Posts:
In two recent reports, the World Economic Forum and the World Bank estimate that illegal money amounts to 10% to 11% of Ecuador’s economy. Of the total, according to the forum, 7% to 8% are profits from illegal drug sales with the rest contributed by illegal mining...
A Friday meeting in Quito between the foreign ministers of Ecuador and Colombia failed to produce an agreement to end reciprocal 30% tariffs on imports. Although Ecuador’s Gabriela Sommerfeld and Colombia’s Rosa Villavicencio said “significant progress was made”...
There is a profound question that occasionally occurs to me while walking to buy bread, not metaphorical bread or lifestyle bread, but actual warm edible bread within five minutes of the front gates of Larga Towers, bought with small change and carried home in a paper...
The cocaine is flowing south, out of Colombia and into Ecuador, and so are the biggest traffickers. "The action has moved to Ecuador because that's where the transport routes have been established and the big traffickers have followed," Colombian President Gustavo...
The elementary school principal in suburban Minneapolis feared the worst when he lost contact with one of his fifth-grade students in early January as the Trump administration began surging federal immigration officers to the area. The girl, a native of Ecuador,...
In Ecuador, a small intercultural bilingual school called Yachay Wasi treats environmental education as a political project rooted in Indigenous languages, farming, and justice. In a biodiverse garden, children learn by planting, cooking, and listening to the...
By Adrienne Matei Here’s a new trend that sounds unwise: buying unregulated substances from dealers in foreign countries and injecting them into your body. And yet, grey-market injectable peptides – a category of substances with obscure, alphanumeric names like...
Bored? - (De El Mercurio del martes, 3/2) Obra de danza-teatro interpela indiferencia (Dance-theater work challenges indifference) - A theater-dance production organized by the Espacio Escénico will be staged on el 5 & 6/2 in the Auditorio Catalina Sojos in the...
Cuenca is one of the few places left where modern life and old life still share the same room without arguing, so you can be sitting in a kitchen with a plastic dish rack, a two-burner stove, and a refrigerator that looks as if it was purchased shortly after the first...
By Chris Hedges One hundred and four years ago this week, Sylvia Beach, who ran the bookstore Shakespeare and Company on 12 rue de l’Odéon in Paris and nurtured a community of expatriate writers that included Richard Wright, T.S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, Thornton...
On the border between Ecuador and Colombia, truckers and traders from both countries gathered on Tuesday to protest against the escalation of a trade war that directly threatens the economy of the border region of the two countries. The protesters are demanding the...
The Energy and Environmental Ministry has suspended mining activity in three provinces effective Tuesday. The order applies to mining and processing operations in Napo Province and to processing operations in El Oro and Loja Provinces. According to Energy Minister...
President Donald Trump held a nearly two-hour meeting on Tuesday with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, that both called friendly — a dramatic about-face from weeks earlier, when Trump accused Petro of pumping cocaine into the U.S. and threatened his country...
This series was never really about cafes, routines, or where people spend their afternoons. Those were simply the visible signs. What it explored instead was what happens after the early excitement of expat life quietly fades. When Familiarity Replaces Novelty Many...
By Kristine De Abreu Cueva de los Tayos translates to “Cave of the Oilbirds.” However, this cave isn’t famous for bird-watching; it supposedly contains a golden library that harbors hidden knowledge and challenges everything we know about human history. Father Crespi...
Bored? - (De El Mercurio del viernes, 30/1) Más de 120 eventos por el Carnaval (More than 120 events for Carnaval) - Azuay Province is getting ready to enjoy a vibrant mix of fiestas, music, and food during the upcoming Carnaval holidays. Last jueves, local...
After my recent column on ICE and migration ran, it attracted nearly seventy comments within a day or two, many of them passionate, angry, supportive, dismissive, ideological, conspiratorial, and occasionally thoughtful. What they mostly were not, however, was engaged...
Trade between Ecuador and Colombia became more expensive Sunday as the two countries imposed reciprocal 30% tariffs on imports. In addition, Colombia suspended the sale of electricity to Ecuador. Last minute negotiations between the two countries failed to produce an...
Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father have been released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, following a court order mandating their release. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery on Saturday directed government officials to release Adrian Alexander...
By Katie Notopoulos It's 2026, and I say it's time to bring back just calling people. No calendar appointment, no text first. Just pick up the phone and call. We must do this to save the very fabric of our society. It's time for us to take back what was promised to...
