Unprecedented violence rocking Ecuador claimed the life of another political leader on Monday, six days before presidential elections, bringing the number of politically-related killings this summer to four, including that of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, last week.
The victim of the shooting is Pedro Briones, a local leader of the Citizen Revolution movement, led by former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa (2007-2017). His murder, in the parish of San Mateo, in the northern province of Esmeraldas, on the border with Colombia, was confirmed by Luisa González, favorite in the extraordinary presidential elections on Sunday and a member of the same party.
"Ecuador is living its bloodiest time," González tweeted. "A heartfelt hug to the family of colleague Pedro Briones, who fell at the hands of violence." "They murdered another of our colleagues in Esmeraldas. Enough is enough!", former President Correa, exiled in Belgium, also wrote on social networks.
The murder of Briones, who was a political leader in a rural area of San Mateo de Esmeraldas, near the border with Colombia, came less than a week after the South American country was rocked by the assassination in broad daylight on candidate for the Construye movement, Villavicencio, who had a famously tough stance against organized crime and corruption. Six Colombians were detained for the shooting that took place at the end of a political rally in the capital Quito, despite having a security detail that included police and bodyguards.
Before Villavicencio, other politicians and candidates had also been murdered in a similar way, such as the mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago, and the candidate for assembly for Esmeraldas Ryder Sánchez, from the Actuemos alliance, led by former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner, both occurred in July.
The assassination of Omar Menéndez, candidate of the Citizen Revolution for mayor of Puerto López, which occurred just one day after a vote by municipal authorities held on February 5, also had a great impact.
This series of murders is part of the rise of violence in Ecuador, which caused it to end last year with 25.32 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest figure in its history.
The Government attributes this phenomenon to organized crime and drug trafficking, which have become strong especially in the coastal zone of Ecuador, where they have turned Ecuadorian ports into large shuttles to deliver cocaine to the United States and Latin America. Crime and violence have dominated discussions surrounding Sunday's election.
