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Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino announced Tuesday that his government is considering suing the British government in the International Criminal Court in The Hague for denying Wikileaks founder Julian Assange safe passage to Ecuador. Assange has been forced to take...
The World Monuments Fund has included Cuenca’s Remigio Crespo Toral Museum on its 2014 – 2016 watch list of endangered properties. The museum joins such buildings as the Nortre Dame cathedral in Paris and the Catherine of Siena monestery in Buenos Aires. According to...
Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series about the collapse of Cuenca financial cooperative Coopera, and the aftermath. By David Morrill Coopera’s troubles went public on June 6, when police arrested chief financial officer Aldo Santiago Calle and...
Editor' note: This the first of a two-part series about the collapse of Cuenca financial cooperative Coopera, and its aftermath. By David Morrill In June, when the Cuenca-based cooperative Coopera was shut by federal officials, it was one of Ecuador's largest...
Ecuador president Rafael Correa is calling for an international boycott of Chevron Oil products in reaction of what he calls the company’s evasion of responsibility for oil contamination in the Amazon basin. In recent months, Chevron has targeted the Ecuadorian...
By Susan Schenck A full sized store with products that are about 90% organic and 93% raw in Cuenca? In the three years I’ve been here, I never thought I’d see it! No longer does one have to travel to the Juice Factory in VilcaBamba now that Cuenca now has Tienda...
Ecuador's National Assembly on Thursday gave the go-ahead for oil from Yasuni National Park, an Amazonian nature reserve in the northeastern part of the country. Approval followed a 10-hour debate, with supporters of President Rafael Correa winning by a 108 to 25...
The first cars of Cuenca’s light rail system, or Travia de los Cuatro Rios, arrived in town Wednesday from Guayaquil, on board flatbed trucks. The rail cars are parked on Av. Tres de Noviembre near Otorongo Plaza. Traffic on on the street has been rerouted to...
A judge has ordered the arrest of three army and police officers in Ecuador's first trial involving alleged crimes against humanity. They are part of a group of 10 former senior officers accused of abducting and torturing members of an illegal opposition group in...
The president of the Ecuadorian Medical Federation is objecting to President Rafael Correa’s plan to bring hundreds of Cuban doctors to Ecuador to cover medical needs in rural communities. Correa said that local general practitioners are not filling the need. He...
As Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., blame each other over the prospects of a U.S. government shutdown, U.S. citizens living out of the country, including in Ecuador, wonder how a shutdown will affect them? The biggest issue for most expat retirees is...
Cuenca fire chief Oswaldo Ramirez believes a short circuit was to blame for a Saturday night fire that destroyed one room and damaged two others in Iglesia Santo Domingo, on the corner of Gran Colombia and Padre Aguirre in Cuenca’s historic district. It was the...
By Walker Simon South American nations are jointly exploring the creation of a communications system to curtail U.S. spying in the region, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said on Wednesday. He said the idea was to set up a common platform to "minimize risks...
By Aaron Morrison and Mimi Whitefield Delivering a harsh indictment of U.S. cyber-surveillance, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday called on the United Nations to get involved with helping nations safeguard themselves from cyber-snooping by other countries....
Speaking to members of the Cuenca Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Ecuador’s Coordinating Minister of Production Ricardo Espinosa said his office will enforce new rules that all packaged food products be labeled that they contain or do not contain genetically...
Quito’s sprawling Metropolitan Park remains closed as firefighters work to put out the last of the fires that have consumed more than 50 hectares. The city’s emergency operations office said that five fires continued to burn but should be extinguished on Tuesday. Fire...
As part of the International Day Without Cars, many of Cuenca’s streets were closed Sunday as thousands of walkers, runners and cyclists replaced motor vehicles. Acitivities included a 5K run with about 3,500 participants, several cycling events, organized hikes and...
Ecuador’s Spirits Importers Association reports that imports of alcholic beverages droped 41% from a year ago due high taxes and tarrifs. They also say that smuggling of foreign brands has skyrocked and government officials agree. Taxes on alcoholic imports have been...
By Paul Barrett In one of the most geographically profuse pieces of litigation in recent memory, Chevron has taken another step toward escaping a $19 billion pollution verdict imposed in 2011 by a provincial court in Ecuador. The U.S. oil giant’s victory came Tuesday...
Two of Cuenca’s private museums say they are in financial trouble and need public and private support to remain open. Two weeks ago, the board of directors of Museo de las Conceptas said it was considering closing the religious museum because of a revenue shortfall....
