Ecuador election: 'I'm wearing a bulletproof vest 24 hours a day'

Andrea González now wears a bulletproof vest 24 hours a day.

A week ago, her Construye party's presidential candidate in the Ecuadorean election this Sunday, Fernando Villavicencio, was shot three times in the head after a campaign rally in the capital, Quito.

Ms González, 36, will remain the party's candidate for vice-president, as the running mate of Christian Zurita. He is a journalist who has investigated corruption - as Fernando Villavicencio had.

"I'm not letting Fernando's legacy die," Ms González told the BBC's Newshour programme.

"To me it's incredibly personal and hard to not be able to say goodbye to my friend. I'm wearing a bulletproof vest 24 hours [a day]," she said.

Mr Villavicencio, 59, a journalist and member of Ecuador's national assembly, was shot as he left a campaign rally in the capital last Wednesday - 11 days before the presidential election.

One attacker was killed in an exchange of fire with police, while several others escaped.

His death shocked a nation that has largely escaped the decades of drug-gang violence, cartel wars and corruption that has blighted many of its neighbours. Crime has, however, shot up in recent years, fuelled by the growth of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels.

Mr Villavicencio's campaign focused on corruption and gangs, and he was one of only a few candidates to allege links between organised crime and government officials in Ecuador.

"We are at the brink of becoming a narco state," Ms González said.

"We are totally sure that this is a political assassination, more than the gangs and the organised crime. There's a political feeling in this, there's a political intention in this," she added.

"Three days before the debate and Fernando clearly said he had very delicate information that was going to change the way these elections were turning. That information never got to light."

Ms González, whose career has mainly focused on environmental issues, said that these levels of violence had become normalised in Ecuadorean politics.

Initially her party wanted her to succeed Mr Villavicencio as presidential candidate, but later party officials decided to keep her as running mate and chose Christian Zurita as the replacement. They feared she could have been disqualified, as she was already registered as vice-presidential candidate.

As the ballot papers had already been printed, Fernando Villavicencio's name will remain on the ballot.

Violence has not ceased since the attack on the candidate. Pedro Briones, a local leader of the left-wing Citizen Revolution Party in Esmeraldas, was shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle at his home on Monday.

"Any one of us is exposed to this level of violence," Ms González said.

"Taking your child to school is already a high risk. Every time you stop at a traffic light you are exposed to getting shot or having a bomb next to your car.

"The level of violence that Ecuador is experiencing has never been seen before."

But she says this will not stop her attempts to achieve what her mentor had dreamed of.

"I feel a lot of weight on my shoulders," she said.