Ecuador News

A former assistant secretary to Rafael Correa said Wednesday that the “Solidarity Fund” being investigated as part of the Bribes 2012-2016 case was fully funded by Alianza Pais members and included personal contributions from the former president. Françoise Villalba appeared voluntarily at the attorney general’s office in Quito to provide “supplemental” testimony and to refute...

Ecuador Attorney General Diana Salazar has asked national court judge Daniella Camacho to set a trial date for former president Rafael Correa and 25 others in the so-called “Sobornos “2012-2016” (Bribes 2012-2016) case. The discovery phase of the government’s prosecution concluded last week with the testimony of a former Odebrecht construction company official and a...

Guillermo Lasso, who narrowly lost to Lenin Moreno in the 2017 presidential election, announced Friday that he will be a candidate in the February 2021 election. Lasso, a centrist-conservative, was also defeated by former president Rafael Correa in 2013. The announcement, made during a Radio Quito interview, comes as no surprise since Lasso said he...

The Colombian Ombudsman’s office is demanding that Ecuador and Peru relax requirements for the entry of Venezuelans into the two countries. On August 26, Ecuador began requiring passports and visas for Venezuelan citizens to enter the country, effectively blocking entry to more than 90 percent of those who want to cross the border from Colombia....

Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname signed a pact Friday, setting up a disaster response network and satellite monitoring to protect the Amazon jungle. At a summit in Colombia, they also agreed to work on reforestation. The meeting was the result, in part, of more than 80,000 fires have broken out in the...

As part of a new anti-crime campaign, President Lenin Moreno and Interior Minister María Paula Romo claim that Ecuador’s criminal justice system is going soft on criminals. Meeting with police in Quito, Moreno said his government is working with courts to put more “hardened and repeating offenders” behind bars. “Every day, the police of Ecuador...

In a Tuesday court appearance, former presidential aid Pamela Martínez corroborated earlier testimony by an assistant that she managed financial contributions demanded by former president Rafael Correa to the Alianza Pais political party. According the federal attorney general’s office, the contributions were part of an extortion and bribery scheme to fund Correa’s political activities and...

The National Customs Service is reminding travelers of the items and quantities of items that can be brought into Ecuador without paying taxes. Although the list has not changed significantly since 2016, customs service officials say that they continue to detain tens-of-thousands of incoming airline passengers a year for rules violation. According to the law,...

A former presidential assistant testified Sunday that she managed financial payments that prosecutors claim were bribes extorted by the government of former president Rafael Correa. Appearing before National Court of Justice Judge Daniella Camacho in the so-called “Sobornos “2012-2016” (Bribes 2012-2016) case, Laura Terán displayed a flipchart she used to track and direct funds received...

By Marvin Perez The detection of a banana-killing fungus in neighboring Colombia is setting off alarm bells in Ecuador, the world’s biggest exporter of Americans’ favorite fruit. Growers in Ecuador, where bananas generate $2.6 billion in exports and 2.5 million jobs, are battling to prevent Fusarium TR4, also known as Panama Disease or Fusarium wilt....