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Following pressure from bus companies and bus drivers, Cuenca traffic officers are again stopping tourist vans headed in and out of town for Guayaquil, Machala and Loja. Officers are checking van registration and credentials to determine that they are being used for...
As foreign investors in the failed financial cooperative Coopera maneuver to protect their interests, some Ecuadorian investors say they want to make sure that the foreigners, mostly from the U.S. and Canada, do not receive special treatment. Coopera, or Cooperativa...
While volcanic activity has remained constant at Tungurahua in the central highlands near Ambato, scientists say lava flow and ash and gas emissions have intensified at a second volcano, Reventador, 60 miles east of Quito. Ecuador's Geophysics Institute says the lava...
Editor's note: Ecuador ambassador to the United States, Nathalie Cely, responded on the weekend to recent news commentary critical of Ecuador for its asylum consideration for intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. Her response appeared in a number of newspapers and...
The eruption of the Tungurahua volcano has caused the re-routing of flights between Quito and Guayaquil and Cuenca but airport officials say they don’t expect it to cause cancellations. Quito - Cuenca routes have been shifted 50 miles to the west to avoid ash...
Ecuador’s Tungurahua Volcano erupted Sunday morning, blanketing a large area with ash and pumice and sending a plume of smoke three miles into the atmosphere. Risk management officials raised the alert level to orange, the second from the highest, and issued a notice...
Work began this week to turn Cuenca’s garbage into electricity. It is the first project of its kind in Ecuador. The city of Cuenca will drill 26 wells during the first phase of the project to capture biogases generated from waste in the city landfill at...
A preliminary audit of Coopera confirms what government investigators have suspected since taking control of the Cuenca-based financial cooperative in June: the coop had been losing money. Comparing assets on hand with expenses, auditors announced that Coopera...
Ecuador’s finance minister Fausto Herrera has presented the National Assembly with a proposed budget of $32.3 billion for the second half of 2013. He says it will mean a $5 billion deficit. Herrera says the deficit will be covered in part by a $1.4 billion from...
Ecuador’s Consejo Nacional Electoral, or CNE, has published the official rules for foreigners living in Ecuador who want to vote in the February 2014 local elections. Any foreigner 16 years of age or older who has lived in Ecuador for five years or more is...
The final contracts for construction of Cuenca’s light rail system, Tranvia de Los Cuatros Rios, have been signed. Cuenca mayor Paul Granda said construction would begin in August. The signings had been delayed for four months due to technical problems, Granda said....
When Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa brought up the subject of the Isaias brothers in a phone conversation last week with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Biden said he had never heard of the brothers but would look into the matter. Biden had phoned Correa to make a...
Work on the Eloy Alfaro Pacific Refinery will be completed in 2017 and be operational by the end of that year, according to President Rafael Correa. The refinery and petrochemical plant will be Ecuador’s first facility for processing crude oil into petroleum...
A representative of a group of Coopera investors says the government has provided inadequate information about the liquidation process of the Cuenca-based savings cooperative. Attorney Gustavo Quito, speaking for a group of account holders with investments of more...
Ecuador is not currently considering Edward Snowden's asylum request and never intended to facilitate his flight from Hong Kong, president Rafael Correa said as the whistleblower made a personal plea to Quito for his case to be heard. Snowden was Russia's...
U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden called Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and asked him to reject the asylum plea of Edward Snowden, the fugitive NSA-leaker. During his regular Saturday television program, Correa said the conversation was “polite” and that Biden had...
Although some account holders of the Cuenca financial cooperative Coopera can begin withdrawing funds this week, there is new uncertainty about the repayment schedule and repayment amounts for accounts of more thant $10,000. Coopera, or Coopertiva de Ahorro y Credito,...
Editor's note: Adapting to life in Ecuador is an on-going topic of conversation among North American expats. Yolanda Reinoso Barzallo turns the tables and tells the story of being an Ecuadorian living in the Middle East and the U.S. She is a native of Cuenca and the...
Ecuador has renounced its trade preferences with the United States, saying it will not be "blackmailed." In a Thursday morning press conference, communication secretary Fernando Alvarado announced that Ecuador would "unilaterally" renounce...
Ecuador has decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana and four other drugs. The move, which was expected, came last week when the National Council of Control of Narcotic and Psychotropic Drugs (CONSEP) published a table of drug possession limits. The...
