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[voliol]

Even though smuggling cocaine is really bad, this seems like a suspect law, to say in the least. Marginalized groups are always more prone to criminal records, both because crime attracts the vulnerable and because criminal charges can be made to target them. And then it prevents the Mandelas of future Suriname. Hit someone for illegal opposition of the system, and they can never hold an office. Though I do know very little about Suriname, so I do not know if they have had a war on drugs or the like, this law sets a bad precedent should they ever have one.

[martinuzz]

Eleven days before the next election rounds, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead when leaving a rally at a school in Ecuador's capital Quito.
The assassination has been claimed by drug criminals.

President Guillermo Lasso has declared martial law in multiple cities, stating that 'it cannot be denied that organised crime has infiltrated the state and political organisations'.

[Duuvian]

Has there been information released about who the shooter was and what links they may have had if any? I have not seen any information on that yet, just speculation that it was drug cartel related because the candidate was receiving threats that he publically spoke about. This does seem like it would be the most likely explanation, but it seems also like something an erratic person could have done in how it was carried out. A third party might be able to pin the blame on the cartels for what seems to me to be an unusual shooting that seems more like something an erratic person with political motivation would do individually since I assume cartel members would have made such an attempt in a non-public (or at least non-securitized) location in the interest of escaping.

This is also helping to boost a Bukele* style candidate rise in the polls, and media has been quick to cast doubt upon the leftist party's lack of involvment as they had some level of connection with drug cartels in the past (I haven't checked to confirm this but IIRC it was a sort of amnesty deal though I might be completely wrong on that) and the assassinated candidate had been an anti-corruption critic of both cartels and a previous leftist president; from what little I know of the victim he sounds like he was actually an independent more than anything else and if I may seemed to be a good man from what I've read of him, which is quite little.

While I understand this is an extraordinary thought, I sometimes wonder if there is some sort of (loose) international cabal destabilizing nations in order to effect it's internal politics and support authoritarian candidates. Whether this includes political violence or simply takes advantage of it when it occurs I should not speculate, but I wonder about Haiti...

*Bukele is popular and has reduced gang activity dramatically. However I also read early on that his crackdown involved such things as arrests for having tattoos in certain neighborhoods. I do not know if detainees were vetted to determine actual links to gangs or if living in certain areas and having a tattoo was enough to be swept up. The courts there are doing bulk trials of detainees which is a very bad sign. This makes me wonder if his high popularity is because most of those who would be a critic have been arrested or silenced with fear.