The six people who have been arrested in connection with the killing of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio are Colombian, police say. A seventh suspect, who died from wounds in a shootout with police on Thursday, was also Colombian. Mr Villavicencio was killed leaving a campaign event in the capital Quito. The interior minister said a police investigation into the abominable event was underway. Interior Minister Juan Zapata said officers would work to discover the motive of this crime and its intellectual authors. He added that during the police raid that resulted in their arrest, officers found a rifle, a submachine gun, four pistols, three grenades, four boxes of ammunition, two motorbikes, and a vehicle that had been reported stolen in the group's possession. 

A vocal critic of organized crime, Mr. Villavicencio was one of the few presidential candidates to allege links between corruption and government officials. President Guillermo Lasso said the assassination was an attempt to sabotage the election. He added that voting would go ahead as planned on 20 August, despite a national state of emergency.