Ecuador's People Fulfill Their Political Rights With Fear

Ecuadorian Army (Wikipedia)

JAKARTA - Ecuadorian people went to the polling station (TPS) to take part in the presidential and legislative elections with fear. The fear arose as a result of political killings and violence allegedly committed by criminal organizations competing to control the country's drug trade route.

Nearly 100,000 troops will be dispatched to ensure security and public order across Ecuador on election day, the Ecuadorian government said.

Reporting from CNN, more than a week ago when presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist known for being outspoken about corruption, was killed as he left the campaign.

Several politicians have been killed this year, but Villavicencio's death has pushed the country's problems to the global stage. Preliminary evidence suggests the suspect arrested was a member of an organized criminal group.

Ahead of the vote, another candidate, Otto Sonnenholzner, said the shooting took place near where he and his family were having breakfast.

Villavicencio's death highlights Andean's sharp transformation. Only a few years ago Ecuador was seen as a relatively safe place compared to its neighbor Colombia and Peru, the two largest cocaine producing countries in the world.

The deadly escalation of violence in recent years, sparked by a cocaine explosion in the region, has seen criminal gangs change the landscape of their activities in Ecuador. They are clearly involved in high-level corruption, extorting businesses, storming prisons, and killing anyone who gets in their way..

Violence and lack of economic prospects have led many Ecuadorian citizens to choose to leave the country towards several neighboring countries and others to the United States. More than half of Ecuador's workforce works in the informal economy sector, meaning that millions of people do not have contracts and allowance packages to rely on in difficult times the situation is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.