Ecuadoran presidential candidate shot dead after rally

Ecuadoran presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead after holding a rally in Quito on Wednesday evening. President Guillermo Lasso blamed Villavicencio's death on "organized crime" and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The 59-year-old centrist was one of eight candidates in the first round of the country's presidential election scheduled for August 20. Once a peaceful nation, wedged between major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has in recent years become a nerve center for the global drug trade, leading to a boom in brutal gang violence.

This has transformed the electoral terrain as the country prepares for a snap election on August 20 amid rising levels of insecurity.