Six suspects in the August assassination of Ecuador presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio have been killed in prison, officials said on Saturday.

The SNAI prisons authority announced the death of the six Colombians at the Guayas 1 prison in Guayaquil City on Friday.

The public prosecutor's office also said specialized military personnel will raid the prison's Cellblock 7, "where the incidents originated, to take control of the situation."

In late July, a riot in the Guayas 1 prison left more than 30 people dead.

Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso announced he would immediately return from an international trip to handle the incident.

Lasso had traveled to New York on Thursday for personal matters, and was due in Seoul on Saturday for official trade talks.

"In the next few hours I will return to Ecuador to attend to this emergency. Neither complicity nor cover-up, here the truth will be known," Lasso said on X.

Villavicencio had been polling in second place when was gunned down as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito days ahead of the first round vote.

WITH AFP