Ecuadorian authorities say 50 guards and seven police officers were released more than a day after they were taken hostages in different prisons, in what the government described as a response by criminal groups to its efforts to regain control of several large correctional facilities in the South American country.

The fragile security of Ecuador has been underscored by the explosions of four car bombs and the hostage-taking of more than 50 law enforcement officers inside various detention facilities.

The vote count in Ecuador's special presidential election points to a leftist backed by the country’s fugitive ex-president likely facing a runoff with the son of a banana tycoon.

Ecuadorians will choose a new president Sunday, less than two weeks after the South American country was shaken by the assassination of one of the candidates.

The unprecedented violence affecting Ecuador has claimed the life of another political leader, bringing the number of politics-related slayings within the last four weeks to three, including that of a presidential candidate.

The brazen assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio at a crowded political rally has deepened the country’s sense of vulnerability to its rising crime.

Ecuador will hold six Colombian men for at least a month as the country probes their involvement in the slaying of a presidential candidate whose life’s work was fighting crime and corruption, the national prosecutor’s office said Friday.

The Ecuadorian presidential candidate who was fatally shot at a political rally was unafraid to take on criminal networks and a political elite he accused of corruption.

An Ecuadorian police report says the six men arrested as suspects in the assassination of an anti-corruption presidential candidate are Colombian nationals.