QUITO: Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed during an election campaign in Quito on Wednesday evening, AFP reported.
Interior Minister Juan Zapata confirmed the killing.
Villavicencio,59, a journalist by profession, was one of eight candidates in the August 20 presidential run.
He was considered to be a strong candidate for the post of president.
Ecuadoran Presidential Candidate Killed at Election Campaign
Last month the mayor of the nation’s second-biggest port, Manta, was also shot dead.
Villavicencio had promised to renegotiate agreements with foreign oil and mining companies and to take a hard line against the drug groups behind a surge in violence.
Villavicencio became a household name in Ecuador during the 2007-2017 government of President Rafael Correa, when he exposed corruption scandals related to loans from China, and on illegal campaign financing.
