Ecuador: at least nine dead in clashes in a prison

At least nine people were killed Friday in clashes between inmates in a prison in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, AFP learned from an official source.

The prosecutor's office

, announced the institution on Twitter, specifying that

.

Images posted on social networks showed a helicopter flying over the prison, located in the north of the capital.

"Creating Chaos"

This violence comes a few hours after the transfer by the prison authorities of a feared gang leader, named Bermudez, from this prison of El Inca to another prison center of high security, in the large port city of Guayaquil.

Another gang leader was also transferred from another prison to Guayaquil.

Announcing in the morning this isolation measure aimed at those who seek to

, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso had released photos of the operation.

Detention centers across the country are the scene of recurring violence between rival gangs.

Since February 2021, there have been eight massacres in these prisons and 400 inmates killed, most of them dismembered and burned.

The latest violence dates back to November 8, when eight inmates died in El Inca prison.

In early November, the government began transferring 2,400 detainees, triggering a violent offensive by criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking.

These illegal groups carried out car bomb attacks near gas stations and police barracks and provoked shootings.

Eight people, including five police officers, died in these attacks in Guayaquil, a strategic port city for the transport of drugs to the United States and Europe, which has become a stronghold of rival drug trafficking mafias.