Colombian nationals are accused of having assassinated the Haitian president in 2021. Two years later, the Ecuadorian authorities also suspect Colombians of having killed a presidential favorite, highlighting the “specialization” of organized crime in the South American countries.
The former journalist and fierce defender of corruption Fernando Villavicencio was killed Wednesday evening in the capital Quito, at the end of an electoral rally. A week earlier, he had twice reported threats against him and his team.
The main local newspaper, El Universo, claimed he had been killed “using the method of the sicarios (hit men), with three bullets to the head”.
Second in voting intentions, the 59-year-old centrist candidate was running for the presidency of his country for the first time, faced in recent years with a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking. The first round was held on August 20.
One of the presidential candidate’s alleged killers died in crossfire with law enforcement. The other six were arrested. According to the police, they are all of Colombian nationality.
During their arrest in different districts of the capital, the police got their hands on a rifle, a machine gun, grenades and hundreds of ammunition.
According to the Colombian press, they have a criminal record in their country. Some have already been convicted for arms trafficking, others for theft, drug trafficking, homicide or domestic violence.
Ecuadorian Interior Minister Juan Zapata on Thursday confirmed the involvement of “organized criminal groups” in the murder. “Organized crime has gone very far,” President Guillermo Lasso denounced earlier.
In a message of support, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro linked this murder to that of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 at his private residence in Port-au-Prince. The leader had been shot dead by a commando of suspected Colombian mercenaries.
“A gang of Colombian hitmen, mercenaries, traveled to Haiti to assassinate a president,” he said at an official event. “These criminal gangs of hired killers are unfortunately taking the Colombian model of political assassinations across borders,” he added.
At least seventeen former Colombian soldiers are in a prison in Port-au-Prince, as part of the investigation into the assassination of the Haitian president, but the sponsors are still not known.
This macabre coincidence highlights the “specialization” of organized crime in Colombia and the extension of its tentacles on the continent, underlines with AFP Jorge Mantilla, Colombian researcher on the conflict and organized crime.
The two assassinations “show the ability of these professionals of violence to come into contact with transnational criminal networks”, he continues, believing that their “specialization” results from the six-decade armed conflict in Colombia between guerrillas, paramilitaries, traffickers of drugs and security forces.
Before the assassination of the Haitian president, the presence of retired Colombian soldiers in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates was well known.
They protected buildings there on behalf of controversial security companies, such as the now-defunct American company Blackwater. Some call them mercenaries.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro acknowledged in March that his country had some responsibility for the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, saying he was going to Haiti to try to find a way out of the deep crisis there. He, however, remained silent on the Villavicencio affair.
08/12/2023 06:12:04 – Quito (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
