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The Cuenca Dispatch publishes exclusive reports on Ecuador’s economy, politics, crime and more that you will not find published anywhere else on the web.
For any English speaker living in Ecuador or planning to live or visit Ecuador, our weekly publication is a must! Click here to become a member.
Volume 5, Issue 31
From the week of May 9, 2021
UPDATES 05/09/2021
Update to: Banana sector reinforces prevention measures to avoid Foc R4T fungus Published: Volume 5, Issue 27 Alfredo Saltos: Most likely (Foc R4T) is already in Ecuador waiting for the best opportunities to hatch Alfredo Saltos, former Minister of Agriculture, indicated that it is important to study the behavior of the Formosana during various cycles […]
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Deaths Fall This Week, But New Data Shows That Overall Number Of Deaths May Be Severely Underreported
One of the lead stories this week lays out how serious the situation is in hospitals across the country; we will not go into that further here. But along with that, one of the more alarming bits of information that was published this week was just how many “unusual” deaths occurred over the past year. […]
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The passing of a gentle giant
I didn’t think I’d write about this again this week, but the ex-pat community has lost another one of our best people. Dr. Alan Woods, died this weekend due to health complications (unrelated to Covid). He was a dentist. He was a minister. He was a teacher. He was a...
Nepotism, expensive gifts and party collections will be prohibited in the new Executive Code of Ethics
Guillermo Lasso will sign an executive decree with these rules of conduct on May 24th, when he assumes the Presidency of the Republic Issues related to conflict of interest, family ties, use of public assets and resources, norms of transparency and management with equality and non-discrimination will be addressed in the Code of Ethics for […]
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Lasso’s cabinet members come with enormous experience, are tasked with laser focus and transparency
President-elect Guillermo Lasso introduced eight members of his new cabinet over the last two weeks and said he intends to maintain a “laser focus” on ending the Covid-19 epidemic and restoring the economy. Of the new ministers, five are women. “I have chosen my ministers carefully, not just for their competence but for their dedication,” […]
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False documents in contracts that cost Cuenca hundreds of thousands of dollars
The Comptroller's Office found irregularities in at least three hiring packages since 2016 The maintenance done to the ETAPA vehicle fleet from 2016 to 2019, the Zero Hunger summit organized by the Prefecture of Azuay in 2018 and the disinfection of the streets with...
Ecuador has 1,607 ICU beds but almost all Covid-19 beds are occupied
Ecuador had 1,183 beds in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) as of 2019, according to the latest Registry of Beds and Hospital Discharges published in June 2020 by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC). How many are there now, after a year in crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and what is the level […]
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A modern-day slavery case in which a Japanese company and the government of Ecuador were forced to apologize
The discovery of the abuses suffered by more than a hundred peasants in the Furakawa Plantaciones CA Ecuador farms "Subhuman" working conditions, without drinking water, electricity and sanitation. Working hours of more than 10 hours without contracts or social...
Volume 5, Issue 30
From the week of May 02, 2021
World Bank says IESS could have problems paying pensions in 2022
The outgoing government will deliver to the president-elect, Guillermo Lasso, a World Bank diagnosis to the IESS pension fund, the conclusion is that it needs an urgent reform. The World Bank made a technical diagnosis of the situation of the pension fund (IVM) of the...
Cases Explode Worldwide, Cuenca ICU Beds Remain Full
On Friday, the daily cases of COVID-19 reached a record number of 903,410, more than a third of them concentrated in India, which on Sunday reported 354,531 new infections, a number never before seen in any country, according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). With these new records, global cases since the beginning of the pandemic […]
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Coming home
Every time I come to the US, I get worn out by the unrelenting consumerism and a sense that American’s really have little else to occupy their time than buying and selling. Such a sharp contrast from Ecuador, which seems to be more interested in family, time spent not...
The dollarization law will be part of Moreno’s legacy
A month before leaving the presidency of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno leaves a signature piece of legislation, the "Law for the defense of dollarization," as a sort of inheritance for incoming president-elect Guillermo Lasso in the elections, a law that is vital for Ecuador...
Lenin Moreno: “No country should monopolize access to Covid-19 vaccines
On Wednesday, during his speech at the Twenty-Seventh Edition of the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, Ecuador President Lenín Moreno demanded universal, transparent and equitable access for countries to vaccines against Covid-19. The 22 participating Ibero-American states approved the inclusion of the Ecuadorian President’s position in the final declaration of the meeting, […]
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“Corruption is not negotiable, and the president-elect will not interfere in judicial processes,” says Juan Carlos Holguín
One of the leaders of the transition team of president-elect Guillermo Lasso rules out some points of negotiation with the correista bloc in the Assembly. Juan Carlos Holguín is an advisor to the team of the president-elect, Guillermo Lasso. When asked about a possible negotiation with the new correista bloc in the Assembly, the request […]
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Constitutional Court meets to rule on the decriminalization of abortion for rape
The Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference sent a letter to the Court stating that the crime of rape cannot be solved with another crime On Wednesday, April 28, 2021, the plenary session of the Constitutional Court (CC) will debate and vote on the request to decriminalize abortion for rape. The action was presented in July 2019, by […]
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