Ecuador: Shooting occurs near presidential election candidate Otto Sonnenholzner
Aug 20, 2023
Quito [Ecuador], August 20 : A candidate in Ecuador's presidential election has called for an investigation after a shooting was reported near a restaurant where he was having breakfast with his family, CNN reported.
Otto Sonnenholzner said he was having breakfast with his wife and daughters at a restaurant when the violence erupted.
In a video message, Sonnenholzner said, "A few minutes after arriving at the restaurant, there was a shootout after a police chase a few meters from where we were." He said neither he nor his family was harmed in the incident.
Speaking about the shooting incident, Sonnenholzner said, "This is one more example of what Ecuadorians face on a daily basis," according to CNN report. He further said, "Thank God we are all fine but we demand an investigation into what happened."
Videos show Sonnenholzner and his family members leaving the restaurant with bulletproof protection, CNN reported.
He said, "The fear and helplessness that I saw in the eyes of everyone there hurts me. We can’t go on like this", according to CNN.
The shooting comes just days after the assassination of another presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. He had been campaigning against gang violence and corruption in the country.
Villavicencio was shot dead at a political rally in Quito on August 10, The Washington Post reported earlier.
Villavicencio, aged 59, was shot several times as he left the rally at a high school in Quito, General Manuel Iniguez, a deputy commander of the Ecuadorean national police, told The Washington Post earlier.
He was taken to a nearby clinic where the doctors pronounced him dead.
Villavicencio had claimed to have received death threats from gangs and his political promises made him "many powerful enemies."
His family has accused the state of the crime of "murder by willful omission" and registered a legal complaint against the government, CNN reported. Villavicencio's family said that he was not adequately protected.
