The United States pledged to pay $5 million to anyone who provides information that could lead to the arrest of those responsible for the killing of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
This was announced by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday.
Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist and member of the National Assembly, was shot dead as he got into his car after an election campaign meeting in the capital, Quito, on 9 August.
Six Colombian nationals were charged and remanded in custody for murder, while another suspect died in an exchange of gunfire shortly after the killing.
Organized crime, closely linked to cocaine trafficking, was a dominant theme in the country’s presidential elections. The level of violence has risen dramatically in Ecuador in recent years, and Villasencio was threatened with his life by one of the country’s most powerful gang leaders just days before he was killed.
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