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Ecuador has declared an emergency in the Galapagos Islands, warning that a stricken cargo ship that ran aground last week threatens the archipelago's fragile ecosystem. The country’s environment minister Lorena Tapia Nunez said 19,000 gallons of diesel had been...
Ecuador expects to begin oil production in late 2015 or early 2016 at the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil block, which has estimated reserves of about 900 million barrels and will need investments estimated at $5.6 billion. The government’s decision to press ahead...
The Ecuador National Police's second attempt to talk to leaders of the Sarayaku community about three fugitives went much more smoothly than the first attempt three weeks earlier. Two police helicopters landed Friday at Sarayaku in Pastaza Province without incident....
According to President Rafael Correa, Ecuador spends more of its gross domestic product (GDP) on higher education than any country in Latin America. Speaking yesterday at the University of Santiago in Chile, Correa also said that Ecuador commits the most resources to...
The day before he takes office, Cuenca Mayor-elect Marcelo Cabrera continues to complain that he did not receive the information he had requested from the administration of out-going mayor Paúl Granda. “Frankly, the transition period was a waste of time,” Cabrera...
Editor's note: In the Latin American culture, a "paseo" is a break from the work-a-day world, most often a leisurely stroll or a casual get-together of friends. It can also be a horsemen's outing in the countryside that can be, as expat Nat Goodale discovered,...
Just when most Ecuadorians can’t wait for the end to the April - May rainy season, scientists say that an El Niño weather phenomenon may be forming in the Pacific. For coastal areas in particular, El Niño can mean devastation. Since early last week, record-setting...
Only days after Ecuador’s election commission rejected signatures that would have forced a national referendum on oil drilling in the Yasuni national park, the government has started to accept bids for preparation work at the drilling site. Geologists say that the...
Ecuador’s National Telecommunications Council (Conatel) has set July 1 as the deadline for the country’s cell phone providers to make a series of service improvements. Conatel says the upgrades are based on recommendations from the International Telecommunication...
President Rafael Correa says that national police and military personnel will make a second attempt to capture a fugitive national assemblyman and two associates believed to be harbored by the Sarayaku community, an indigenous tribe in Ecuador’s Amazon region. Two...
Ecuador's government has told the U.S. Agency for International Development that it will not renew its agreements with the South American country. In a Nov. 26 letter sent to the U.S. Embassy in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito says, the "USAID must not execute any new...
Most of Ecuador’s furniture is made in Cuenca According to the Municipal Public Enterprise for Economic Development (ESDP), 60% of the furniture manufactured in Ecuador is made in Cuenca. ESDP says that the industry employees 6,000 and adds more than $70 million...
Editor's note: Pablo Sanguinetti is director of socioeconomics research at CAF-development bank of Latin America and professor of economics at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires. By Pablo Sanguinetti A long time ago, a reporter is said to have asked the...
Following the expulsion of military personnel attached to the U.S. Embassy in Quito last month, the U.S. plans to eliminate funding for Ecuador’s fight against illegal drugs. "I am quite prepared to acknowledge right now the INL section, which has been in Ecuador now...
Most Ecuador residential electric customers will see their electric bills increase by 10% to 12% beginning in June. Although Ecuador’s National Electricity Council (Conelec) is not saying so, the increase is intended to offset government electric subsidies, including...
Supporters of a national referendum on oil drilling in the Yasuní national park are calling a preliminary government rejection of almost 500,000 out of 757,000 voter signatures an “assault on democracy.” The official announcement from the National Electoral Council...
By Nate Singham When Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa visited the United States in April, meeting with faculty and students from universities including Harvard, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he and René Ramírez, Ecuador's minister of higher...
The French engineering firm Alstom has been told by the French government to stop negotiations with U.S.-based General Electric to buy part of its operations. Alstom, which has the contract to manage construction of Cuenca’s Tranvia de los Cuatros Rios light rail...
By Susan Schenck “I could never happen to me,” you think. But then it does. You wake up in an unfamiliar place and slowly, you become aware that you’ve had sex. The last thing you remember is that you were having a few drinks with an acquaintance. Did you really black...
Diego Aguilar, appointed by the Ecuadorian government to liquidate Coopera, says that most large investors in the failed Cuenca financial cooperative have “little chance” of recovering their money. Aguilar says that there are only a few properties, including the...
