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By Nick Miroff More than two decades after the Cold War, during which the United States backed anti-communist military rulers and pushed free-market policies in Latin America, conservative governments have virtually disappeared from the region. The leftward shift has...
Supporting President Rafael Correa’s recent crime reduction agenda, Cuenca announced several new measures last week to fight crime in the city. At his Saturday television broadcast, Correa announced new crime statistics showing a nation-wide reduction of crime in...
The rapid decline and revaluation of the Argentinian peso has sent shock waves thorugh Latin American economies. It is troubling countries outside the region as well and is blamed in part for large declines Thursday and Friday on the world's largest stock exchanges....
Ecuadorian airline Tame has suspended flights to Caracas, Venezuela, demanding $43 million in overdue payments for tickets. About 80 passengers were left stranded on Thursday in Quito. Tame says the Venezuelan Central Bank has not transferred any money to its...
Ecuador’s Medical Association is warning that a new medical malpractice laws could force hundreds of doctors out the profession. On Wednestay, 90 doctors from Pablo Arturo Suarez Hospital in Quito resigned in mass to protest the new law that, in some cases,...
President Rafael Correa said Wednesday that Washington has too many military officers assigned to its embassy in Ecuador and he plans to order some to leave. Correa, a U.S.-educated economist who calls himself a "modern leftist," made the remarks during a meeting with...
Attorneys for unreimbursed Coopera members say they are ready to file legal action against the government for poor oversight of the Cuenca-based financial cooperative. Coopera was closed by the government last June when top management and several board members were...
Quito Deputy Mayor Jorge Albán announced Tuesday an ambitious plan to construct a cable car system conntecting Quito and the new airport in Tababela. Albán calls the project a private – public partnership but offered few details about how the financial arrangement...
The Catholic church says it hopes to begin making roof and ceiling repairs to the cathedral. Curia Vice Chancellor Rigoberto Jara said he is working on raising the funds for the work and says he will seek money from both the church and the public. A study by the...
Cuenca tile manufacturers are complaining about the quality of imported floor and decorative tile as well as what they consider unfair competition from foreign manufacturers. According to Gustavo Palacios, vice president of the Ceramic Center, national tile imports...
Ecuador, where the fatty beans used to make chocolate have been grown since pre-Columbian times, is surpassing Brazil as Latin America’s top cocoa producer after boosting planting and running education programs for farmers. Cocoa-bean output rose 13 percent last year...
President Rafael Correa has confirmed that he won't seek re-election when his current term ends in 2017. The government-run newspaper El Telegrafo quoted Correa as saying that it “is dangerous when one person considers himself to be indispensable.” In 2013, in a media...
Seven months after it suspended flights between Cuenca and Guayaquil and three months after it suspended Quito to Loja service, the Cuenca-based Linea Aerea Cuencana (LAC) says it will resume service in March. In a major change, however, it said it will fly into and...
Ecuador’s Social Security administration, Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social (IESS), is reviewing the terms of expanded voluntary membership in its health care program. A spokesman for the agency said, however, that any adjustments will not affect the...
Through mid-January, more than 25,000 have visited the new planetarium that opened in November in Parque de la Madre, according to educational director Paúl Tenesaca. Most of the visitors have been school children who observe stars and planets on the planetarium’s...
By Jim Wyss Two days after Christmas, masked and armed police raided the home of Fernando Villavicencio in the predawn hours, hauling away a lifetime of data and documents. Hours later, President Rafael Correa said Villavicencio — an opposition adviser who also writes...
The the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) has chosen Cuenca and Azuay Province for a pilot project using electronic voting machines. The machines will be used for the first time in the Feb. 23 provincial and municiapl elections. CNE plans to shift the entire...
Foreign tourists are staying longer in Cuenca, according to the city’s Municipal Tourism Foundation. A 2010 survey showed the average tourist stay was one day while the latest survey shows stays have increased to three days. According to Felipe Cardoso, spokesman for...
By William K. Black Editor’s note: This is a response to an earlier Wall Street Journal article by By David Luhnow. That article (“A divided Latin America faces an uncertain future; Pacific rim countries grow while Atlantic coast countries struggle”) was posted in...
Liquidator for the failed financial cooperative Coopera, Diego Aguilar, is seeking bids on several Coopera properties. Proceeds from the sales will go to settle debts to creditors and to compensate some of the coop members who have not be reimbursed, Aguilar said....
