According to Lasso, the crime against Villavicencio could be an attempt to sabotage the elections. (Photo:PL)

Quito, Aug 10 (RHC) Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso decreed Thursday three days of national mourning in view of the shock caused throughout the country by the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, and declared a new state of emergency.

In a statement issued in the early hours of the morning at the conclusion of the meeting of the Security Cabinet, the President explained that the decision seeks to honor the memory of a patriot.

Regarding the state of exception -a measure he has already adopted in more than 10 occasions-, he explained that it will be for 60 days and will be applied throughout the national territory to facilitate the intervention of the Armed Forces in security actions.

Both Lasso and the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint, assured that the date of the presidential and legislative elections remains unchanged on Sunday, August 20, as well as the whole electoral calendar.

According to the president, the crime against Villavicencio could be an attempt to sabotage the elections, anticipated by him when he applied the cross-death mechanism in May.

For the Ecuadorian president it is not a coincidence that this political crime, of terrorist nature, took place a few days before the first presidential round and he thanked the national and international expressions of solidarity.

In the yellow room of the Carondelet Palace, seat of the Executive, the President was accompanied by the Attorney General, Diana Salazar, the head of the CNE, the president of the National Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, and Wilman Terán, president of the Judiciary Council.

The attack that took Villavicencio's life took place on Wednesday afternoon in the north of the Ecuadorian capital when he was leaving a campaign rally and when he got into a waiting van, he was shot several times in the head, according to witnesses.

We are not going to hand over power to organized crime even if it is disguised as political organizations, we must banish hate and revenge as a political practice, said the governor without directly accusing anyone.The crime occurred despite the fact that Villavicencio was traveling with police protection due to threats he had received weeks before, as he himself denounced.

The candidate's relatives blamed the Government for the homicide for leaving the presidential candidate for the Construye movement unprotected. (Source: PL)