Ecuador arrests six Colombians as suspects in slaying of anti-corruption presidential candidate

The six Colombian men arrested in connection with the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito are shown in this handout picture released on August 10, 2023, by the Ecuadorian Police. (AFP)
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Updated 11 August 2023
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Ecuador arrests six Colombians as suspects in slaying of anti-corruption presidential candidate

  • Fernando Villavicencio, 59, who was known for speaking up against drug cartels, was assassinated in Quito on Wednesday
  • Villavicencio had said he was threatened by affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, one of the organized crime groups operating in Ecuador

QUITO, Ecuador: The six men arrested as suspects in the assassination of an anti-corruption Ecuadorian presidential candidate are Colombian nationals, a police report said Thursday as authorities investigated the motive for a crime that shocked a nation already reeling from a surge in drug-related violence.

The six men were captured hiding in a house in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, said the report, which was reviewed by The Associated Press. Officers also seized four shotguns, a 5.56-mm rifle, ammunition and three grenades, along with a vehicle and a motorcycle, it said.
Fernando Villavicencio, 59, who was known for speaking up against drug cartels, was assassinated in Quito on Wednesday, less than two weeks before a special presidential election. He was not a front-runner, but his death deepened the sense of crisis around organized crime that has already claimed thousands of lives and underscored the challenge that Ecuador’s next leader will face.
Ecuador’s interior minister, Juan Zapata, had earlier confirmed the arrest of some foreigners in the case, although he didn’t give their nationalities.
Zapata described the killing as a “political crime of a terrorist nature” aimed at sabotaging the Aug. 20 presidential election.
The police report doesn’t say whether the Colombians are alleged members of a criminal group. Zapata said those arrested were linked to organized crime, although he didn’t give more details.
Villavicencio had said he was threatened by affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that now operate in Ecuador. He said his campaign represented a threat to such groups.
The involvement of Colombian nationals brings to the mind the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who was shot a dozen times at his private home. Among the people arrested in the case are 18 former soldiers from Colombia.
Video of the rally in Quito posted on social media appeared to show Villavicencio walking out of the rally surrounded by guards. The footage then showed the candidate getting into a white pickup truck before gunshots were heard, followed by screams and commotion around the truck.
The sequence of events was confirmed to AP by Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser.
The candidate had received at least three death threats before the shooting and reported them to authorities, resulting in one detention, the adviser said.
“The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” Zuquilanda said. “Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”
Former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, who also is seeking the presidency, bemoaned the loss at a news conference: “We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this.”
The assassins threw a grenade into the street to cover their flight, but it did not explode, President Guillermo Lasso said. Police later destroyed the grenade with a controlled explosion.
One suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight, the attorney general’s office said. The authorities had reported on Wednesday that six people had been detained, but they didn’t give any details until Thursday.
Lasso suggested the slaying could be linked to organized crime and insisted on proceeding with the election scheduled for Aug. 20. He declared three days of national mourning and a state of emergency that involves deploying additional military personnel throughout the country.
“Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended. On the contrary, they have to be held, and democracy has to be strengthened,” Lasso said Thursday.
In his final speech before he was killed, Villavicencio promised a roaring crowd that he would fight corruption and imprison more criminals.
Villavicencio, one of eight candidates running for president, was the candidate of the Build Ecuador Movement.
As drug traffickers have begun to use the country’s coastal ports, Ecuadorians have reeled from violence not seen for decades. Gunfire is heard in many major cities as rival gangs battle for control, and gangs have recruited children.
Just last month, the mayor of the port city of Manta was shot and killed. On July 26, Lasso declared a state of emergency covering two provinces and the country’s prison system in an effort to stem the violence.
People waiting for buses in Guayaquil, a port city south of Quito that has been the epicenter of gang violence, expressed shock over Villavicencio’s killing.
“It shows that the violence in the country is increasing,” pharmacist Leidy Aguirre, 28, said. “Politicians supposedly have more security than citizens and this shows that not even they are safe.”
Elsewhere, people went about their lives by taking outdoor exercise classes and daily walks because they are resigned to live amid the violence.
Marjorie Lino, a 38-year-old housewife, lamented the danger as she walked with a friend along the main road that leads to one of the country’s most violent neighborhoods.
“To us as women, our husbands tell us not to go out here, but it doesn’t matter (because) when one is going to die, one dies even at the door of one’s house,” she said. She does not believe that any of the presidential candidates will be able to end the violence.
Villavicencio was one of the country’s most critical voices against corruption, especially during the 2007-2017 government of President Rafael Correa.
He was an independent journalist who investigated corruption in previous governments before entering politics as an anti-graft campaigner.
Villavicencio filed many judicial complaints against high-ranking members of the Correa government, including against the ex-president himself. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation over his criticisms of Correa, and fled to Indigenous territory in Ecuador, later receiving asylum in neighboring Peru.
Lasso, a conservative former banker, was elected in 2021 on a business-friendly platform and clashed from the start with the left-leaning majority coalition in the National Assembly.
A snap election was called after Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree in May, in a move to avoid being impeached over allegations that he failed to intervene to end a faulty contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company.
 


