MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador: 3 people arrested in Manta mayor murder probe

“There is a fourth person” involved in the crime, but he is already in jail, Zapata explained

Ecuadorian authorities Friday announced the arrest of three people suspected of being involved in the July 23 murder of Manta Mayor Agustín Intriago and a young woman when gunmen opened fire at a municipal construction site.

“Three alleged material authors of the crime of the mayor of Manta were arrested,” Interior Minister Juan Zapata said during a press conference. He added that among those arrested were a Dominican and two Ecuadorians, including a woman. “There is a fourth member” involved in the crime, but he is in jail, added the minister without giving more details. Police Chief Fausto Salinas said “binding calls” between the inmate and the other accomplices in the crime had been found. On the day of the attack, an alleged assailant was injured and taken to a hospital under custody.

Manabi is the second province with the most murders in Ecuador behind Guayas, according to the police unit Dinased, in charge of investigating violent deaths and disappearances. Between January and June, 370 homicides were registered in that province.

Meanwhile, relatives of slain presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio said President Guillermo Lasso was guilty of “murder by wilful omission.”

Lawyer Marco Yaulema representing the family questioned the security protocols applied on Aug. when the candidate was killed as he entered the back of a double-cabin unarmored pickup truck. “When he was already in the back seat, he received two bullets in the face and one in the brain. There was a willful omission, the Ecuadorian State did not fulfill its role as guarantor,” said Yaulema. The complaint is also aimed at Zapata and Salinas, among other officials. Yaulema also pointed out that the family and those close to Villavicencio needed urgent protection, and warned that if anything happens to them, the State will be responsible for omission.

After these statements, the Ecuadorian Government said in a statement that it was “unacceptable to consider that the actions of the President, the Minister of the Interior, and the General Commander of the Police were 'premeditated' with the purpose of 'abandoning a presidential candidate'.”

Lasso's administration asked that the case not be politicized and that the justice system be allowed to move forward with the investigations to reach “a procedural truth”.

“It is what is fair for democracy, society, for the candidate's family, and for the memory of Fernando Villavicencio, for whom the national government has always held the highest consideration and deep respect,” the statement also read.

The mastermind of the murder, which was carried out by a group of at least seven Colombians, is still unknown. Six of them were arrested a few hours later and are in custody, while another was presumably killed in an exchange of gunfire with security personnel guarding Villavicencio.