Opinions

When Rafael Correa first ran for Ecuador’s presidency in 2006, supporters at his rallies brandished belts in homage to their candidate, whose surname means “belt” or “strap”. “Dale correa,” or “give them a whipping,” the crowds roared. It was a demand to punish what they regarded as the corrupt elites who had governed Ecuador since...

By Mark Weisbrot In a shift supported and welcomed in Washington, Latin America has been moving to the right in the last year or so. Three of South America’s largest economies — Brazil, Argentina, and Peru — now have right-wing presidents with close ties to Washington and its foreign policy. The standard “Washington Consensus” narrative,...

By José Hernández Rafael Correa lurches from one blunder to another. Responding to the latest corruption bombshells aimed at his administration, he appears visibly worried about the results of Sunday’s election but doesn’t say so. His fear was on display Saturday during his weekly sabatina in Guayaquil. Correa continues to insist that Lenin Moreno, his...

You can learn to model lucky behaviors that will give you an edge in life, without resorting to astronomy or carrying a rabbit’s foot. It’s better to be lucky than good. The large, impersonal forces that shape the economy, political movements, and ultimately the lives of citizens may seem haphazard. Yet you will find folks...

Three members of the Mexican Congress have an answer to U.S. President Donald Trump’s funding plan for his wall on the southern U.S. border. If Trump applies taxes to Mexican imports to the U.S. or to remittances sent home by Mexicans living in the U.S., the congressmen say they will introduce legislation to confiscate property...

The circumstances appear ideal for a conservative to win Ecuador’s presidency in 2017. The economy is in its second year of recession. Unemployment is up, as is the broader-reaching rate of under-employment. Support for President Rafael Correa has dropped below 40%, the lowest point of his 10-year administration. Complaints about government policies on taxation, mining,...

Commenting last week on Ecuador’s presidential campaign, one Quito journalist called it “colorless, odorless, and empty.” The reference was aimed mostly at front-runner and presumed heir apparent to President Rafael Correa, Lenin Moreno, and suggested that voters know little more about the candidate than they did when he left the vice presidency four years ago....

According to our man in Quito, it will be a while before there’s real clarity to Ecuador’s new immigration law. And that lack of clarity will probably continue well after the law takes effect, probably in a few weeks. Jorge Duarte, who works with half a dozen Cuenca and Quito immigration attorneys, has been feverishly...

By Adriaan Alsema Under former President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010), Colombia’s U.S.-backed security forces murdered more civilians than FARC guerrillas have in more than 30 years. This is the most inconvenient truth Colombia’s electorate will have to accept once a Truth Commission and a Transitional Justice Court take force to seek impartial justice for the country’s 8 million victims. The...

By Stephen Ellis Reading the reactions on social media — including those in the comments section on this website — to the new immigration law passed last week by the National Assembly, I am struck by two things. First, a lot of readers have never taken a civics class or, if they did, didn’t pay close attention....

By Rob Gray We here at Gran Roca Farm are seriously committed to farming sustainably. As 2016 has come to a close, we wanted to look back and evaluate our “sustainability progress” and see how we were doing. But first we needed to document where we started. Going back historically to the 1930s, the land...