At least six people have been detained as part of an investigation into the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, the South American country’s Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

“As of now, six people were detained during raids in the Conocoto and San Bartolo [neighborhoods] of [the capital] Quito as part of an investigation into the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio,” the statement reads.

Villavicencio was assassinated at a campaign event in the capital on Wednesday night. At least nine other people suffered wounds in the attack. The Prosecutor General’s Office said that one of the suspects in the attack had been fatally wounded in a shootout with police.

Ecuador will hold an early general election on August 20. Opinion polls had placed Villavicencio, a center-right candidate, in fourth or fifth place.

In May 2023, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso called an early election in order to dissolve parliament, saying that lawmakers were preventing the government from carrying out reforms. Lasso, whose term in office was initially to have expired in 2025, announced that he would not run in the election.

Source: Agencies