Those who ordered the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio knew that the only way to silence him was with a clean shot. A journalist in a constant fight against corruption, a whip against the excesses of Rafael Correa’s citizen revolution and a deputy against the current at the head of the Honesty Alliance, Don Villa, as he called himself, never backed down.
He did not do it in front of the almighty Correa, sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption and a fugitive today from Ecuadorian justice, so much so that he became his nemesis. But neither did he tremble in his voice against the drug lords, who have invaded Ecuador and have led the Andean country to the greatest wave of violence known in its more than two centuries of independence.
His investigations cost him exile in the United States and Peru, he even had to hide for 18 months in the Amazon, protected by the indigenous people. Close to President Guillermo Lasso during this legislature, Villavicencio chaired the Parliament commission that studied the impeachment trial against the president, an operation to overthrow him openly criticized by the assassinated leader after a rally in Quito.
Hours before the hitmen ended his life, the candidate spoke openly in front of his followers: “They told me to wear a vest, here I am, sweaty shirt, damn it! You are my bulletproof vest, I need you. You are a brave people and I am brave like you. You are the ones who take care of me. Come, here I am, they said they were going to break me! Here is Don Villa, let the drug dealers come, let the hitmen come, let them come the vaccinators (extortionists). The time for threats is over, here I am! They may bend me, but they will never break me.”
Villavicencio’s premonitory words perfectly represent this political personality with an incendiary verb, born 59 years ago very close to the Chimborazo volcano, the point on earth closest to the Sun. In a land of few words, almost always soft, Villavicencio He stood out for the opposite. Let them tell the directors of the state-owned PetroEcuador, fed up with that union leader who pressed and pressed with his demands and who was capable of packing assemblies with speeches.
Those were times when Villavicencio was a member of the left, very close even to the Pachakutik indigenous movement, which he abandoned over the years until he positioned himself between the center and the center right. However, in the parliamentary elections two years ago he had the support of the Socialist Party.
Already turned into a journalist without mincing words, Villavicencio hit Correa again and again. In his first book, ‘The discreet charm of the citizen revolution’, the activist also made his first complaints against the energy businesses of the newcomers to power. Thus began a crusade that served to reveal the corruption of Correa and his followers. Without Villavicencio, the historic ruling in the Bribery Case against the former president would not have been reached.
“The supposed revolution took the power of the State and turned the Presidential House into a den of thieves. Rafael Correa turned the State into a criminal structure,” Villavicencio summed up after the sentence against his great political enemy. Those who persecuted began to be persecuted by Justice thanks to independent journalists, led by Villavicencio and courageous judges.
Last year, the candidate denounced a failed attack on the door of his home: “It is a barbaric response to my revelations about the links between organized crime and drug cartels with Correísmo. When politics is contaminated with drug trafficking, society succumb to terror.”
A date marked a before and after in the life of Villavicencio: September 30, 2010. That day, the ruling party took advantage of a supposed coup to radicalize Correa’s authoritarian drift. Villavicencio and other colleagues dared to denounce the inconsistencies in the official account, which led to their persecution and discredit.
Villavicencio never backed down and despite constant harassment he continued to found investigative media and unravel the plots of power, including bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
“They killed my friend,” lamented Christian Zurita, another of Ecuador’s great researchers and Villavicencio’s journalistic travel companion during one of his stages. The murdered journalist was the standard-bearer of the Good People Movement, created by himself, and had the support of the centrist Construye.
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