Five people convicted of murdering presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Ecuador have been jailed.
The journalist and former legislator was shot as he left a rally in August 2023, becoming the most prominent victim of the South American country’s spiralling violence.
According to the attorney general’s office, Carlos Edwin Angulo Lara, known as The Invisible, gave the order to murder Villavicencio from prison, while Laura Dayanara Castillo was in charge of logistics.
Both Angulo and Castillo were sentenced to 34 years and eight months.
Erick Ramirez, Victor Flores and Alexandra Chimbo were sentenced to 12 years.
The ruling, read out by Judge Milton Maroto, can be appealed by both the prosecution and the defence.
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Prosecutors accused at least two of those tried of belonging to the Los Lobos crime gang – one of around 22 criminal gangs designated as terrorists by President Daniel Noboa.
Alexandra Villavicencio, sister of Fernando Villavicencio, gives a statement to the media after sentencing. Pic: AP
Prosecutors are carrying out a separate investigation into who requested the murder.
One of the hitmen died at the scene and seven other suspects – mostly Colombian citizens – were murdered in October while being held in prisons on pre-trial detention.
Veronica Sarauz, Villavicencio’s widow, had asked judges earlier on Friday in a post on X to apply the full weight of the law to those accused.