A judge at the Complejo Judicial Norte (the north Quito courthouse) sent seven defendants to trial on Thursday as alleged autores mediatos — indirect perpetrators — in the murder of former presidential candidate and lawmaker Fernando Villavicencio, killed on 9 August 2023. The charge applies to those accused of taking part in the crime by controlling, ordering or instigating the people who carried it out.
The hearing resumed at 9.10am and the order sending the case to trial came at around 2pm, some five hours later.
Who goes to trial
The seven are former interior minister José Serrano; businessman Xavier Jordán; Daniel Salcedo; former lawmaker Ronny Aleaga, a onetime Latin Kings leader; and three men identified as leaders of the Los Lobos gang: Wilmer Chavarría, known as "Pipo", Ángel Aguilar, "Lobo Menor", and Luis Arboleda, "Gordo Luis".
The judge upheld pretrial detention for Serrano, Aguilar and Arboleda, who remain in judicial custody. Serrano took part in the hearing by video link from the Encuentro prison: he was deported to Ecuador from the United States a little over a month ago, after being held there on immigration grounds since last year.
Jordán, Aleaga and Chavarría were declared fugitives, and for them the trial stage is suspended until they are located and arrested. According to Infobae, Chavarría is in custody in Spain.
Salcedo, for his part, was extradited to the United States a week before this hearing, along with Francisco Manuel Bermúdez, known as "Churrón", and Ronald Herrera.
The case, three years on
Villavicencio was shot dead as he left a campaign rally in Quito, days before the first round of the 2023 snap elections. Five people have already been sentenced to prison as the crime's direct perpetrators, and eight other suspects died before reaching trial, among them the seven Colombian gunmen involved in the attack.
Thursday's decision opens, for the first time, the trial stage against those the Fiscalía (Ecuador's public prosecutor's office) identifies as having ordered the killing rather than carried it out. With three of the seven on the run, the proceedings will advance only in part.
During the hearing an alert was raised over a backpack left outside the court building. Preliminary information indicated it held explosive emulsions and a slow-burning fuse.
With information from Infobae, El Comercio and Vistazo.
