A crowd estimated at 3,000 marched through the streets of the historic district Thursday demanding an end to the drug-related violence on Ecuador’s border with Colombia. It was one of several peace marches in the country’s major cities. The crowd, chanting “Enough violence!,” rallied in Parque Calderon after marching up Calle Simon Bolivar. “We ask […]
Cuba’s National Assembly has elected Miguel Diaz-Canel as the new president on Thursday in an historic moment which brought an end to the Castro era. Outgoing president Raul Castro confirmed to Diaz Canel that “from this moment on you are the new president of this country,” after the vote in the assembly. Diaz-Canel, previously the […]
Joint military and police operations by Ecuador and Colombia against drug traffickers are producing dramatic results. Launched last weekend, following the murders of three Ecuadorian journalists, more than 100 suspects have been arrested or detained on both sides of the border. On Wednesday, Colombian army and police raided dozens of locations in Tumaco, considered the […]
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series on vegan and vegetarian dining in Cuenca. Tomorrow: Cuenca’s vegan super chefs. Text and photos by John Keeble It was not so long ago that the phrase “vegan fine dining” was an oxymoron – but no longer. Now, in Cuenca and around, vegan cuisine has […]
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced on Monday that the Pacific Alliance plans to add new members and Ecuador may be interested in joining. The alliance is a trade organization that currently consists of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Ecuador President Lenin Moreno says he is studying the possibility of joining the alliance and said […]
The Venezuelan National Assembly approved preliminary impeachment proceedings against Nicolás Maduro with 105 votes in favor (and 2 against), citing enough evidence linking him to acts of corruption regarding the Odebrecht scandal. Although the step opens debate in the assembly, there will not be immediate effects at a national level since the country’s legitimate Supreme […]
Only days after a three journalists were murdered by drug traffickers, an Ecuadorian couple has been taken hostage near the Colombian border. It is unclear whether the abduction took place in Colombia or Ecuador, or where the couple is being held. In a Tuesday afternoon meeting of Ecuadorian and Colombian officials in Quito, President Lenin […]
The Óliver Sinisterra Front issued a statement Monday saying it has stopped efforts to return the bodies of three Ecuadorian journalists. The front, which controls drug production and trafficking operations in southwest Colombia, has taken responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of the journalists working for the Quito newspaper, El Comercio. “We have taken the […]
By Gil Castle This is the second article in a two-part series. The first article posited that beautiful cities can be analyzed using 15 categories of civic beauty. The 15 categories — the 15 “Beautiful Facets” — emerge from research conducted by CitiesBeautiful.org [http://citiesbeautiful.org/] on “common threads” in theories of beauty from the ancient Greece […]
Supporters of former president Rafael Correa are being blasted by disability and human rights organizations for referring to President Lenin Moreno as a “cripple.” During an April 10 protest march in Quito, the Correistas chanted “se va a caer, se va caer, el patuleco se va a caer…” (“he is going to fall, he will […]
By Gil Castle While “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” (as Plato was the first to say), we can nonetheless answer the question fairly objectively. Beautiful cities can be analyzed using 15 categories of civic beauty. The 15 categories – hereafter, the 15 “Beautiful Facets” – emerge from research conducted by CitiesBeautiful.org [http://citiesbeautiful.org/] […]
Ecuador military operations have resulted in 43 arrests of suspected drug traffickers in Esmeraldas Province. Most of the arrests were made near the town of Mataje, where army and special police units conducted door-to-door raids of 91 buildings. The arrests are part of joint operations by the Ecuador and Colombia armies following the murder last […]
Okay, so it’s been a while since I took this column into politics. But I have no choice but to vent today. Because I’ve had enough. Never in my life did I expect to see the chaos that was unleashed this past week in New York (and by association, in Washington, D.C.). The FBI actually […]