Slain Ecuador candidate fearlessly took on drug cartels and corruption

By GABRIELA MOLINA and MEGAN JANETSKY

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — The Ecuadorian presidential candidate who was fatally shot at a political rally was unafraid to take on criminal networks and a political elite he accused of corruption. Fernando Villavicencio was a journalist before entering politics. He waged a yearslong battle against the forces that he saw transforming Ecuador, including crime that had seeped into nearly every aspect of life, from street robbery to cocaine trafficking and corrupt government contracting. Among the 59-year-old’s biggest scoops as a journalist was reporting on a trove of documents that pointed to inflated prices, shoddy workmanship and extravagant kickbacks that were involved in some of the country’s largest infrastructure projects.