Quito, August 16 (RHC)-- In Ecuador, another political leader was killed Monday, less than one week after the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and just days before Ecuadorians head to the polls this Sunday. 

Pedro Briones was fatally shot in the northern province of Esmeraldas.   He was a local leader of the Citizen Revolution Movement, the party of progressive presidential front-runner Luisa González and former President Rafael Correa. 

Luisa González blamed the soaring wave of violence in Ecuador on President Guillermo Lasso, who dissolved Congress in May to avoid impeachment proceedings.   González wrote on social media: “Ecuador is living its bloodiest moment.  We owe this to the total abandonment of an inept government and a state taken over by mafias.”