For Pablo Iturralde, the leader of the civil organization National Citizen Assembly (ANC), the main beneficiaries are the aspirants to the Executive branch with right-wing tendencies.
In a virtual debate organized by the Universidad de la Tierra, Iturralde commented that the State and democracy in Ecuador are being held hostage against the popular will by a pact between oligarchic groups that control financial capital and the mafias.
In his opinion, the crime that claimed Villavicencio’s life was something planned given the possibility that these mafias allied to financial and political power could lose in the elections against the progressive candidate who up to then led the polls, Luisa González. .
We are experiencing completely unprecedented situations and what has just happened was unthinkable in terms of geopolitical processes, Iturralde asserted, for whom this fact radically changes electoral trends.
The also member of the Center for Economic and Social Rights considered that the main beneficiary is the candidate Jan Topic, from the alliance between the Christian Social Party, the Democratic Center and the Patriotic Society, who presents himself as a standard-bearer in the fight against insecurity.
Another of those favored by what happened would be the United States, because the possibility that the progressive field wins in a single round and even in the second round is now in doubt, said the leader, while calling to close ranks to stop the maneuver of the pact between the banks and the mafias.
He warned that the large private media presented the assassination of Villavicencio “highlighting the denunciations and confrontations against correísmo”, with which they helped to generate the idea that the Citizen Revolution would have responsibility in those events.
Beyond the electoral forecasts and the doubts about who will replace Villavicencio as a candidate, his death enters the gloomy list of intentional homicides that have increased in recent years.
Although during the government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) the rate of violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants dropped to 5.6, in six years the murders increased fivefold.
Murders, kidnappings, extortion, robberies, are already part of the daily life of Ecuador, where the abandonment of the State is becoming more and more evident, without effective actions to curb the violence and the actions of gangs linked to drug trafficking.
Given these circumstances, for Ecuadorians the main concern is insecurity and they will put that as a priority when marking the ballot on August 20.
ef/lam/avr
