Ecuador declares state of emergency after presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio assassinated at political rally
Ecuador has declared a state of emergency after a gunman shot and killed presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio as he was leaving a political rally in Quito on Wednesday.
Incumbent president, Guillermo Lasso, declared three days of national mourning and a state of emergency that involves extra military personnel deployed throughout the country.
He said: “Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended, on the contrary, they have to be held, and democracy has to be strengthened.”
Video shared on social media of the shooting shows the politician walking out of the event surrounded by guards, escorting him through a crowd of people gathered outside, chanting and applauding.
Mr Villavicencio is then seen being ushered into the backseat of a waiting, white truck – moments before the gunfire rings out and the rear passenger door shuts.
More than a dozen gunshots can be heard – as well as shouts and screams as people run and duck for cover, inside and outside the venue.
A criminal group called Los Lobos – or “The Wolves” – has since claimed responsibility for the killing. It is the second largest criminal group in Ecuador, with more than 8,000 members across the country.
In a video released by the group, a member said: “We want to make it clear to the entire Ecuadorian nation that every time corrupt politicians don’t keep their promise that we agree to when they receive our money, which is millions of dollars to finance their campaign, they will be removed.
“Our organisation, Los Lobos, assumes responsibility for what happened this evening – and it will happen again when corrupt people don’t keep their word.”
Meanwhile, six people have been arrested in the wake of the incident.
The killing comes amid an alarming wave of violence in the country not seen for decades, with drug trafficking and violent killings on the rise.
Mr Lasso suggested an organised crime gang was behind the killing.
Mr Villavicencio was one of eight candidates in the 20 August presidential vote, though not the frontrunner.
“I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Mr Lasso said in a statement.
“Organised crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.”
Ecuador’s attorney general’s office said a suspect in the assassination died of wounds after being arrested by authorities.
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Patricio Zuquilanda, Mr Villavicencio’s campaign adviser, said the candidate had received death threats before the shooting, which he had reported to authorities and resulted in one detention.
He called on international authorities to take action against the violence, attributing it to drug trafficking.
“The Ecuadorian people are crying and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” he said.
“Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”
Police confirmed that several others were injured, including officers, describing the incident as a terrorist act and promising to get to the bottom of the killing.
Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio speaking at the rally
Mr Villavicencio, 59, was the candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement.
The politician was one of the most critical voices against corruption, especially during the government of former president Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2017.
He filed many judicial complaints against high ranking members of the Correa government.
Mr Villavicencio was married and is survived by five children.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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