Who Was Fernando Villavicencio?

Union chief. Muckraking journalist. Legislator. Presidential candidate. And now, murderer’s sufferer.

Fernando Villavicencio, who was gunned down at a rally on Wednesday, had a protracted 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 a vital position 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 2017. A commodities growth helped him raise hundreds of thousands out of poverty, however his authoritarian model and the corruption allegations that trailed him deeply divided the nation.

And Mr. Villavicencio was “always contesting the power” of Mr. Correa, in accordance 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 printed himself. Some of his work led to demise threats and costs that have been extensively criticized as politically motivated. He fled to Peru in 2017 to hunt political asylum.

There, he met with a pal from his undergraduate days on the Central University of Ecuador. He had no cash to struggle the fees in opposition to him, and had been compelled to go away behind his spouse and two younger youngsters.

“He felt bullied and diminished,” stated the pal, Grace Jaramillo, who’s now a political scientist on the University of British Columbia.

But later that yr, Mr. Correa left workplace, and Mr. Villavicencio returned dwelling. He gained a seat within the National Assembly, the place he served till May, 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 Build Ecuador Movement, a broad coalition, and likewise 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 probabilities, in accordance with Ms. Jaramillo. But he was gunned down earlier than voters might ship their verdict.

Soon after the killing, Mr. Correa, the previous president, issued a lament on social media.

“They have assassinated Fernando Villavicencio,” Mr. Correa wrote. “Ecuador has become a failed state.”