Indonesia searches for 19 people after landslide at gold mine in Papua

Updated 19 May 2025
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Indonesia searches for 19 people after landslide at gold mine in Papua

JAKARTA: Indonesian rescue teams were searching for 19 people missing after heavy rain caused a landslide at a gold mine in its easternmost region of Papua, officials said on Monday.
Torrential rain triggered a landslide late on Friday in a small-scale mine run by local residents in the Arfak mountains in West Papua province, said Abdul Muhari, the spokesperson of Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency.
The landslide hit temporary shelters used by the miners and killed at least one person and injured four with 19 others still missing, he added.
At least 40 rescuers with police and military personnel had been deployed to search for the missing, officials said.
Small-scale and illegal mining has often led to accidents in Indonesia, where mineral resources are located in remote areas in conditions difficult for authorities to regulate.
The rescuers started the search operation only on Sunday because it took at least 12 hours for teams to travel to the site, Yefri Sabaruddin, the head of the local rescue team, told Reuters on Monday.
"The damaged roads and mountainous tracks as well as bad weather hampered the rescue efforts," Yefri said.
The number of casualties could rise, he added.
At least 15 people died in the collapse of an illegal gold mine in West Sumatra province September last year after a landslide caused by heavy rains.
Another landslide in a gold mine on Sulawesi island killed at least 23 people in July last year. 


Trump to hold call with Putin in push for Ukraine ceasefire

Updated 19 May 2025
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Trump to hold call with Putin in push for Ukraine ceasefire

  • Says he would also speak to Ukraine's President Zelensky and NATO officials
  • Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will hold a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday as part of his long-running effort to end the war set off by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump had vowed during the US election campaign to halt the conflict within a day of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine held direct negotiations in Istanbul last week for the first time in almost three years, but the talks ended without a commitment to a ceasefire.
Both sides traded insults, with Ukraine accusing Moscow of sending a “dummy” delegation of low-ranking officials.
After the negotiations, Trump announced that he would speak by phone with the Russian president in a bid to end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, which has destroyed large swathes of the country and displaced millions of people.
Trump also said he would speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO officials, expressing hope that a “ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war... will end.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the conflict, and has recently backed calls for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
So far, he has mainly focused on upping the pressure on Ukraine and abstained from criticizing Putin.
Both Moscow and Washington have previously stressed the need for a meeting on the conflict between Putin and Trump.
The US president has also argued that “nothing’s going to happen” on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face.

At the talks in Istanbul, which were also attended by US officials, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each and trade ideas on a possible truce, but with no concrete commitment.
Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, said that the “next step” would be a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
Russia said it had taken note of the request.
“We consider it possible, but only as a result of the work and upon achieving certain results in the form of an agreement between the two sides,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson said.
Ukraine’s western allies have since accused Putin of deliberately ignoring calls for a ceasefire and pushed for fresh sanctions against Russia.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy held a phone call with Trump on Sunday.
“Looking ahead to President Trump’s call with President Putin tomorrow, the leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for President Putin to take peace talks seriously,” said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks,” the spokesman said.
Zelensky also discussed possible sanctions with US Vice President JD Vance when they met after Pope Leo’s inaugural mass at the Vatican on Sunday.
“We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the meeting.
“We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange of prisoners.”
A senior Ukrainian official from the president’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that they had also discussed preparations for Monday’s telephone conversation between Trump and Putin.

It was the first meeting between Zelensky and Vance since their heated White House exchange in February.
In the Oval Office, Vance publicly accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” toward Trump, who told the Ukrainian leader he should be more grateful and that he had no “cards” to play in negotiations with Russia.
Ukraine on Sunday said that Russia had launched a record number of drones at the country overnight, targeting various regions, including the capital Kyiv, where a woman was killed.
Another man was killed in the southeastern Kherson region, where a railway station and private houses and cars were hit.
In an interview with Russian state TV published on Sunday, Putin said that Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security,” without elaborating further.
Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.
They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.
However, Kyiv and the West say that Russia’s invasion is an imperial-style land grab.


