Police detain a suspect after the murder of a candidate for mayor of Salinas in the middle of the electoral campaign

(CNN Spanish) — The General Directorate of Investigation of the National Police of Ecuador confirmed this Sunday that Julio César Farachio, candidate for mayor of Salinas, was assassinated on Saturday afternoon when he was in a proselytizing activity in the José Luis Tamayo parish, located in the canton Salinas, Santa Elena province.

This crime occurs in the middle of the electoral campaign period in Ecuador, ahead of the provincial elections that will take place on February 5 throughout the country.

After the murder of 45-year-old Farachio, the Investigative Police reported that 24 hours after the crime, a 27-year-old man was arrested, suspected of having planned the murder.

“Through investigative techniques and with the support of the State Attorney General’s Office, they were able to identify that the deceased today would have received various threats, with this information they located a person in the Anconcito sector who, according to witness versions, would be the mastermind of the act.” the Investigative Police reported.

In a press conference, the lieutenant colonel of the Santa Elena Police Subzone, Franklin Yacelga, explained that after Farachio’s murder, a joint operation was deployed by police investigation units that received anonymous calls, citizen reports and videos of security cameras to get to the place where the suspect was and proceed to search the house located in Anconcito.

Yacelga reported that all the evidence collected was delivered to the Prosecutor’s Office, which opened an investigation into this case and that the alleged perpetrators of the crime are still pending.

Friends and members of the political alliance that sponsored Julio César Farachio’s candidacy for mayor of Salinas regretted what happened and demanded stronger measures to confront crime and violence in the country.