Jailed gang-leader mastermind behind assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate will head to trial with four others for murder

The jailed gang member accused of masterminding the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio will head to trial with four others over the murder, a court ruled. 

Judge Irene Pesántez said Carlos Angulo, the imprisoned leader of a faction of the feared Los Lobos gang, and Laura Castillo will be tried as co-conspirators.

Alexandra Chimbo, Víctor Flores and Erick Ramírez will be put on trial as accomplices. They are accused of providing surveillance and planning the crime.

Pesántez ordered the release of Óscar Fierro 'due to lack of evidence.'

Villavicencio, 59, was gunned down moments after campaigning at T.W. Anderson school in Quito on August 9, 2023.

Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio seen above at a campaign rally at the T.W. Anderson school in northern Quito moments before he was assassinated August 9, 2023. A court announced Wednesday that five suspects, including the jailed leader of the Los Lobos gang, will go on trial

Carlos Angulo (pictured), the imprisoned leader of a faction of the feared Los Lobos gang, contacted the shooter, Colombian national Johan Castillo, who murdered Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and texted him, 'Ok, brother. When you see him, strike him. I trust you. Do it'

The politician had not been among the front-runners in the August 20 election, but his killing in broad daylight was a shocking reminder of the surge in crime that has engulfed the South American nation.

Lead prosecutor Ana Hidalgo revealed Angulo contacted the shooter, Colombian national Johan Castillo, from his cell at the CRS Cotopaxi (penitentiary). A text message recovered from Castillo’s cell phone showed that Angulo instructed him, ‘Ok, brother. When you see him, strike him. I trust you. Do it.”

Castillo, Hidalgo said, provided money, weapons and motorcycles for Johan Castillo and five other assassins – who were Colombia natives.

The six suspects were arrested at a home they used as a hideout and later murdered in prison on October 6, 2023.

Autopsies showed that each of the suspects were strangled.

On Wednesday, a defense lawyer for Angulo, who is serving a 54-month sentence in a prison in Quito on weapons charges, said prosecutors had presented no proof his client is a member of Los Lobos or that a phone allegedly used in the plot belongs to him.

Ecuadorian authorities arrested six Colombian suspects who carried out the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio on August 9, 2023. They were killed in prison October 6, 2023

Attorneys for the other accused also questioned what they say is a lack of evidence, as well as the prosecution's use of a protected witness and why that person was not accused.

The attorney general's office in Ecuador does not typically publish the full names of people under prosecution, but full names were used during the hearing.

Villavicencio, whose journalism exposed corruption and organized crime connections among politicians, had long been the subject of threats.

"Carlos Angulo is the link in the chain to the intellectual authors. This person is key to knowing who hired him, making him into an intermediary, to contract the assassins," Villavicencio's widow, Veronica Sarauz, said on X on Tuesday.

Los Lobos has thousands of members, according to some reports, and is active in Ecuador's violent prison system.

President Daniel Noboa, who took office in November, last month declared 22 gangs, including Los Lobos, terrorist groups after the latest surge of violence, when dozens of prison guards were taken hostage and gunmen invaded a television station during a live broadcast.