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Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the deployment of army troops in the capital, Bogota, following violent protests in support of a strike by small-scale farmers. The Friday order also activated more than 50,000 troops who will be used around the country....
By Kelly Swing Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, announced earlier this month that he has no choice but to go ahead with drilling operations in one of the planet's most biodiverse region, the Yasuní national park. Back in 2007, he proposed the Yasuní-ITT initiative,...
One hundred Cuenca taxi cabs will be among the first in Ecuador to be equipped with new safey equipment. According to the National Traffic Agency (NTA), the equipment consists of a video camera, voice recorder, gps system, emergency button and a small computer....
A dispute with bus operators has delayed the opening of two transfer stations and changes to bus routes. The new bus system involves using the stations as transfer points, which the city says will be more efficient. Originally, the city said the transfer stations...
Canadian Janet Greidanus and her husband have been coming to Cuenca for 14 years to provide medical care for poor Ecuadorians. In an article for a Canadian website she describes the joys of exploring the Amazon jungle after one the couple's recent trips. By Janet...
Travel across the Ecuador - Colombia border has been effectively shut down by protesting Colombian farmers. Tourists, en route to Ecuador, have been stranded while badly needed goods on both sides of the border can’t move. As many as 300,000 farmers have erected road...
President Rafael Correa has sent his request to authorize oil drilling in the Yasuní preserve to the national assembly. He made the announcement during his Saturday televison broadcast. He said that assembly president Gabriela Rivadeneira will coordinate efforts to...
Although he claims to be a socialist, Ecuador president Rafael Correa increasingly defies the standard political labels. Many of his opponents claim his tendencies in recent months have been decidedly to the right. Loyalists of President Rafael Correa’s “Citizens’...
By John Vidal The fate of one of the hotspots of global diversity is hanging by a thread as student, conservation and indigenous groups in Ecuador race to raise a petition of over half a million names which would force a national referendum on whether foreign oil...
The committee overseeing changes in taxi fares and the installation of meters in Cuenca’s 3,600 taxi cabs, got an earful on Wednesday as various interests laid out there positions. In several instances, the meeting erupted into catcalls. Taxi drivers protested...
By Irene Caselli Disabled people in Ecuador were once marginalised, shut up in their homes and considered unemployable. Since 2007, a single government initiative has transformed many of their lives. Before his accident, Angel Quevedo worked as a house painter in...
A cumbersome and demanding bureaucracy is an attack on the rights of Ecuadorians, President Rafael Correa said Saturday in his weekly televison broadcast. He said his government is developing a top to bottom plan to improve “customer service” to citizens, from a...
A group of investors in the failed Cuenca financial cooperative Coopera have called off Monday’s efforts to meet with President Rafael Correa in Quito. A spokesman for the group said the plan to demand a meeting at the presidential palace would conflict with larger...
A study by an environmental research center says Cuenca has Ecuador’s best drinking water. It also reports that more than 65% of the country’s population boils its water even though it’s not required in most cases. The Quito-based National Environmental Reseach...
By Jim Wyss Ecuador is killing an ambitious conservation program intended to leave more than 800 million barrels of oil beneath a pristine swath of the Amazon. But on Friday it was clear that the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, as it’s known, won’t die easily. A coalition of...
Claiming that “the world has failed us,” President Rafael Correa said Thursday night that he is giving up on a plan to persuade the world’s rich countries to help Ecuador protect a pristine section of the Amazon rainforest from oil drilling. He said that the country...
Scientists from the U.S. Smithsonian Institute have discovered a new carnivorous mammal in the highland jungles of Ecuador and Colombia. It is the first new carnivore species found in the western hemisphere in 35 years. Called the olinguito (oh-lin-GHEE-toe), the...
The U.S. Department of Commerce has slapped a 13.5% tariff on Ecuadorian shrimp imports, claiming the industry is subsidized by the government. Ecuador’s Coordinating Minister of Production, Employment and Competitiveness, Ricardo Espinoza, rejected the decision...
By Jim Wyss When you spin the radio dial in Quito you could almost be anywhere. The airwaves are crowded with the likes of Beyoncé, Shakira and Pitbull, just like you were cruising a highway in Miami or Manhattan — rather than tooling through the snow-capped Andes....
By Gerard Alvarez Patricio Matute is building his dream house in the Ecuadorian Andean mountains near Cuenca, thanks in part to the 10 years he spent working at a boat canvas factory in Ronkonkoma, New York. The two-story, Swiss-chalet-style house will have a swimming...
