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According to an organization that represents more than 100 driving schools in Ecuador, amendments to the national traffic law passed by the National Assembly and awaiting approval by President Rafael Correa, could affect the livelihoods of 40,000 employees and their...
President Rafael Correa says that a proposal to include housewives and househusbands in the country’s social security program is simply a reflection of a changing world. “What we are doing is recognizing the legitimacy of work that is done in the home,” he said last...
When happiness is studied, Latin America always manages to make it to the forefront. Last year, a survey by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, titled the 2013 World Happiness Report, found that Latin America made some major improvements in...
By Alan Gomez As news of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Monday to allow gay marriages to proceed in up to 30 states filtered down to Latin America this week, Danilo Perez reacted with a question: What took so long? "You're telling me that we've...
By Hannah Ewens and Elizabeth Roberts A survey completed by almost 14,000 expatriates of all nationalities, which focused on topics such as quality of life, work, romance and leisure, showed Ecuador was the overall winner. The country had the highest result of all...
In a scene reminiscent of the pre-Rafael Correa presidency, burning tires, rocks, logs and chanting protesters are blocking the Panamerican Highway between Ibarra and Carchi, just south of the Colombian border. Residents of Ecuador’s northern Chota Valley are...
By Mark Blazis Having been a part of 40 expeditions into Amazonia and the Andes and a dozen more into the Galapagos Islands, I was recently invited to be the consulting biologist for a television documentary in Ecuador featuring CSI Miami’s Jorja Fox, Extreme Animal...
By By Kim Gamel The sea lion nursed her pup under a prickly pear cactus while an iguana clumsily marched away. A tiny penguin waddled on a rock while red and orange crabs clung to the craggy surface below. Welcome to the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago that...
Five years after the government slapped heavy taxes and duties on imported liquor and imposed new rules on sales, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that per capita alcohol consumption in Ecuador has dropped by 23%. WHO says that drinking age Ecuadorians...
After sending mixed signals on the issue, President Rafael Correa says the country is ready to grant full rights to same-sex couples. Beginning September 15, same-sex couples will receive the same benefits that their married heterosexual counterparts already enjoy....
By Andrew Diaz In 2008 Ecuador officially recognized the human right to water, joining only nine other countries that have done the same since 1994. Section One, Article 12 of the Ecuadorian Constitution states, “The human right to water is essential and cannot be...
Ecuador's ruling party, Alianza Pais, is pushing ahead with proposed constitutional changes that would allow indefinite re-election of President Rafael Correa and other officials. The controversial changes would also lower the eligibility age to hold the presidency...
Ecuador is home to 70,000 political refugees, far more than any country in Latin America. The refugees, almost all of them victims of the Colombian civil war, cost the government $60 million a year. Ecuador Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino hosted a meeting last week of...
U.S. scientists took thousands of unauthorized blood samples from an indigenous group known for a unique genetic profile and disease immunity, some of which have been sold, Ecuador says. There were some "3,500 procedures" in which blood was drawn without...
Ecuador’s Interior Minister José Serrano and Director of Tourism Vinicio Alvarado announced on Wednesday that rules regulating the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays will be relaxed. Restaurants, cafes, fast food outlets and lodging establishments can now serve...
By Steve Hanke In my misery index, I calculate a ranking for all countries where suitable data from the Economist Intelligence Unit exist. My misery index — a simple sum of inflation, lending rates, and unemployment rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth — is...
The Ecuador National Police's second attempt to talk to leaders of the Sarayaku community about three fugitives went much more smoothly than the first attempt three weeks earlier. Two police helicopters landed Friday at Sarayaku in Pastaza Province without incident....
President Rafael Correa says that national police and military personnel will make a second attempt to capture a fugitive national assemblyman and two associates believed to be harbored by the Sarayaku community, an indigenous tribe in Ecuador’s Amazon region. Two...
Supporters of a national referendum on oil drilling in the Yasuní national park are calling a preliminary government rejection of almost 500,000 out of 757,000 voter signatures an “assault on democracy.” The official announcement from the National Electoral Council...
By José Jasán Nieves Cárdenas “The objective is getting there to go beyond,” confess Mario and Ismaray, a couple of young Cubans who plan to travel to Ecuador on the first leg of a journey to the United States. “We have investigated various means, with various prices...
