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About 150 large electricity users will disconnect weekly as Ecuador tries to stretch hydroelectric reserves through December. A different kind of power rationing Ecuador is preparing to impose electricity restrictions on some of the country’s largest industrial consumers beginning this week, part of a government strategy aimed at preserving the Mazar reservoir and preventing...
Stronger consumption, investment and exports have improved this year’s outlook, while climate risks loom over 2027. Economy performing better than expected Ecuador’s economy is on track to grow faster this year than previously expected, with the Central Bank raising its 2026 growth forecast from 2.5% to 2.7%. The September revision reflects stronger household consumption,...
Older residents say reorganized services are making care harder to reach, while IESS says the changes were required. Retirees take their complaints to IESS Retirees in Cuenca are challenging changes at the city’s IESS Centro de Atención al Adulto Mayor, saying the reorganization of medical and physiotherapy services has made it more difficult for...
Extra, Ecopaís and diesel are slightly cheaper through October 11, while premium gasoline moves in the opposite direction. Drivers in Ecuador are seeing two very different fuel-price trends this month. Beginning September 12th, the price of Extra and Ecopaís gasoline fell from $3.24 to $3.21 per gallon, while Premium diesel dropped from $3.18 to...
The $90 million proposal promises more electricity and water security for Cuenca, but environmental opposition has not disappeared. A hydroelectric project that once stalled amid strong community and environmental opposition is back on the government’s agenda. The Noboa administration and Elecaustro have revived the Soldados–Yanuncay hydroelectric project, a multipurpose development planned for the upper...
Warmer Pacific waters are disrupting fisheries, pushing some fish prices sharply higher while flooding the market with shrimp. El Niño is no longer simply a forecast of what might happen to Ecuador later this year. Its effects are already showing up in the country’s fishing industry — and at seafood counters. Ocean temperatures off...
A Manta judge is demanding answers about the U.S. operations as another 34 fishermen return to port and both governments defend a rapidly expanding anti-drug campaign. Four boats in nine days A fast-moving series of U.S. military operations against Ecuadorian fishing vessels in the eastern Pacific has turned into a legal and diplomatic controversy...
Aeroregional is expected to operate the short Peru route, but Mariscal La Mar still has to complete airport work and obtain authorization for international operations. Cuenca is trying to turn a one-time surge of travel interest into something the city has pursued for years: a workable international air route from Mariscal La Mar Airport....
Second-quarter exports reached $10.18 billion, led by oil and shrimp, while record imports narrowed the trade surplus by 59% from a year earlier. Ecuador exported more goods in the second quarter of 2026 than in any previous quarter in the Central Bank’s historical series, a headline that looks unequivocally positive until the other side...
The former president will remain in Ecuador for now, his attorney says, while the first-instance bribery judgment also orders more than $163 million in restitution across 20 convicted defendants. Former president Lenín Moreno was sentenced to five years in prison on August 28th after a National Court of Justice tribunal found him guilty of...
Imports averaged about 301.5 megawatts from August 23rd through 27th and reached about 380 megawatts on August 28th, while Mazar remains well above its critical level. Ecuador sharply increased electricity imports from Colombia during the final week of August as the country approached the dry season that historically puts its hydroelectric system under the...
José Carrasco Arteaga is part of the first five-hospital rollout, giving some lower-complexity adult patients a remote consultation after an in-person triage. IESS has begun a teletriage and telemedicine program at Hospital José Carrasco Arteaga in Cuenca, part of an effort to keep lower-complexity medical problems from consuming specialist emergency resources at Ecuador’s largest...
Officials say the dry season could begin in September, while the power system’s safety assumptions depend partly on new generating capacity that has been delayed.
Most of the Moon will enter Earth’s dark shadow on August 27th, with the eclipse reaching its maximum over Cuenca at about 11:12 p.m.
Services, manufacturing, construction and commerce expanded, while petroleum and agriculture moved in the opposite direction.
The extension adds no curfew but keeps extraordinary police and military powers in force across the province. Azuay will remain under a state of exception for another 30 days as the national government says organized criminal groups continue to operate in Cuenca and other parts of the province. President Daniel Noboa extended the emergency...
A free independent mediator offers customers another route when a bank complaint fails to resolve a dispute. When a bank rejects a complaint over a disputed charge, unexplained fee or other problem, customers in Ecuador have another place to go before deciding the matter is hopeless. Every financial institution supervised by Ecuador’s Superintendency of...
The SRI now lets eligible owners apply online and automatically renew the benefit in future years. A tax break that many older vehicle owners in Ecuador may overlook can now be requested entirely online, making it easier to reduce one of the charges that appears before annual vehicle registration. The benefit is a special...
New leadership in Bogotá could reshape Ecuador’s electricity security border strategy and commercial relationship with its northern neighbor.
Authorities cite fewer serious crimes, tens of thousands of arrests and expanded security deployments while organized crime remains dominant.
Humpback whale season gives holiday travelers a chance to combine beaches wildlife and affordable coastal excursions.
Sworn testimony and court records describe false credentials, repainted machinery, pressured technicians and diverted public money.
Government says stronger reserves and private generation will protect households during the coming dry season.
Ecuadorian climatologist warns that hotter air magnifies droughts, rainfall and deadly heat across vulnerable regions.
Bananas, cocoa, flowers and selected minerals are exempt while shrimp and other goods remain covered. Ecuador’s most important agricultural exports have largely escaped a new United States tariff program, but shrimp, canned tuna, broccoli and several manufactured products will continue entering the country with an additional 10% charge. The measure took effect July 24th...
Climate risks are reshaping global supplies as cocoa, coffee, bananas and rice face growing volatility. Ecuador’s exporters are entering a period of unusual uncertainty as the expected arrival of El Niño begins to influence international commodity markets long before its strongest weather effects are felt. The activation of an orange alert for the climate...
Electoral officials explain how stranded candidates can change organizations before registration opens in August. Candidates left without a political organization following the suspensions of the Citizen Revolution and Amigo movements may still reach the ballot in Ecuador’s coming local elections, provided their previous registrations are removed from the National Electoral Council’s computer system. The...
Warnings of crop losses, disrupted transport and absent reserves revive memories of the devastating 1997 disaster. Ecuador is entering the early stages of a potentially powerful El Niño with little of the public food-storage capacity that helped the country respond to previous agricultural disasters, raising fears that severe flooding could turn a climate emergency...
New research finds financial activity rises before provincial sales, challenging assumptions about what drives growth. The expansion of bank deposits and lending appears to be helping propel Ecuador’s economy rather than merely reflecting an improvement that has already taken place, according to new research examining financial activity across all 24 provinces. The study found...
Past cases show how asylum claims, federal prosecutions and evidentiary disputes can block a suspect’s return. Ecuador has formally asked the United States to extradite Xavier Jordán, one of the principal defendants in the Metástasis organized-crime case, but obtaining the request may prove far more difficult than securing it. The National Court of Justice...