Seven accused in the murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio have been executed in prison, the country’s prison system reported on Saturday.
The National Service for Adult Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) reported a statement on the death of the seventh inmate, although it did not provide further details about the circumstances in which the crime took place.
He also did not mention his nationality and only identified him as “José M.” Authorities have not revealed who was behind the killings or how they might have happened in the same prisons.
These murders led President Guillermo Lasso to hold a last-minute meeting with his security cabinet to analyze the situation in prisons. The president suspended his diplomatic activities planned for the coming days in Korea.
The first six alleged killers were killed on Friday. They are Colombians and were arrested a few hours after the Villavicencio crime on August 9 in Quito. All the prisoners are in the Litoral Penitentiary, in the city of Guayaquil, which is considered the most dangerous prison in the Andean country.
In a statement, the Colombian Foreign Ministry condemned the killing of six of its citizens and offered its support to the Ecuadorian authorities in the investigations to “clarify this unpleasant truth.”
The Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office reported that it was conducting autopsies to determine the cause of death, although it did not release the results.
The murdered Colombians were identified as Jhon Gregore R., Andrés Manuel M., Adey Fernando G., Camilo Andrés R., Sules Osmini C., and José Neyder L., who weeks before gave their statements from Guayaquil in a hearing requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, and regarding this, no details have been released.
The investigation process into the murder, in which the Prosecutor’s Office is pursuing 13 people involved, including the seven alleged killers who were killed, is scheduled to end in the coming days.
