Ecuador News

As the effort to oust National Assembly President Guadalupe Llori continues to simmer, a new controversy has taken shape in the legislative halls. It follows the revelation last week that the Assembly’s Pachakutik leader Rafael Lucero met secretly in Mexico City earlier this month with former president Rafael Correa. “This was an under-the-table meeting to...

The government is blaming staff shortages and supply problems for long delays in delivering cedulas,  passports and drivers’ licenses. The National Civil Registry office says it is processing more than 360,000 requests for cedulas and passports with the waiting time from application to delivery averaging three months. Transportation Ministry officials report similar delays for driver’s...

The National Police have arrested 18 men suspected of assisting a criminal organization with ties to Mexican and Colombian drugs cartels. Those arrested are also suspected of participating in drug-related murders and several “acts of terrorism.” The detainees, identified by police as being associated with the Los Tiguerones gang, include three police officers in active...

By Alexandra Valencia An Ecuadorian court chief on Friday signed a request seeking the extradition of ex-President Rafael Correa from Belgium to serve an eight-year jail term for bribery, although the former leader’s spokespersons said Brussels had granted him asylum. An Ecuadorian court sentenced Correa to eight years in prison in 2020, accusing him and...

By Stephen Vargha Cuenca artist Boris Ordoñez showed a tour group his huge chess pieces at the entrance to his gallery, OFF Arte Contemporáneo. “It is like a chess game where the kingdoms are represented by the young and old,” said Ordoñez. “Young artists are represented by the pawn. They want to be the king...

By Karla Pesantes Trying to prevent drug traffickers from hiding cocaine in cargo containers at Ecuador’s main port of Guayaquil is becoming an increasingly expensive headache for police and exporters alike. The ingenuity of criminal gangs means tons of cocaine leave the port hidden in food containers. Surrounded by a poor neighborhood, the Guayaquil port...

National Assembly President Guadalupe Llori survived the latest attempt to remove her from office Monday as her opponents failed by three votes of gaining control of the Assembly. The vote, which required 92 of the Assembly’s 137 members, would have established a multi-party commission to investigate Llori and replace her. Following the vote, Marcela Holguín...

Health Minister Ximena Garzón said Tuesday that the outdoor masking requirement will be eliminated in two weeks if there is no increase in the number of Covid-19 cases reported. “The number of new cases has remained constant or declined in recent weeks, with positive test results running at 5 percent or less,” she said. “In...

By Siobhan Reid Three weeks ago, a new species of glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium mashpi) was named by the team at Mashpi Lodge, a remote eco-hotel on the western flanks of the Andean Mountains, three hours northwest of Quito. When the tiny, transparent-bellied amphibian was first found, researchers thought it was the Valerioi glass frog, another...

President Guillermo Lasso continues to insist he made no agreement with former president Rafael Correa or his followers to release Jorge Glas prison. Glas served as vice president during the Correa administration. “There does not exist and there has never existed an agreement to allow Glas out of prison,” Lasso said. “There have been no...

More than 75 percent of Ecuador’s murders occurred in five of the country’s 24 provinces during the first three months of 2022. Guayas, Manabí, Esmeraldas, Los Rios and El Oro provinces recorded 613 murders while 152 were reported in the rest of the country. Murders in the five provinces, all located on the coast, increased...

Miguel Ángel Nazareno, alias ‘Don Naza’, died as a result of gunshot to the leg, an autopsy shows. First indications were that he was stabbed to death but the National Police autopsy revealed he “died of extensive bleeding” as a result of a bullet that severed the femoral artery in his left leg. “This is...