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By Jill Sare Just a four hour drive north of Cuenca, yet a world away, Baños de Agua Santa is a popular destination for every kind of tourist and part of a larger Andes-Amazon traveling circuit. Baños is known not only as a place of religious pilgrimage...
During his annual Citizen Cantonal Assembly last Thursday, Cuenca mayor Paul Granda reported the accomplishment of his administration after three years in office, claiming that the “progress has been impressive.” In addition to road projects such as the...
President Rafael Correa says it was a mistake to ban genetically modified crops in the constitution adopted in 2008, and suggested he may seek an amendmendment to legalize the practice. In television interviews and in his weekly address to the country, praised the...
U.S. oil producer, Chevron, has lost a U.S. Supreme Court bid to block an $18.2 billion judgment against it in Ecuador in a case over pollution in the Amazon jungle. The Supreme Court did not give any explanation for its Tuesday decision, which rejected Chevron's...
Presendent Rafael Correa will announce soon that he will not be a candidate in the February 2013 elections, according to his brother Fabricio, who is a candidate for the job. Officials at Pais, the president’s party, quickly rejected the claim and said that no...
In addition to be the most vulnerable to the housing crisis, the typical U.S. citizen 55 to 64 years old has a household income almost 10 percent less than it was when the recovery officially began three years ago, according to a new report from Sentier Research. The...
Ecuador’s Office of Telecommunications reminds the country’s cell phone users that an extra “9” will be added to all cell numbers at midnight September 30. The new digit will be inserted after the initial zero. In other words, if the current...
There appears to be no slow-down in local construction, particularly of condominiums, according to Cuenca developers. At the same time, they say, prices continue to rise. The Cuenca Chamber of Construction reports that there are more than 40 condominium projects...
Exceptionally dry weather, low humidity and high winds are combining to make this year’s fire season in Ecuador's sierra one of the worst in recent history. Dozens of fires in Azuay province have burned more than 300 hectares, according to the Cuenca fire...
By Mark Weisbrot It was like a scene from a Hollywood movie, where the kidnapper walks up from behind, with a gun protruding from his trench coat pocket. "Keep walking, and don't say anything," he warns. Even in the past, Sweden had collaborated with its Washington...
Ecuador’s IRS has announced it will enforce a limit of two $1,000 transactions per month, per person on money being transferred out of the country. In the past, there was no limit on the number of outflows, mostly in the form of wires, of $1,000 or less, which...
Reporting that the process took about two months from start to finish, William Chester became the first North American to receive his residency visa at the new Cuenca immigration office, on Aug. 21. Several others followed, according to the office. "My wife and I...
Meredith Wheeler’s Barack Obama is wrinkled and a bit tattered; it sags at the knees. She and her colleagues with Democrats Abroad in Toulouse, France, have lugged their smiling cardboard likeness to so many events that they have finally had to order a new one....
The Tungurahua volcano, 120 miles north of Cuenca, has flared to life, dusting nearby villages and farms with ash and prompting warnings from the country’s Emergency Operations Committee. On Saturday, the committee raised the threat level from yellow to orange,...
A major fire in the heart of Cuenca’s historic district late Wednesday night destroyed part of Seminary San Luis and an adjacent chapel. The fire is being blamed on falling debris from a nearby fireworks show, according to fire department officials. The...
Reconstruction work at the Ordoñez Lasso and Av. Las Americas intersection is 89% complete and, according to the provincial public works office, the project will be delivered ahead of the November deadline. Ivan Sempértegui, Deputy Minister of...
The new speeding law that went into effect July 25 has resulted in 139 arrests in Cuenca and has landed 18 drivers in jail through the end of the month. The law, which is enforced with radar and computerized photographic equipment, penalizes all speeders with fines...
According to a former official of Ecuador’s Banco Central, last week’s run on a large financial cooperative in Cuenca should serve as a cautionary tale for those who deposit money with the country’s financial cooperatives. Based, apparently, on a...
Cuenca airport and business officials are worried about the affect Quito´s new international airport, scheduled to open in October, will have on local air service. The new airport, located 20 kilometers east of downtown Quito, near Tababela, will be one of the...
Ecuador customs officials announced Saturday that they would delay enforcing new rules for the importation of cell phones until details of the new plan have been worked out. The new restrictions, adopted June 15, impose import limits and new taxes on dozens of...
