The family of Fernando Villavicencio, the candidate for the presidency of Ecuador assassinated on August 9, denounced the State for the crime of “murder by intentional omission,” the family reported at a press conference held in Quito.

The Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to CNN this Friday that they received the family’s complaint.

“They had to watch over the life of Fernando Villavicencio, knowing that he was a journalist who had many threats,” said the family’s lawyer, Marco Yaulema.

The family argues that there was an abandonment despite the fact that the candidate of the Construye movement indicated in the past that he had received threats from various criminal groups that, according to him, controlled the Ecuadorian State.

The Electoral Council of Ecuador approves the presidential candidacy of Christian Zurita as a replacement for Fernando Villavicencio
The complaint includes President Guillermo Lasso and the Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata.

In a press conference, Zapata said this Friday that two internal investigations were opened in the Police in which it will be determined if the procedures and preventive actions were complied with. The results of this report could be ready next week, he estimated.

Regarding the complaint, the minister said that they respect the family’s decision and that they are within their rights: “If they have believed that it is necessary, we can only respond through the legal basis that we have.”

Patricia Barragan and Patricia Villavicencio, sister of Fernando Villavicencio, during a press conference in which they announced that they filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian state. (Credit: MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)

This Friday, the Government of President Guillermo Lasso said in a statement that it considered “unacceptable” that the actions of the Ecuadorian authorities regarding the security of Villavicencio be considered “premeditated in order to abandon a presidential candidate “.

The Lasso government added that it rejected the complaints and asked that “the case not be politicized and that the justice system be allowed to move forward with the investigations and reach a procedural truth.”

Villavicencio was assassinated on August 9 as he was leaving a rally in Quito. So far, authorities have arrested six people allegedly linked to the crime.