Omar Men?ndez. File Picture. Source: Twitter
Ecuador: In the city of Puerto L?pez, a candidate for mayor of Ecuador who was assassinated just hours before voting began, won the election.
On Saturday, gunmen entered the room where Omar Men?ndez, 41, was with campaign workers and opened fire, killing him.
The assault also claimed the life of a teenager. Police are currently looking into the motive behind the double murders.
The slain politician’s replacement as mayor is anticipated to be a member of Mr. Men?ndez’s party.
The violent drug gangs’ growing influence in the Andean nation was blamed for the increase in crime that was occurring around the time of the local elections.
There were other politicians assassinated in the run-up to the election besides Mr. Men?ndez. Julio C?sar Farachio, a candidate for mayor of the coastal town of Salinas, had also been shot and killed two weeks prior.
A suspect in Farachio’s murder who had previously threatened the 45-year-old candidate has been taken into custody by police.
According to local media, the suspect was just freed from prison after serving a sentence for illegal drug trafficking.
Assailants who shot Omar Men?ndez to death and escaped on a motorcycle have not yet been apprehended.
Guillermo Lasso, the president, denounced the killings.
The president, a banker, has been troubled by Ecuador’s soaring homicide rate.
He has put out a number of constitutional amendments that were presented before voters on Sunday.
One of them was to make it possible for Ecuadoreans with connections to transnational organised crime to be extradited overseas if they are involved in a trial there or have already received an absentee judgement there.
Some officials contend that extraditing convicted criminals to maximum security prisons in the United States would be a safer and more cost-effective choice for the Ecuadorian justice system because many jails in Ecuador have been overrun by the recent crime wave.
Neighbouring since changing its constitution in 1997 to reflect this, Colombia has dispatched numerous infamous drug lords to the US.
The ferocity with which the drug lords resist their extradition, according to Colombian officials, implies that they view a sentence in a US prison, where they have no connections and no power over guards and prison directors, as a particularly severe punishment.
However, the initiative to amend Ecuador’s constitution to permit the extradition of Ecuadoreans just fell short, being rejected by 51% of voters.
When the people speak, it is our responsibility to analyse, comprehend, and respect their will, according to President Lasso, who declared that he accepted the outcome.
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