Second mayor in Ecuador assassinated ahead of anti-crime referendum A second mayor in Ecuador - Jorge Maldonado of Portovelo - was shot dead Friday ahead of a referendum on stricter measures against organised crime, police said. Two days prior, the mayor of Camilo Ponce Enriquez in the southern province of Azuay, Jose Sanchez, was shot dead. Maldonado was the fifth Ecuadoran mayor assassinated in a year, and the third in less than a month.