‘Let the hitmen come’: Ecuador presidential candidate refuses to wear bulletproof vest days before assassination

Fernando Villavicencio, the assassinated Ecuadorian presidential candidate, had been warned to wear a bulletproof vest days before he was killed.

Villavicencio was shot at a political rally in the capital Quito on Wednesday 9 August, amid a startling wave of gang-driven violence in Ecuador.

A few days ago, he told crowds he had been warned to protect himself.

“They have told me to use a [bulletproof] vest, but here I am in a sweaty shirt,” Villavicencio said.

“The drug traffickers can come, let them come. Let the hired killers come. Let them come. Let the extorters come. It’s the end of the threats.”