Quito: The assassination of a popular presidential candidate, whose death has highlighted the once-peaceful country's decline into a violent hotbed of drug trafficking and organised crime, led Ecuador to declare a state of emergency on Thursday and ask the FBI to assist in the investigation.

Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist and anti-corruption crusader, was shot dead as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito on Wednesday night, according to the police, who said six Colombians have been detained.

Security personnel killed a second attacker, who was also from Colombia, according to the authorities.

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Juan Zapata, the interior minister, claimed that the attackers belonged to "organised crime groups," but did not specify which ones.

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Residents of the South American nation, who have been shocked by the escalating violence there as drug gangs engage in brutal turf wars, have expressed their anger at the country's rising murder rate.

The murder of a man who Ruth Flores, a housewife, saw as "the hope for honesty in our country," she said, left people "outraged," according to AFP. a candidate who criticised narcopolitics' corruption.

She called the nation's situation "very worrying. Peaceful walking is impossible because there is no security.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has accepted the country's request for assistance, and a delegation will soon arrive, according to President Guillermo Lasso, who also declared a state of emergency lasting two months.
Villavicencio had claimed that one of the nation's most potent drug gangs, Los Choneros, had threatened him.
They instructed me to put on a bulletproof vest. I don't require it. Bring on the hit men! At a rally earlier this week in Chone, the gang's birthplace, the politician declared, "They may push me, but they will never break me.
Ahead of the early election on August 20, electoral officials have also received threats against them. In recent weeks, there have also been assassinations of a well-liked mayor and a prospective lawmaker.

The nation's leading newspaper, El Universo, reported that Villavicencio was the target of a hail of gunfire and was killed "hitman-style and with three shots to the head."

While his body was being moved from a forensic lab to a funeral home for a private wake, his family sobbed and comforted one another.

In order to avoid an impeachment trial over allegations of corruption, Lasso dissolved the opposition-dominated Congress in May. He then called a snap election a little more than a week later.

Lasso had earlier attributed the murder to "organised crime." "This is a political crime... and we do not doubt that this murder is an attempt to sabotage the electoral process," said Lasso, who also announced three days of national mourning.

According to recent opinion surveys, Villavicencio was the second most popular candidate out of the eight running for president.

Rafael Correa, the former president of Ecuador, was sentenced to eight years in prison after his journalistic investigations revealed a massive corruption network.
Correa fled to avoid serving the sentence and is currently living in exile in Belgium.

The sports complex where the rally was held still had enormous posters of Villavicencio on the walls, and people were leaving candles and white rose bouquets outside.

A cyclist who wouldn't reveal her name posted a banner that read, "The damn narcopoliticians will pay."

Prosecutors and police officials reported that nine additional people were hurt in the attack, including three police officers and a candidate for the national legislature.

Secretary of State of the United States Antony Blinken offered to "support local authorities to bring the perpetrators of this heinous act to justice."

Josep Borrell, the head of foreign policy for the European Union, declared that his organisation "stands with Ecuador in its fight against the worsening violence by organised crime."
Such attacks, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres via a spokesman, pose "a grave threat to democracy," while Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, noted that they highlight "the challenges the country and its people face amid the violence."

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Despite not having large drug production facilities or plantations, Ecuador has become a new hub for the international drug trade due to its location between the two largest producers of cocaine, Colombia and Peru.