Andrea Gonzalez now wears bulletproof armor at all times.
A week ago, at a pre-election rally in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, Fernando Villavicensio, who was the presidential candidate of her party Constructors in the elections that will be held in that country on Sunday, was shot three times in the head.
Gonzalez was a candidate for vice president, and the 36-year-old woman will now run this race alongside the new presidential candidate, Christian Zurita.
He is a journalist who investigated corruption, as Villavicencio did in the past.
"I will not let Fernando's legacy be forgotten," Gonzalez told the BBC.
"It really affects me on a personal level that I can't say goodbye to my friend. I wear a bulletproof vest day and night," she says.
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Villavicencio was a 59-year-old journalist and member of parliament in Ecuador who was killed during a rally in Quito on Wednesday, just 11 days before the presidential election.
One of the attackers was killed in an exchange of fire with the police, while several others escaped.
His death has shaken the country, which has escaped decades of drug cartel violence, internecine wars and corruption that have ravaged neighboring states.
Just a few days after the murder of Villavicencio, another politician, the leader of the left-wing Party of the Civil Revolution, was killed in Ecuador.
Gunmen on a motorcycle killed Pedro Briones outside his home in the northern province of Esmeraldas.
The murder and crime rate in Ecuador has increased as local gangs have formed alliances with international criminal cartels, primarily Colombian and Mexican.
Villavicencio's campaign focused on corruption and gangs, and he was just one of several candidates to point to alleged ties between organized crime and the Ecuadorian government.
Gonzalez, who worked with him, says that Ecuador is "on the verge of becoming a drug state".
"We are absolutely sure that the murder is politically motivated, something more than gangs and organized crime is behind it. I see political intentions and a stamp here.
"Three days before the debate, the presidential candidates Fernando clearly said that he has very delicate information that will change the course of the election. They were never published," explains the 36-year-old politician.
Gonzalez, who until now has mostly built a career in the field of environmental protection, says that this level of violence has become normal in Ecuadorian politics.
At first, the party wanted her to succeed Villavicencio as a presidential candidate, but later decided to continue the race for the vice-presidential position and chose Christian Zurita as a replacement for the murdered 59-year-old.
They were afraid that the election commission would disqualify her, because her vice-presidential candidacy had already been registered.
As the promotional materials for the elections have already been printed, the name of Fernando Villavicensi will remain on them.
The violence has not abated since his murder.
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"We are all exposed to violence. Taking a child to school is already too big a risk.
"Anytime you stop at a traffic light, you run the risk of being shot or a bomb going off in the next car," says Gonzalez.
It is "a level of violence that Ecuador has never experienced before," he adds.
But, as she says, that will not stop her from achieving what her mentor dreamed of.
"I feel a great burden on my shoulders," adds the politician.
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