CuencaHighLife

Confusion continues to reign regarding the rules for Sunday´s national census, in part because Ecuador´s census officials are still tinkering with the details. The government´s mandate that citizens, residents and tourists remain in their homes and hotels during the count is common prcatice in Latin America as well as in countries in Asia and Africa. Government officials say it...

Cuenca escaped the heavy rains that caused floods in Colombia and northern Ecaudor but has received enough to replenish the city´s rivers and fill the downstream reservoirs that generate most of the country´s electricity. Before the rains began two weeks ago, breaking a three-month drought, some officials were predicting a repeat of the severe drought of...

If you´ve made plans for Sunday, Nov. 28, cancel them. That´s the day when half a million workers will visit almost every household in Ecuador to gather information for the 2010 census. Unless you´re an emergency service worker, a member of the military, a doctor or nurse, or work in another profession the government deems...

Democracy has taken root in Latin America, but remains fragile three decades since coup-imposed military regimes were replaced by freely elected governments, a new U.N. report warns. It says drug violence, weak states with corrupt police and inefficient courts, and wealth concentrated in few hands threaten representative government across the region. "There is a problem...

Cuenca´s tourist information office reports that complaints about taxi fares always increase during holiday seasons and this year is no exception. Juan Sebastian Maldonado, an official with iTUR, says that most complaints involve taxi fare from the city´s Mariscal La Mar airport to hotels in the historic district. “For most destinations in El Centro, the fare...

After weeks of delays and hundreds of dollars in contributions from Cuenca’s expat community, the memorial mural honoring Gualaceao native Marcelo Lucero, murdered in the U.S. in 2008, was dedicated Saturday at Gualaceo’s Casona Municipal. The mural was created by Lucero’s classmates at the Long Island, New York, high school he attended in the 1990s,...

Although there is overwhelming consensus that there was never a coup attempt during last week’s police strike, President Rafael Correa refuses to give up the idea that the strike was an effort to destabilize his government. In his weekly television and radio address on Saturday, Correa claimed that political enemies attempted to take advantage of...

Cuenca remained peaceful Thursday as a strike by national police turned violent in Guayaquil and Quito. Many Cuenca stores and banks closed for part of the day but local police remained on duty. Because of an airport closure in Quito, Cuenca’s airport was shut down for several hours. The day’s highlight was last night’s Army...

Jorge Rojas, director of the Azuay Civil Registry says that no marriages between Ecuadorians and non-Ecuadorians have been challenged in the province. Nationwide, immigration officials have revoked the citizenship of more than 200 foreigners married to Ecuadorians, claiming the marriages were"false" or “illegitimate.” Officials say the marriages were solely for the purpose of foreigners gaining Ecuadorian citizenship,...