Prosecutors investigating the murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio have claimed that his killing was planned from prison.
They called for the indictment of six suspects (five Ecuadorian and one Colombian) in connection with this murder.
Villavicencio, 59, was shot dead as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito, days before the August 2023 presidential election.
He condemned the influence of gangs and promised to take action against them.
In the weeks leading up to the election, the politician received death threats and received security services.
However, he continued to campaign, and on August 9 he was shot dead by a group of assailants in front of a school in northern Quito.
During Tuesday’s court hearing, Prosecutor Ana Hidalgo explained the progress of the investigation.
She said the gunman believed to have fired the fatal shot died himself in a shootout with police after killing Mr Villavicencio.
Police used CCTV footage to identify one of the other attackers and tracked him to a house in the city’s east.
There they arrested six Colombian suspects and seized weapons, ammunition and hand grenades.
A few weeks later, the six were found dead in El Litoral prison, where they were being held.
Forensic experts said he died of suffocation. The Spanish newspaper El Pais, citing sources, reported that they were hanged.
The next day, a seventh suspect was killed in another prison.
Prosecutors say the seven people killed in prison were the assailants who attacked Villavicencio, but they were hired gunmen and the orders to kill the politicians came from an Ecuadorian prison.
Prosecutors added that they had traced messages sent to one of the gunmen to inmates at Latacunga Prison.
Both the inmate and the woman prosecutors accused of providing logistical support to the attackers are believed to be members of the Los Lobos criminal organization.
Prosecutors said the remaining four suspects were accomplices. The court is expected to decide later Wednesday whether to charge them.
Los Lobos (Wolves) has an estimated 8,000 members and is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Ecuador.
Many of its members are in prison, and the gang is believed to have instigated Ecuador’s bloodiest prison riot.
The gang is believed to have ties to Mexico’s powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel.
Gang violence has exploded in Ecuador in recent years, prompting President Daniel Novoa to declare a state of emergency.