Posts:
By Arthur Nelson More than $100 billion of public money has been awarded to private investors in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) courts, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet. The controversial arbitration system which allows corporations to sue...
By Jacob G. Hornberger In the final debate between Mexico’s two leading presidential candidates, Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez, before the June 2 election, both candidates vied with each other as to which one would be a stronger drug warrior. Both of them vowed...
By Juan Gabriel Tokatlian The anti-Soviet and anti-communist hysteria that typified the Cold War period is to a certain extent alive and well today with the rise of China. This is particularly true regarding prevalent sentiment among the U.S. strategic class about...
By Katie Surma Natalia Greene ducks her head underneath the fronds of a giant fern. It is pitch black in the Chocó Andino cloud forest and Greene is searching for spiders, frogs and other nocturnal creatures. “Ah, found one!” she shouts, steadying the beam of her...
By R. Evan Ellis During the past year, China and its companies have expanded their position in politics, security, information, logistics, and other key areas in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador, raising strategic concerns due to the region’s proximity and...
By Ana Caistor Arendar The people of Ecuador have given a resounding NO to the return of secretive, foreign corporate courts suing the Ecuadorian state for democratic decisions. In a referendum held last week, Ecuador voted to keep its constitutional ban on using...
By Tessa Flemming For years, Ecuador and Mexico looked like two countries in diplomatic harmony. Despite their political differences, the pair worked as partners tackling gang crime and migration and boasted a two-way trade of $US368 million ($562 million) in 2023....
By Jeff Abbott Mexico has severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador after heavily armed police raided the country’s embassy, in a direct violation of international norms. Late in the evening on April 7, police entered the Mexican embassy in Quito, Ecuador’s capital,...
By Genevieve Glatsky Ecuador’s decision to send police officers into the Mexican Embassy to arrest a politician who had taken refuge there inflamed tensions between two countries that were already at odds, but it may prove a political boon for the Ecuadorian...
By Mark Stevenson President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018 hoping to recover Mexico’s old reputation as the diplomatic leader of Latin America, but what he’s managed to do is get several of his country’s ambassadors kicked out of countries in the...
By Ray Horsley A recent article in CuencaHighLife made the claim that Boomer parents are to blame for their millennial kids not being responsible. It mostly addressed financial responsibility but also blamed these parents in a vague way for not preparing their...
By Surita Sandosham The Covid-19 pandemic, protests by indigenous groups and El Niño flooding have landed devastating blows to poor Ecuadorians who live in precarious situations. Add to these, the disruptions of recent drug gang violence affecting some areas of the...
By Garry Vatcher When I was just a little boy, a long, long time ago, my mother was really worried about a loan payment that was due. My father worked away from home and he called to say he had to work overtime and it would be a few days before he would be back with...
By Erika Mouynes The US presidential campaigns this year are expected to see more than $10bn spent on advertisements, and the main issue will almost certainly be immigration. A popular social media hashtag related to Latin America in the US has been #securetheborder....
By Garry Vatcher An article posted on this site earlier in the week has stirred up a lot of questions about tax filing requirements in Ecuador. The article was based on the advice of a Cuenca accountant but, as many of us have learned, if you ask five professionals...
By Gabriela Barzallo “In a’ingae, my native language, the words oil, contamination, and cancer did not exist until Texaco arrived on our lands,” says Don Arturo, an elder among the A’i Kofán Siangoé people, one of Ecuador’s 11 Amazonian communities. The A’i Kofán...
By Matthew Bristow and Stephan Kueffner It’s the kind of opportunity most leaders can hardly fathom: voters rallying behind a government that is raising taxes, clearing the way for more oil drilling and planning to slash fuel subsidies. Ecuador’s 36-year-old President...
By Shannon O’Neil When policymakers consider national security, they tend to think first of military capabilities: the weaponry and ammunition a country possesses, the state of its armed forces, its border defenses, its surveillance and cybersecurity. Since 2020,...
By James Kirchick Fourteen years ago, at a human rights conference in Oslo, I met Julian Assange. From the moment I encountered the wraithlike WikiLeaks founder, I sensed that he might be a morally dubious character. My suspicions were confirmed upon witnessing his...
By Brian Winter When masked criminals in Ecuador invaded a TV station, took prison guards and police hostage and paralyzed the business capital of Guayaquil in early January, the prevailing reaction across the Americas was: Oh no, here we go again. Another country...
Week of September 06
U.S. sinkings of Ecuadorian fishing vessels trigger court scrutiny after 28 crew members are released.
Cuenca targets a November launch for its first new international link to Chiclayo.
Exports hit a quarterly record, but Ecuador’s import bill is rising even faster.
