Ecuador gang leader transferred to max security upon killing of candidate

Ecuador has transferred a powerful gang leader, accused of threatening a presidential candidate before he was slain, to a maximum security prison via a massive military and police operation, according to officials.

At dawn on Saturday, some 4,000 heavily armed agents entered Prison 8 in Guayaquil in southwestern Ecuador, where the head of the powerful Los Choneros criminal group, Jose Adolfo Macias, alias "Fito," was being held.

Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso reported on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, that "Fito" had been transferred to La Roca, a 150-person maximum security prison that is part of the same large penitentiary complex he was already in.

The gang leader - who had been sentenced to 34 years in prison for organised crime, drug trafficking and murder - had controlled at least one cellblock in the prison from which he was removed.

Ecuador has been under a state of emergency after the shock assassination Wednesday of journalist and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio.

Lasso has blamed the murder on organised crime, and Villavicencio had complained of receiving death threats from Macias.

'Unjustifiable violence'

Villavicencio drew the ire of gangs and drug traffickers for his investigations. A week before he was killed, the 59-year-old had said that "Fito" was threatening him.

He told a local program that an "emissary" of the gang leader had contacted him and warned "that if I continue... mentioning Los Choneros, they are going to break me."

Six Colombians have been arrested in his murder, while a seventh was killed in a shootout with his bodyguards. Authorities haven't said who hired and paid the hitmen.

The global community has condemned Villavicencio's murder, including the UN, United States and European Union.

On Saturday, Pope Francis condemned "with all his strength" the "suffering caused by unjustifiable violence" plaguing Ecuador in a message to the Archbishop of Quito, Alfredo Espinoza.

Villavicencio's party announced that his running mate, Andrea Gonzalez, would take his place in the August 20 election.

Gonzalez, 36, is an environmental advocate who has fought in particular for the protection of oceans, forests and mangroves.