Ecuador prosecutor accuses seven of masterminding Villavicencio assassination

Ecuador's Fiscalía has formally accused seven individuals, including prominent figures and alleged criminal associates, as the intellectual authors behind the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The charges target individuals accused of orchestrating the killing of the anti-corruption legislator.

The accused include businessman Xavier Jordán, former Interior Minister José Serrano, ex-congressman Ronny Aleaga, and Wilmer Chavarría, known as alias Pipo and identified as the top leader of the Los Lobos criminal gang, along with three other individuals linked to the group. The Fiscalía requested that pre-trial detention orders against the seven be maintained and sought Interpol red notices for four of them who reside abroad.

According to the prosecution, Jordán, who lives in the United States, "financed and planned" the assassination. Serrano, a former minister under leftist President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and currently in a U.S. immigration detention center, allegedly provided Los Lobos with "sensitive" information about Villavicencio's movements. Aleaga, a former correísta congressman who is currently seeking asylum in Venezuela, is accused of coordinating "actions to carry out the assassination."

Alias Pipo allegedly planned the murder in exchange for $1 million and faces extradition proceedings to Ecuador from Spain. Villavicencio, a former investigative journalist, was known for his relentless pursuit of corruption cases that implicated the government of Correa, as well as sectors of the right and organized crime figures. His assassination occurred in August 2023 as he was leaving a campaign rally in Quito, just a week before the presidential elections in which he was a candidate.

This development follows the conviction of five other individuals who received sentences of up to 34 years as material perpetrators of the assassination. The gunman was killed by Villavicencio's bodyguards at the scene, and six Colombians allegedly linked to the crime were subsequently murdered in prison.

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accuses the 7 defendants as mediate authors for their alleged participation in the crime of #Assassination