Journalist, trade unionist and political activist. Fernando Villavicencio ran for president on August 20 in an attempt to prevent Correísmo from returning to power.
The Ecuadorian presidential candidate for the Construye movement Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead this Wednesday afternoon, after an attack allegedly carried out by assassins, in Quito (Ecuador) after a campaign rally. At the age of 59, he was a trade unionist in his youth and advised the federation of workers of the state oil company, where he was dismissed as a left-wing politician.
He graduated in journalism from a controversial university that has already been dissolved and was charged with handing out degrees for money, but his prestige as investigative journalist he cut it out with the suspicions of corruption which he launched against members of the government of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017). He embodied the so-called “anticorreísmo”, a tendency openly critical of Correa, whom he blamed for almost all the ills the country suffers.
Also, a friend from the US embassy, Villavicencio, obtained much of the data and analysis that was used at the time to compile the trials for which the former president and several of his associates were convicted of corruption, a sentence Correa calls political persecution.
Before running for president, he headed the oversight committee of the National Assembly (Parliament) between May 2021 and May 2023, until the country’s current president, the conservative William Lassoappealed to the constitutional source of “crusader death” to dissolve parliament and call extraordinary elections.
Villavicencio, who criticized Lasso in many cases, also defended him and some of his rivals considered him the secret candidate of the ruling party, something he denied.
Originally from the Andean municipality of Alusí, in the province of Chimborazo, in the heart of Ecuador, Villavicencio also worked in information media such as the old magazine Vanguardia and was a political advisor to the former legislator of the indigenous movement Pachakutik Cléver Jiménez, between 2009 and 2017.
In an interview after announcing his presidential aspirations, Villavicencio, who initially identified himself as moderately left and who currently claimed to be from the center, assured that he wanted to run for president to “confront and defeat the mafia who have co-opted themselves.” defeat”. the state and kneel before society”.
Source: EITB
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
