The traditional day of silence, which precedes the opening of the polls, is not such in Ecuador, despite the fact that since last week the state of exception has reigned throughout the country. A new shooting interrupted the breakfast in Guayaquil of presidential candidate Otto Sonnenholzner, in another example of impunity for crime in the Andean country. “We have just suffered a shooting in front of the place where I was having breakfast with my family. Thank God we are all fine, but we demand an investigation into what happened. The fear and impotence that I saw in the eyes of everyone present hurts me. We cannot continue like this. Tomorrow we change course!”, reacted the former centrist vice president on social networks.
At the time of the shots, Sonnenholzner was posing for the selfie that a fan had requested. He immediately panicked. Minutes later, local media reported the arrest of several individuals, who were pursued by the Police from the scene of the events. At least four men and one woman were eventually captured.
The authorities have ruled out that it was an attack against the candidate. Apparently the shooting originated when the police were chasing some suspected criminals after a robbery.
Hours before, it was Pancho Tamariz, the revolutionary mayor of La Libertad, who denounced the attack suffered at night together with his wife. The armored truck in which they were traveling received about thirty bullets. The mayor first accused elements of the National Police from the outset. “They gave us a bullet for no reason or explanation. Fleeing was the logical thing to do while we were living in hell. God made us alive today. We will present the complaint today at the Prosecutor’s Office, yesterday they refused to receive it,” the mayor claimed.
Ecuador will live tomorrow an electoral day marked by the assassination of the candidate Fernando Villavicencio, murdered last week by Colombian hitmen. Drug-trafficking mafias and organized crime have expanded virulently, especially on the coast, and crime has skyrocketed in a country where tranquility reigned until very recently.
