US Offers $5M Reward for Insight Into Ecuador Election Assassination
The Facts
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday a reward of up to $5M for information leading to the arrest of the masterminds behind the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential hopeful Fernando Villavicencio on Aug. 9.
This comes in the run-up to the Oct. 15 second round vote to determine Ecuador's next president, with Blinken claiming that the US would "continue to support the people of Ecuador" while "work[ing] to bring to justice" those who desired to "undermine democratic processes" via crime.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Washington is completely right to ramp up security cooperation with Quito to show that lawful methods do work against violent drug gangs to prevent Ecuador — and Latin America as a whole — from resorting to authoritarian ideas both from the right and the left, as the organized crime poses a significant threat to democracies below the Rio Grande.
Establishment-critical narrative
One must be disturbingly naive at best to believe that further US interference is what Ecuador needs after the killing of a presidential candidate who had long been a CIA asset. Though Villavicencio fabricated lies to boost the Russiagate invention and resolutely obstructed the impeachment of US-backed Guillermo Lasso, his candidacy had turned him into a liability for the Agency.