Six suspects, reportedly Colombians arrested following a shootout with Ecuadorean police after the assassination in broad daylight of presidential election candidate Fernando Villavicencio, are all foreign members of organised crime groups, the country’s government said on August 10.

One suspect died after the showdown with police that occurred after Villavicencio, a 59-year-old father of five and former journalist whose policies included a tough-on-crime-and-graft agena, died in a burst of gunfire as he left a campaign event in Quito. The government said the masterminds behind the assassination plot were being sought. The US government was reported to be dispatching FBI agents to assist Ecuadorian authorities with the investigation.

Ecuador—sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the two largest producers of cocaine in the world—has endured a shocking descent into violence in recent years, with rival drug-trafficking gangs committing prison massacres and conducting brazen attacks in public places, including the killing of police officers and local politicians. On a five-year view, the murder rate has increased fivefold. Yet Ecuador used to be regarded as one of the safest countries in Latin America.

Speaking after the killing of Villavicencio, former vice-president Otto Sonnenholzner, who is standing in the August 20 snap elections, said: “We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this.”

“My husband was murdered because he was the only one who stood up to the political mafias and drug traffickers in this country,” Villavicencio’s widow, Verónica Sarauz tweeted.

President Guillermo Lasso pledged that the elections would go ahead as planned, though amid a national state of emergency with police officers posted to polling stations.

He announced three days of national mourning.

Organised crime gangs, including Mexican cartels and even Balkan mafia factions, are said to be struggling for control of cocaine-smuggling routes running through Ecuador.

Villavicencio lately claimed he had received multiple death threats, including messages from the jailed leader of the Los Choneros gang, Jose Adolfo Macías, known as “Fito”, who ordered him to stop mentioning his name. Los Choneros is a local armed wing of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. 

Analysts have argued that Ecuador has seen a penetration of illegal groups into political parties and local governments.