All six suspected hitmen held in connection to the assassination of Ecuador’s August presidential election candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, have been killed inside prison, the country’s authorities said.

The suspects are Colombians and were charged with the murder of Mr Villavicencio in broad daylight, less than two weeks to last month’s poll.

The alleged hitmen were the only victims of the incident inside the Litoral Penitentiary on Friday.

They are identified as Jhon Gregore, Andrés Manuel, Adey Fernando, Camilo Andrés, Sules Osmini C. and José Neyder.

The Litoral Penitentiary is the biggest prison in Ecuador and has the reputation of being the most dangerous in the country. 

The mysterious killing of the suspects came as the Prosecutor’s Office was about to conclude its investigation into Mr Villavicencio’s assassination, who was gunned down at a rally in early August. 

He had reported threats to his life by the dreadful Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel before he was eventually killed. The suspects in the killing were arrested hours after the attack and had been held in the Litoral prison till Friday when they were killed.

Ecuadorian authorities did not provide further details about the Friday killings but President Guillermo Lasso, who is out of the country, said any cover up will be uncovered and the truth will be revealed.

“Neither complicity nor cover-up, the truth will be known here,” he posted on the social network X, formerly called Twitter.