Trump to carry out tariff threats if nations don’t negotiate in ‘good faith,’ US treasury chief warns

Updated 19 May 2025
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Trump to carry out tariff threats if nations don’t negotiate in ‘good faith,’ US treasury chief warns

  • Bessent: Notified countries likely to see April 2 rates return
  • Says Trump administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will impose tariffs at the rate he threatened last month on trading partners that do not negotiate in “good faith” on deals, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in television interviews on Sunday.
He did not say what would constitute “good faith” negotiations or clarify the timing to announce any decisions to return a country to the various rates Trump initially imposed on April 2.
Trump has repeatedly reversed course since then, notably on April 9, when he lowered his tariff rates on most imported goods to 10 percent for 90 days to give negotiators time to hash out deals with other countries. He separately lowered the rate for Chinese goods to 30 percent. On Friday, he reiterated that his administration would send letters telling nations what their rates would be.
On Sunday, Bessent said the administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships and that the timing of any deals would also depend on whether countries were negotiating in good faith, with letters going out to those that did not.
“This means that they’re not negotiating in good faith. They are going to get a letter saying, ‘Here is the rate.’ So I would expect that everyone would come and negotiate in good faith,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
He added that those countries that are notified would likely see their rates return to the levels set on April 2.
Asked when any trade deals could be announced, Bessent separately told CNN’s “State of the Union” program: “Again, it will depend on whether they’re negotiating in good faith.”
“My other sense is that we will do a lot of regional deals -this is the rate for Central America. This is the rate for this part of Africa,” he added.
Trump’s ongoing trade wars have severely disrupted global trade flows and roiled financial markets as investors grapple with what Bessent has called the Republican president’s “strategic uncertainty,” in his drive to reshape economic relationships in the US’ favor
Companies of all sizes have been whipsawed by Trump’s swift imposition of tariffs and sudden reversals as they seek to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices. Congress is also grappling with the tariffs as it weighs revenues and tax cuts in its spending bill.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, last week said it would have to start raising prices later in May due to the high costs of tariffs, prompting Trump to slam the company for blaming the increases on his trade policies.
“Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,” Trump posted online on Saturday.
Bessent said he had spoken to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Saturday and that the company would absorb some tariffs. Representatives for the retailer declined to comment.
“Walmart is, in fact, going to ... eat some of the tariffs,” Bessent told NBC. “I didn’t apply any pressure.”


Britain poised to reset trade and defense ties with EU

Updated 19 May 2025
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Britain poised to reset trade and defense ties with EU

  • Starmer taking a political risk with closer EU ties
  • Deal likely to cover defense, trade, fish

LONDON Britain is poised to agree the most significant reset of ties with the European Union since Brexit on Monday, seeking closer collaboration on trade and defense to help grow the economy and boost security on the continent.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who backed remaining in the EU, has made a bet that securing tangible benefits for Britons will outweigh any talk of “Brexit betrayal” from critics like Reform UK leader Nigel Farage when he agrees closer EU alignment at a summit in London.
Starmer will argue that the world has changed since Britain left the bloc in 2020, and at the heart of the new reset will be a defense and security pact that could pave the way for British defense companies to take part in a 150 billion euros ($167 billion) program to rearm Europe.
The reset follows US President Donald Trump’s upending of the post-war global order and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which have forced governments around the world to rethink ties on trade, defense and security. Britain struck a full trade deal with India earlier this month and secured some tariff relief from the United States. The EU has also accelerated efforts to forge trade deals with the likes of India and deepen partnerships with countries including Canada, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
Negotiations between the two sides continued into Sunday evening, before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa were due in London on Monday morning. One EU diplomat cautioned that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” From the issues up for discussion, Britain is hoping to drastically reduce the border checks and paperwork slowing down UK and EU food and agricultural exports, while access to faster e-gates for UK travelers at EU airports would be hugely popular.
In return, Britain is expected to agree to a limited youth mobility scheme and could participate in the Erasmus+ student exchange program. France also wants a long-term deal on fishing rights, one of the most emotive issues during Brexit.

Limited room for maneuver
Britain’s vote to leave the EU in a historic referendum in 2016 revealed a country that was badly divided over everything from migration and sovereignty of power to culture and trade.
It helped trigger one of the most tumultuous periods in British political history, with five prime ministers holding office before Starmer arrived last July, and poisoned relations with Brussels.
Polls show a majority of Britons now regret the vote although they do not want to rejoin. Farage, who campaigned for Brexit for decades, leads opinion polls in Britain, giving Starmer limited room for maneuver.
But the prime minister and French President Emmanuel Macron have struck up a solid relationship over their support for Ukraine, and Starmer was not tainted with the Brexit rows that went before, helping to improve sentiment.

