Posts:
Construction work on Cuenca’s new tram system is expanding in the historic district, moving west on Gran Colombia and opening a new front on Gaspar Sangurima. Project director Gerard Fernandez says that track has been laid on six of the system's 20 kilometers. and...
By William Neuman Protesters calling for the ouster of President Rafael Correa have filled the streets of Ecuador’s largest cities in recent weeks in some of the largest anti-government demonstrations here in years, creating tensions on the eve of a visit by Pope...
Editor's note: Diana Jesuroga started her blog about life in Loja in May and has been busy since then answering questions about her city. One of the reasons for all the questions is the hype Loja has received from such retire-overseas websites as International Living...
The announcement this week that China’s Xiaomi, the world’s No. five producer of smartphones, is entering Brazilian market, is another indication that South America could become a cell phone manufacturing center like China. Known as “China’s Apple,” Xiaomi is making...
Students at the state-run University of Buenos Aires gathered on Wednesday at the main university theater and watched in stunned silence. There was no professor analyzing a philosophical text, or activists engaged in a political debate. Instead, there was a real-time...
By Liam Higgins According to Canadian university professor and writer Matthew Hayes, Cuenca expats are unwittingly promoting a racist caste system established centuries ago in Ecuador by the Spanish. Hayes’ analysis appears in the article, “’It is hard being the...
By Pedro Servin and Peter Prengaman Pigs rummage through garbage searching for leftovers. The people live in shacks made of plywood and corrugated metal. Any semblance of stability in the sprawling slum of 15,000 families is upended when heavy rains burst the banks of...
Despite a rising wave of protest against his government, President Rafael Correa remains far ahead of potential challengers and his overall popularity rating stands at just under 50%. A Cedatos-Gallup Poll released on June 19, just as protests were building against...
Ecuador is among 120 countries to be included in the new U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). The preferences were extended to December 31, 2017 on Friday by a vote of the U.S. Congress "This is great news because the U.S. is Ecuador’s largest trading...
By Jasper Copping It sounds like a plot from an Indiana Jones film, but explorers claim to have found ruins hidden deep in a dense Ecuadorian Amazonian jungle that could solve many of South America’s mysteries — and lead to one of the world’s most sought-after...
The Ecuadorian government’s National Secretariat of Communications (Secretaría Nacional de Comunicación) has asked for space to respond to a column by David Morrill, posted on this website on May 11. The column, titled The report card on Correa after eight years: Some...
A new department of Ecuador’s Ministry of Health has been assigned the task of making sure the country’s health care system, both public and private, is providing high quality service. The Agency for Quality Assurance of Health Care, created by the National Assembly...
Twentyeight-year-old Luis Arias works at the Otavalo market selling homemade alpaca clothing. For 35 years this family has been in this line of business. Luis is married and has one child. Motivaion: "Trabajo por que me gusta lo que hago y como es nuestro artesanias....
Usually a showcase of traditional costumed dancers, marching bands, and community floats, Saturday’s Azuay Province anniversary parade turned into an anti-Correa protest. Although the dancers, bands and floats were on hand in the parade that marched through the...
By Alfredo Velazco Last week in Ecuador, protests broke out in various cities across the country. The protests stemmed from the government's proposal to implement new taxes on inheritance and capital gains, as well as a series of other economic measures to deal with...
Just as workers are clearing out of the renovated Pasaje León building on the south side of San Francisco Plaza, trouble could be brewing with dozens of vendors who sell their goods in the plaza. City officials say renovation work will now shift to two other...
By Sylvan Hardy When Rafael Correa announced plans to increase inheritance and capital gains last month he said he was prepared to take the heat that he knew was coming. Five weeks later, it’s fair to say that the intensity of the heat has been more than he bargained...
By Patricia Rey Mallén Although Latin America is one of the fastest growing areas in the world, and unemployment remains relatively low, almost half of the population works informally, or "off the books." According to a report by the United Nations International Labor...
Tens of thousands of Ecuadorians crowded into downtown Guayaquil and Quito on Thursday to protest the policies of President Rafael Correa. There were smaller protests in Machala, Ibarra, Ambato, and Cuenca. The Guayaquil rally was organized by Mayor Jaime Nebot, a...
President Rafael Correa said Thursday that it would be “catastrophic” for Ecuador to abandon the U.S. dollar any time soon, and that it would remain the official currency as long as he is in office. In the past, Correa has called the dollar a “fiscal strait-jacket”...
