The men were arrested on Wednesday in the capital of Quito, the same night that Fernando Villavicencio, a presidential candidate for Movimiento Construye, was shot to death in the city immediately after attending a political rally.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the men will be held for 30 days of investigation.
Villavicencio previously served in the National Assembly until it was dissolved in May by Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, who did so in order to block an impeachment inquiry. Villavicencio had previously been associated with center-right politics, being a strong critic of former leftist President Rafael Correa, but ran in 2023 on a “big tent” platform. He was not considered the front-runner in the presidential election race.
The candidate was shot in the head while entering a car in Quito on Wednesday evening by an assassin who was killed in a shootout with Villavicencio’s bodyguards. The assassin also threw a grenade that failed to detonate. Villavicencio was later rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead.
Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency following the shooting, mobilizing the armed forces to secure the country. The presidential election, scheduled for August 20, has not been postponed in response to the killing or the state of emergency.
Similarly, after Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home in 2021, Haitian authorities detained 18 Colombians and two Americans in connection with the killing. The Pentagon later confirmed that seven of the Colombians had been former soldiers, and had been trained at an elite US military facility known for schooling right-wing Latin American guerrillas.