On October 29, 2024, Maria Elvira Salazar's campaign took a $3,000 check from a Miami developer named Xavier Jordán. The Federal Election Commission record lists him as self-employed, living in Miami.

Less than a year later, prosecutors in Ecuador charged Jordán with directing and financing the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, a presidential candidate who was shot dead in Quito on August 9, 2023.

Florida Politics reports, building on reporting by Francisco Alvarado of The Miamian, that Salazar has not answered questions about the money. Her campaign didn't immediately respond to Florida Politics either. Election Day is November 3.

The charges weren't a surprise

Salazar's defenders will say the check came before the charges, and that's true. Jordán was charged in September 2025.

But the accusations were already public. Jordán had sued Villavicencio for defamation earlier in 2023, then dropped the case two weeks after Villavicencio was killed, according to court records The Miamian reviewed. And in 2024 — the same year he wrote Salazar a check — Jordán sued Ecuador's then-Attorney General over comments on CNN that allegedly linked him to the killing.

Since then:

• September 2025: Ecuador charged him with directing and financing the plot.
• A month later: federal agents raided his home in Kendall, in Miami-Dade.
• September 16, 2026: ICE detained him on immigration grounds, separate from Ecuador's effort to have him sent back to face trial.

Photos in The Miamian's report show Salazar and Jordán met, though they don't confirm when, where, or how well they know each other. Jordán's lawyer, Richard J. Diaz — who has also given money to Salazar — disputes the charges and told The Miamian he couldn't remember whether he introduced them.

Florida Politics describes Salazar as under pressure to return the money. She hasn't said whether she will.

The fourth time

This is not a one-off. Florida Politics lays out a pattern of donors Salazar has had to answer for:

• Lenir Pérez, a Honduran businessman charged with environmental crimes at a national park, wrote a $100,000 check this year to the joint fundraising committee that raises money for Salazar and her party. Several opponents of his mining project were killed; the Miami Herald reported no formal link between him and those deaths. We covered Pérez and Salazar here. Salazar didn't answer the Herald's questions about the money or her visit to his Wellington estate.
• Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador, gave her campaign $750 in the 2022 cycle. He later pleaded guilty to secretly working for Cuba and got 15 years in prison. Her campaign said it would return the money.
• Fernando Valdés Pérez, whom federal authorities identified as a Cuban intelligence agent, gave her $3,900 across two election cycles before he was deported, WLRN reported. Salazar called those donations unsolicited and promised to give the same amount to Cuban freedom groups.

Her Democratic challenger, Eliott Rodriguez, put it bluntly: "Once is a mistake. Twice is a problem. Three times, it's a scandal. This fourth incident is now disqualifying."

Rodriguez is asking Salazar to refund the money, explain how she met Jordán, say when she learned about the allegations, and disclose whether Jordán ever asked her congressional office for help.

Why it matters

A presidential candidate was murdered, and the man charged with paying for it gave Salazar $3,000. A member of Congress should be able to say, in one sentence, whether she knew he had been publicly linked to that killing — and whether she's giving the money back.

Salazar won't.

What the record shows

FEC records show Maria Elvira Salazar's campaign took $3,000 from Xavier Jordán on October 29, 2024, after allegations tying him to the murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio had already been made public. Ecuador charged him in 2025 with directing and financing that killing. Salazar has not answered questions about the donation, and it is the fourth time a donor tied to crimes or a foreign government has turned up in her campaign's books.

Source

María Elvira Salazar pressed to explain $3K donation from accused Ecuador assassination conspirator, Jesse Scheckner, Florida Politics, October 29, 2026.