Three shots in the head ended the life of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio on Wednesday evening as assassins in two motorcycles approached the vehicle he had just entered after a political rally in the capital Quito.
the rise in violence in ecuador has been stark and striking. the past five years gone from a relatively peaceful place to potentially one of the most dangerous places in south america. what s happening? ecuador is located between the two biggest cocaine producers in the world. columbia and peru. in recent years mexican cartels as well as albanian mafia cans swept in and taken advantage of this location and this coastline. in many ways a less protected than other coastlines in the region and become a crucial transit point for cocaine heading to the u.s. and europe. all of that has s led to record rates of homicides. there have been carbonells never seen at this level in ecuador. seen prison massacres over and over and levels of cocaine seizures unheard of in this country. what is the government what can the government do about