By Alexandra Valencia
QUITO (Reuters) -An Ecuadorean judge on Wednesday ordered pre-trial detention for two men accused of masterminding the 2023 assassination of anti-corruption presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
In the same ruling, a former government minister and another suspect, both currently in the United States, were also ordered to report periodically to an Ecuadorean consulate.
Villavicencio, the most prominent victim of Ecuador’s recent crime wave, was shot and killed outside a campaign event. Five people were convicted last year for carrying out the killing, but prosecutors have long stated they are pursuing the masterminds behind the crime.
The judge on Wednesday ordered pre-trial detention for Daniel Salcedo, already in prison on separate charges, for allegedly acting as an intermediary with the Los Lobos gang, whose members carried out the attack. The judge also ordered former lawmaker Ronny Aleaga be detained pending trial, though his whereabouts are unknown.
The case against them relies heavily on a protected witness. According to prosecutors, the witness accused Jose Serrano, who served as interior minister from 2011 to 2016 under former leftist President Rafael Correa, of providing classified information on Villavicencio’s movements to the other plotters.
The witness also alleged that businessman Xavier Jordan requested and financed the assassination, coordinating it with Aleaga.
Serrano and Jordan are both in the United States, and must periodically report to Ecuador’s consulate in Miami. Serrano is currently being held at a U.S. immigration center, and would need to comply with the order once his immigration status is resolved. If he is deported, he would need to check in with authorities in Ecuador.
Serrano and Jordan have denied the accusations, while Salcedo told a legislative commission that he had contact with the other suspects to plan the assassination.
Jordan, Aleaga and Salcedo have already been investigated in the so-called Metastasis case, a sprawling probe into organized crime and drug trafficking connected to the Andean country’s judicial system.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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