On Oct. 7, Ecuadorian prison officials announced that a man who was incarcerated in Quito, awaiting trial for the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, was murdered in prison. In the summer, three other Ecuadorian politicians, including Villavicencio, were killed in the span of four weeks.

The news comes after six other suspects in Villavicencio’s assassination were killed on Oct. 6 in a separate prison in Guayaquil. President Guillermo Lasso’s security cabinet removed the director of prisons and the head of the police investigation division in response to the killings. 

Villavicencio was assassinated on Aug. 9 in Quito, 11 days before the first round of Ecuador’s presidential election. Villavicencio expressed a fear for his safety, claiming to be a target for the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico before he was slain. 

Ecuador’s runoff presidential election will be on Oct. 15. The six other suspects in Villavicencio’s assassination remain incarcerated, and have been moved to a new undisclosed facility.