A FIFTH socialist mayoral candidate was shot dead on Saturday just before Ecuadoreans voted in local elections today.

Omar Menendez was running for mayor of Puerto Lopez for the Citizen Revolution party, formed of supporters of exiled former president Rafael Correa after his own PAIS alliance was subverted and stripped of its left-wing character by his successor Lenin Moreno.

Citizen Revolution condemned the killing and demanded authorities properly investigate.

Violence in Ecuador has soared over the last year. While under Mr Correa the country’s murder rate more than halved, it has rocketed since, with a 180 per cent rise in 2020-21 and even sharper increases last year. 

The 4,539 people murdered in 2022, according to police, add up to a homicide rate of 25.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, up from 13.7 in 2021.

The number of prison murders has increased sixfold since 2020, as the Guillermo Lasso government blames drug-trafficking gangs for the breakdown in law and order.

The right-wing government says the crisis requires a harsh response and held a referendum on policing yesterday which critics say is designed to exploit fear of trafficking gangs to secure a permanent militarisation of the police.

“The permanent deployment of the military in public security tasks is not an effective and comprehensive response to the enormous challenges facing the country,” Amnesty International warned when the referendum was announced, appealing for a “halt to the trend towards the militarisation of public security.”