Ex-Police Officer Claims Agents Knew of Plot to Assassinate Candidate Villavicencio

An Ecuadorian ex-police officer has asserted that law enforcement agents and high-ranking officials possessed prior knowledge of the planned assassination attempt against presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was murdered in 2023. The former officer's statements, detailed in the newspaper El Universo, suggest that police were already conducting surveillance and had intercepted communications from the criminal organization intending to target Villavicencio.

According to Edwin Romero, the politician's family lawyer, the ex-officer provided information indicating that police personnel from an investigative unit within the Anti-Narcotics division were tracking the criminal structure. Romero stated that the former officer also mentioned an existing report detailing the names of generals and colonels who were aware of the impending attack.

The testimony was given in a "cámara de gesell," a secure room for witness testimony, and its full content remains undisclosed by the Prosecutor's Office. However, other involved parties' lawyers and Villavicencio's daughters shared some details after the hearing. The ex-officer, identified as Rodney Rengel, is reportedly under investigation for allegedly disseminating restricted information.

Amanda Villavicencio, one of the politician's daughters, reported that Rengel also claimed to have attended meetings with Correísmo members where strategies were devised to construct a narrative suggesting the case was fabricated. Renato Montero, the lawyer for Daniel Salcedo, a businessman convicted of corruption and also under investigation for the murder, stated that former President Rafael Correa and ex-assembly member Ronny Aleaga, a former leader of the Latin Kings and one of seven defendants in the case, were allegedly present at these meetings. Also implicated are former minister José Serrano, businessman Xavier Jordán, and three leaders of Los Lobos, Ecuador's largest criminal group, including its leader Wilmer Chavarría, known as 'Pipo'.

Rengel's testimony was received two days before the preparatory hearing for the trial, scheduled to begin this Friday. Villavicencio was shot and killed on August 9, 2023, shortly after leaving a rally, just days before the first round of extraordinary elections. Five individuals have been convicted as material perpetrators of the assassination, while eight other individuals involved in the case, including the seven Colombian hitmen, died before their trial.