Political violence is not something unfamiliar in Latin American countries. Since the independence processes in the early XIX century, the establishment of political regimes have been marketed by practices of violence, human right violations, coups, assassinations, and more. However, the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, the Ecuadorian candidate to president 11 days before the elections, crosses a threshold that has deep consequences not only for Ecuador but for the region in general.
Villavicencio was not the frontrunner in the electoral campaign; polls put him in 5th position among the candidates, but his candidacy was seen by Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) as a threat to their influence in the country. Known in Ecuador for his strong opposition against the former president Raphael Correa and his investigative work as a journalist, this veteran politician was recently focusing his attention on denouncing the escalation of violence caused by gangs operating in the country. In the last 3 years, cartels from Mexico and Colombia started operating massively in Ecuador, disputing territories and routes of drug trafficking, which caused an exponential growth in violence. Villavicencio drove his campaign with promises to fight corruption and the mafias that explore the country.
Investigations about who committed the assassination are still in course, but a video posted on social media of a criminal group operating in Ecuador claim the authorship. The group that claimed the action is known for controlling several prisons and has been involved in brutal homicides during recent prison rebellions.
If this is confirmed, we will have the direct interference of TOCs – not necessarily initiated in Ecuador – in the democratic electoral process. This evidences how much those groups represent a threat not only to public security but to democracies themselves. This assassination and the situation of violence in Ecuador are not the same political violence that the region has experienced in the past, but it represents another level of vulnerability of states to the violent interference of non-state actors such as TOCs.
For the region, the killing of Villavicencio demonstrated that countries must work much closer and in cooperation to reduce the power and influence of drug cartels. Latin American countries need to cooperate in terms of defence and security, finding solutions together for a threat that is not restricted to the boundaries of the nations, but that poses a risk for the democracies in the region.
The assassination of Fernando Villavicencio was not only an act of political violence in Ecuador, but it was also an existential attack to democracy in Latin America.