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The six men arrested as suspects in the assassination of an anti-corruption Ecuadorian presidential candidate are Colombian nationals, according to a police report.
On Thursday (local time), a police report revealed six Colombian men were captured and arrested for the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio.
The men were hiding in a house in Quito, Ecuador's capital.
Officers also seized four shotguns, a 5.56-millimetre rifle, ammunition and three grenades, along with a vehicle and a motorcycle, it said.
Mr Villavicencio, 59, who was known for speaking up against drug cartels, was assassinated in Quito on Wednesday, less than two weeks before a special presidential election.
He was not a front-runner, but his death deepened the sense of crisis around organised crime that has already claimed thousands of lives and underscored the challenge that Ecuador's next leader will face.
Ecuador's interior minister, Juan Zapata, confirmed earlier the arrest of some foreigners in the case, although he did not give their nationalities.
Mr Zapata described the killing as a "political crime of a terrorist nature" aimed at sabotaging the presidential election to be held on August 20.
The police report did not say whether the Colombians are alleged members of a criminal group.
Mr Zapata said those arrested were linked to organised crime, although he did not give more details.
Villavicencio's campaign described as threat to cartels
Mr Villavicencio said he was threatened by affiliates of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, one of a slew of international organised crime groups operating in Ecuador.
He said his campaign represented a threat to such groups.
The involvement of Colombian nationals brings to mind the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, who was shot a dozen times at his private home.
Among the people arrested in the case are 18 former soldiers from Colombia.
Videos of the rally in Quito posted on social media appear to show Mr Villavicencio walking out of the rally surrounded by guards.
The footage then shows the candidate getting into a white pick-up truck before gunshots are heard, followed by screams and commotion around the truck.
Mr Villavicencio's campaign adviser, Patricio Zuquilanda confirmed the sequence of events to AP.
The candidate received at least three death threats before the shooting and reported them to authorities, resulting in one detention, the adviser said.
"The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded," Mr Zuquilanda said.
"Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society."
Former vice-president Otto Sonnenholzner, who also is seeking the presidency, bemoaned the loss at a news conference: "We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this."
The assassins threw a grenade into the street to cover their flight, but it did not explode, President Guillermo Lasso said.
Police later destroyed the grenade with a controlled explosion.
One suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight, the attorney-general's office said.
Authorities reported on Wednesday six people had been detained, but they did not give any details until Thursday.
Mr Lasso suggested the slaying could be linked to organised crime and insisted on proceeding with the election scheduled for August 20.
He declared three days of national mourning and a state of emergency that involved deploying additional military personnel throughout the country.
"Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended," he said.
"On the contrary, they have to be held, and democracy has to be strengthened."
In his final speech before he was killed, Mr Villavicencio promised a roaring crowd that he would fight corruption and imprison more criminals.
Mr Villavicencio was one of eight candidates running for president.
As drug traffickers have begun to use the country's coastal ports, Ecuadorians have reeled from violence not seen for decades. Gunfire is heard in many major cities as rival gangs battle for control and gangs have recruited children.
On July 26, Mr Lasso declared a state of emergency covering two provinces and the country's prison system in an effort to stem the violence.
'Not even politicians are safe'
People waiting for buses in Guayaquil, a port city south of Quito that has been the epicentre of gang violence, expressed shock over Mr Villavicencio's killing.
"It shows that the violence in the country is increasing," pharmacist Leidy Aguirre, 28, said.
"Politicians supposedly have more security than citizens and this shows that not even they are safe."
Marjorie Lino, a 38-year-old housewife, lamented the danger as she walked with a friend along the main road that leads to one of the country's most violent neighbourhoods.
"To us as women, our husbands tell us not to go out here, but it doesn't matter [because] when one is going to die, one dies even at the door of one's house," she said.
She does not believe that any of the presidential candidates will be able to end the violence.
Mr Villavicencio was one of the country's most critical voices against corruption, especially during the 2007-2017 government of president Rafael Correa.
He was an independent journalist who investigated corruption in previous governments before entering politics as an anti-graft campaigner.
Mr Villavicencio filed many judicial complaints against high-ranking members of the Correa government, including against the ex-president himself.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation over his criticisms of Correa, and fled to Indigenous territory in Ecuador, later receiving asylum in Peru.
Mr Lasso was elected in 2021 on a business-friendly platform and clashed from the start with the left-leaning majority coalition in the national assembly.
A snap election was called after Mr Lasso dissolved the national assembly by decree in May, in a move to avoid being impeached over allegations that he failed to intervene to end a faulty contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company.
AP