‘Break the taboo’
The economic benefit will be limited by Starmer’s promise to not rejoin the EU’s single market or customs union, but he has instead sought to negotiate better market access in some areas — a difficult task when the EU opposes so-called “cherry picking” of EU benefits without the obligations of membership.
Removing red tape on food trade will require Britain to accept EU oversight on standards, but Starmer is likely to argue that it is worth it to help lower the cost of food, and grow the sluggish economy.
Agreeing a longer-term fishing rights deal will also be opposed by Farage, while the opposition Conservative Party labelled Monday’s event as the “surrender summit.”
One trade expert who has advised politicians in both London and Brussels said the government needed to “break the taboo” on accepting EU rules, and doing so to help farmers and small businesses was smart.
Trade experts also said Britain benefited from the greater focus on defense, making the deal look more reciprocal, and said improved ties made sense in a more volatile world.
When “trade disruption is so visible and considerable” anything that reduced trade friction with a country’s biggest trading partner made sense, said Allie Renison, a former UK government trade official at consultancy SEC Newgate.

 


Ruling party tops Portugal polls marked by far-right surge

Updated 19 May 2025
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Ruling party tops Portugal polls marked by far-right surge

  • Near complete official results showed PM Montenegro’s Democratic Alliance (AD) captured 32.7 percent of the vote
  • AD gets 89 of parliament's 230 seats, which is short of the 116 seats required for a ruling majority

LISBON: Portugal’s incumbent center-right party won the most seats in the country’s third general election in three years on Sunday but again fell short of a parliamentary majority, while support for the far-right Chega rose.
The outcome threatens to extend political instability in the NATO and European Union member state as the bloc faces growing global trade tensions and works to strengthen its defenses.
Near complete official results showed that Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s Democratic Alliance (AD) captured 32.7 percent of the vote in Sunday’s poll with the Socialist Party (PS) and Chega virtually tied in second place.
That would boost the AD’s seat tally in the 230-seat parliament to 89, short of the 116 seats required for a ruling majority.
The Socialists had 23.4 percent, their worst result in decades, trailed closely by Chega (“Enough“) with 22.6 percent wich would give each party 58 seats.
Even with the backing of upstart business-friendly party Liberal Initiative (IL) which won nine seats, the AD would still need the support of Chega to reach a majority to pass legislation.
But Montenegro, 52, a lawyer by profession, has refused any alliance with Chega, saying it is “unreliable” and “not suited to governing.”
“It is not clear that there will be increased governability following these results,” University of Lisbon political scientist Marina Costa Lobo told AFP, calling Chega “the big winner of the night.”

Support for Chega has grown in every general election since the party was founded in 2019 by Andre Ventura, a former trainee priest who later became a television football commentator.
It won 1.3 percent of the vote in a general election in 2019, the year it was founded, giving it a seat in parliament — the first time a far-right party had won representation in Portugal’s parliament since a coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long rightist dictatorship.
Chega became the third-largest force in parliament in the next general election in 2022 and quadrupled its parliamentary seats last year to 50, cementing its place in Portugal’s political landscape.
Like other far-right parties that have gained ground across Europe, Chega has tapped into hostility to immigration and concerns over crime.
There are still four seats left to be assigned representing Portuguese who live abroad, but those results will not be known for days.
Sunday’s election was triggered after Montenegro lost a parliamentary vote of confidence in March after less than a year in power.
He called for the vote following allegations of conflicts of interest related to his family’s consultancy business, which has several clients holding government contracts.

Montenegro denied any wrongdoing, saying he was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the firm.
The AD formed a minority government after the last election. It passed a budget that raises pensions and public sector wages, and slashes income taxes for young people, because the PS abstained in key votes in parliament.
But relations between the two main parties soured after the confidence vote, and it is unclear if a weakened PS will be willing to allow the center-right to govern this time around.
Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos, a 48-year-old economist, had accused Montenegro of engineering the election “to avoid explaining himself” about the firm’s activities to a parliamentary enquiry.
After the results were announced, he said he would call an internal party election to pick a new leader.
Montenegro has criticized the immigration policies of the previous Socialist government, accusing it of leaving Portugal in “bedlam.”
Under the Socialist Party, Portugal became one of Europe’s most open countries for immigrants.
Between 2017 and 2024, the number of foreigners living in Portugal quadrupled, reaching about 15 percent of the total population.
Montenegro has since toughened immigration policy, and during the campaign his government announced the expulsion of some 18,000 irregular migrants, leading critics to accuse it of pandering to far-right voters.