Overview
- Mexican authorities detected Ángel Esteban Aguilar entering under a false Colombian identity, kept him under real-time surveillance, and transferred him as he was intercepted by Colombian migration officers at Bogotá’s El Dorado Airport.
- Aguilar, known as “Lobo Menor,” was listed on an Interpol Red Notice and identified as one of Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitives before Colombian authorities filed charges alleging he masterminded the 2023 assassination.
- Ecuador’s Attorney General presented new evidence in February seeking to formally link Aguilar and two others to logistical and operational roles in the plot.
- Authorities detail Aguilar’s 2013 murder conviction and 2022 parole, alongside allegations of ties to Mexican cartels and to FARC dissident leader Iván Mordisco.
- Villavicencio was shot on August 9, 2023 after a campaign rally in Quito; the shooter was killed at the scene, several suspects were later killed in detention, and others have been sentenced or remain on trial in Ecuador.