High court accepts one Noboa challenge but rejects another; Galapagos ranks second for world tourism; Outdoor dining expands; Fito’s right-hand man killed

The Constitutional Court will consider a suit challenging President Daniel Noboa’s temporary transfer of presidential power to Cynthia Gellibert but rejected another case which questioned Noboa’s replacement of Vice President Verónica Abad with Gellibert.

The three judges of the court’s Admission Chamber who admitted the suit against presidential decree 500 did not say when it will be considered by the full court.

The Galapagos Islands rank second in the world for tourist destinations in 2025, according to a New York Times survey.

Machala attorney Gabriel Pereira who filed the two cases said he was disappointed at the court’s rejection of his challenge of decree 494 in which Noboa replaced Abad with Gellibert. “The two cases are fundamentally correlated, and I cannot see how [decree] 500 can be considered without 494,” he said, conceding the issue will probably not be resolved before the February 9 election.

In deciding not to admit the challenge to Noboa’s appointment of Gellibert, the admitting judges said it did not meet the “admissibility requirements” of the court. “The case is not subject to the controls of constitutionality since the designation of a public authority and the administrative assignment of functions do not have direct legal effects.” The judges added that, worded differently, the challenge can be filed in a lower court.

In accepting the case against decree 500 allowing Noboa to cede presidential powers while he campaigns for reelection, the judges questioned the president’s invocation of “force majeure,” suggesting it may be incorrectly applied.

Galapagos ranks second as best world tourist destination
Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands ranks second in the New York Times 2025 list of the world’s best 52 tourist destinations. The top spot went to the English villages that provided the inspiration and settings for novelist Jane Austen.

“These islands offer incomparable beauty as well as valuable lessons in understanding our place in the world,” the list’s compilers said on a newspaper blog. “This unique setting also offers excellent tourist infrastructure in Latin America’s safest location.”

In addition to the Galapagos and Jane Austin’s England, top destinations are New York City museums; Assam, India; ‘White lotus’ Thailand; Greenland; Aix-en-Provence, France; Sun Valley, Idaho; Lumbini, Nepal; and Sydney, Australia.

Cuenca authorizes more outdoor dining
Cuenca’s municipal council has approved a new ordinance expanding outdoor dining to most of the city’s historic district. Although it applies to all businesses, Councilman Xavier Bermudez said the new ordinance favor restaurants and bars because of their benefit to tourism.

The ordinance includes specifications of where and how businesses can use sidewalk and public plaza space and includes prohibitions on restricting pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Currently, outside business activity is restricted to seven zones near the historic district center. The new ordinance expands that to 25.

Fito’s right-hand man killed in prison
Freddy Mendoza, alias ‘Gordo Mendoza,’ was killed Wednesday in the maximum-security La Roca prison in Guayaquil. According to prison officials, Mendoza became leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang following the escape last January of José Adolfo Macías, alias ‘Fito,’ from another Guayaquil prison.

The national prison authority has released little information about the killing, pending a police investigation, although anonymous sources say Mendoza died of gunshot wounds. The sources says the shooter was a member of Los Lobos, a rival gang of Los Choneros.