QUITO: Ecuadoran presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead after holding a rally in Quito on Wednesday evening, top officials said.

President Guillermo Lasso confirmed Villavicencio’s death in a statement on Twitter, renamed X, vowing that “this crime will not go unpunished.” Local media, citing Interior Minister Juan Zapata, said Villavicencio was shot dead after the rally.