A judge is weighing trial for seven suspects.

The case tests whether Ecuador’s state can convict its own political-criminal elite.

Villavicencio, an investigative journalist turned candidate, was shot dead campaigning in Quito in 2023.

Conviction would mark Ecuador’s first prosecution reaching past the gunmen who fired the shots.

How each outlet framed it
InSight Crime
frames conviction test as measure of Ecuador's ability to hold political-criminal elite accountable

Sources: InSight Crime