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Cuenca municipal police and national transit police continue to chalk up arrests for drinking in public and driving under the influence. Since the new city ordinance outlawing drinking in public places went into effect three weeks ago, municipal police report making...
Following up on earlier warnings that Ecuador will need to reduce its national budget, the administration of President Rafael Correa has ordered government ministries to prepare for tough times. The administration says the cuts will amount to $1.5 billion. It also...
A week after Costa Rica celebrated the 66th anniversary of the abolition of its armed forces, President Luis Guillermo Solís criticized growing arms spending in Latin America during a speech at the Ibero-American Summit in Veracruz, Mexico, on Sunday. In his remarks...
The city transportation office has opened an information kiosk in Civic Plaza, adjacent to the Nueve de Octubre market. According to Gerard Fernandez, Cuenca transportation chief, the kiosk is intended to inform the public about details of the tram, including its...
Eco-warriors on the front lines of climate diplomacy often frame the environmental conflict between the developed and the developing world as a version of the notorious skirmish between Lawrence H. Summers and José Lutzenberger, which happened on the sidelines of the...
The director of Ecuador’s Internal Revenue Service (SRI), Ximena Amorosos says that amendments to the Production Incentives and Tax Fraud Prevention law will save the country $200 million a year. According to Amorosos, the savings will come primarily from ending tax...
According to an organization that represents more than 100 driving schools in Ecuador, amendments to the national traffic law passed by the National Assembly and awaiting approval by President Rafael Correa, could affect the livelihoods of 40,000 employees and their...
While Latin America maintains its position as the world’s most murderous region, the number of murders in Ecuador is dropping sharply. As of July 2014, Ecuador showed an annual murder rate of nine per 100,000 population, the first time Ecuador has been in single...
Crude’s slump to five-year lows means OPEC member Ecuador is facing the choice of spending cuts that risk crimping growth or taking on more debt to finance outlays, Jefferies LLC said. President Rafael Correa, who predicts that oil prices will rebound by mid-2015, has...
Although Latin America as a whole is posting its worse economic growth in five years, Ecuador continues to rank near the top. The year marks the region’s slowest economic growth since 2009, when the global financial crisis hammered economies around the world. Latin...
As the first of eight new hydroelectric plants began operations last week north of Quito, the country’s plan to convert energy use away from LP gas and to electricity appears to further behind schedule than ever. On Wednesday, Ecuador’s Electricity Minister, Esteban...
By Mark Johnson I’ve met quite a few single expat men and women who have packed up life in the UK and headed overseas to search of a new life and who are desperately seeking new love. In many cases there’s a happy ending. A man or woman, perhaps jaded by the career...
Almost everyone agrees that Cuenca’s historic district needs to improve its pedestrian friendliness. The problem is balancing the area's social, cultural and tourism needs with those of businesses that depend on motorized transportation. A group of planners from...
By Jonathan Watts Ecuador plans to drill for oil in the Yasuni Amazon reserve, as president Rafael Correa seeks to exploit his country’s resources, in part to pay off debts owed to China. The body of an indigenous leader who was opposed to a major mining project in...
Saying that the system that provides tax refunds to residents over the age of 65 has been abused, the government said Wednesday it plans to reduce the number of deductible items. The new rules will only affect value added tax (VAT) refunds, not those for real estate,...
Speaking at the inauguration of the new South American Nations Union (UNASUR) headquarters in Quito, President Rafael Correa again pushed for the establishment of a common currency. Correa has voiced support for a new currency since he took office seven years ago....
Cuenca Mayor Marcelo Cabrera has announced that the city transportation office will renegotiate contracts with the French consortium responsible for building the tram system. The move is necessary, he says, to establish a realistic construction schedule. The new...
Cuenca police chief José Valdivieso credits a multi-year drop in crime to the addition of more police officers, community training and the installation of security cameras and emergency buttons in schools, homes and businesses. Overall, according to Valdivieso, crime...
The value of the Venezuelan bolívar has plummeted in the past month, depreciating from 102.56 to 159.02 per U.S. dollar on the black-market exchange. November’s decline indicates that Venezuela now flirts with hyperinflation. The rule of thumb among economists is that...
National Assemblyman Gabriel Rivera has introduced legislation that would streamline the process for obtaining an Ecuadorian driver’s license, a move that could save expats time and money. Current rules require all applicants applying for a license to take 33 hours of...
