Ecuador News

With less than weeks weeks remaining for presidential candidates to register for the special cross death election, political experts say three strong contenders – two familiar names and a newcomer – are already known. Cuenca attorney and environmental activist Yaku Pérez announced Saturday he intends to run again for president. Pérez came within two percentage...

Six people were killed and at least seven were injured Saturday night when gunmen opened fire in a Montañita restaurant. Police are calling the attack a ‘revenge killing’ in which a gang leader of the Los Águilas was confirmed dead. As of late Sunday, only three of the dead, including Emilio López, alias Morro, had...

By Arturo Torres and Samantha Schmidt A day after he dissolved the National Assembly, averting his looming impeachment but triggering new elections this year, Ecuadorian president Guillermo Lasso said he has no plans to run in them — and doesn’t care who replaces him. “My goal is not to prevent someone from returning to Ecuador,”...

Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday night that President Guillermo Lasso’s use of the cross death to close the National Assembly is legal. In a unanimous vote, judges threw out six lawsuits claiming the president’s action was unconstitutional. In its statement, the court said Lasso properly invoked the cross death under constitutional rules. “Based on Article...

Four people were killed and 16 were injured during a funeral Thursday morning in Manta in what police are calling gang-related “revenge killings.” Four of those injured were children. The attack occurred at about 10 a.m. at the Jardines del Edén funeral home in Manta at the service for transit officer Andrés Moreira who was...

By Bernard Condon A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China. An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including Pakistan, Kenya,...

Almost all of President Guillermo Lasso’s political opponents are claiming his use of the muerte cruzada, or cross death, is illegal and the Constitutional Court has agreed to review the decree. Lasso is basing his decision on one of three constitutional requirements for the cross death: that a “serious political crisis and internal upheaval” is...

President Guillermo Lasso declared the muerte cruzada, or the cross death, early Wednesday, claiming the decision is justified by “political crisis and internal commotion.” Under rules of the declaration, the National Assembly is dissolved and new elections for the Assembly and the presidency will be held. Article 148 of the Constitution allows Lasso to rule...

In a short but emotional speech, President Guillermo Lasso defended himself against embezzlement charges before the National Assembly Tuesday afternoon. Accompanied by his wife and presidential cabinet, Lasso claimed that his accusers had shown no proof that he committed a crime involving a public oil transport company and accused them of exhibiting “malicious inventiveness unparalleled...