and violent street gangs."
Persons:
Fernando Villavicencio, Karen Toro, Villavicencio, Verisk Maplecroft, Guyaquil, Guillermo Lasso, Villavicencio's, Lasso, Luis Donaldo Colosio, Colombia's, Luis Carlos Galan, Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner, Jair Bolsonaro, Oliver Griffin, Cynthia Osterman
Organizations:
REUTERS, Colombia's Liberal, Thomson
Locations:
Quito, Ecuador, South America, ECUADOR, Colombia, Europe, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Argentine