The restoration of heritage houses is booming in the Historic Center of Cuenca. Buildings from more than a century ago have become modern hotels, restaurants and terraces that are committed to the city’s tourist development. Investments are in the millions and the recovery work on the houses is meticulous. This is the case of...

The rise in the price of oil, higher collection due to the tax reform and the increase in domestic sales left a fiscal surplus of $609 million in the first quarter of 2022. The Government’s fiscal accounts show a positive performance due to an increase in tax and oil revenues. In the first quarter...

The former president was in Honduras to present the “good practices” of his administration. The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said that he is a fugitive from justice. A diplomatic note of protest was sent by the Ecuadorian government to its Honduran counterpart, who received former President Rafael Correa to advise them on the “good practices” that he applied...

The crisis unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed an unusually large presence of Ecuadorian students in Ukraine, many of whom did not have passports. Among the thousands of students from 158 countries who lived in Ukraine before the Russian invasion in February 2022, were hundreds of Ecuadorians. The rescue of the Ecuadorians who...

In Quito last week, a group of taxi drivers blocked streets in the Historic Center for more than three days to request that the operation of digital transportation platforms —such as Uber, Cabify and Didi— be regularized. The taxi drivers’ claims have raised a question: Are these applications legal in the country? The simple answer is no unless they...

Last Thursday, the National Assembly decided to file the draft Organic Law for Investment Attraction, Strengthening of the Securities Market and Digital Transformation that the Executive sent as an urgent economic order. According to several businessmen, this was a bad decision that harms the generation of projects and jobs. Daniel Elmir, a businessman in...

The president says he will push forward without the Assembly to help Ecuador’s economy grow. President Guillermo Lasso was consulted –this Tuesday, March 29, 2022– in the program Let’s meet with the citizens, which is broadcast from the Government Palace, about what tools his regime has to continue governing now that it seems that the opportunity...

Cuenca has serious road connection problems with almost all the cities that surround it: Guayaquil, Machala, Loja and Macas. The winter accelerated the deterioration of the roads of the Austro. In just 15 days, Azuay, the province of the Minister of Transportation and Public Works, Marcelo Cabrera, was left almost incommunicado on several fronts....

There are 68 protected areas in Ecuador that make up the National System of Protected Areas (SNAP). They occupy more than 18 million hectares, which represent more than 13.78% of the country’s national territory. However, not all protected areas are created equal. There are different types of protected areas depending on how they are managed and who manages them. In...

The mine is in the Morona Santiago jungle and copper reserves have already been found. The project is in the initial exploration stage. The Warints Shuar community has 850 inhabitants and is settled in the jungle depths of Morona Santiago. Last Thursday it received two buildings —the House of Women and the Community House— from the Canadian company...

 In 2021, shark fin exports from Ecuador tripled compared to the average of the last eight years. Sharks have a bad reputation. The spectacle of these fish in film and television consists of showing a terrifying animal with sharp fangs that mutilates and devours bathers on the peaceful beaches of some fictional place. But that is...

Petroecuador seeks investments of $12,000 billion to double oil production to 804,000 barrels per day in four years. The state oil company, Petroecuador, outlined the roadmap to double its oil production from the current 395,000 barrels per day to 804,000 barrels per day in 2025. In 2022, Petroecuador plans to incorporate an additional 100,000...

In a short video released by his communication team, the president of the National Emergency Operations Committee (COE), Juan Zapata, updated the figures on the coronavirus pandemic in Ecuador. “The data continues to be encouraging,” said Zapata, announcing that covid infections in February 2022 in Ecuador have fallen drastically. By the end of January, when...

Gabriel Boric took power in Chile last Friday, March 11. President Guillermo Lasso took advantage of the inauguration trip to reaffirm the relationship between the two countries and to seek a new ally on the road to the Pacific Alliance. International delegations arrived in Santiago Thursday for the inauguration of progressive leader Gabriel Boric,...

According to the INEC, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February rose the most in Cuenca, Santo Domingo and Guayaquil. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose and stood at 2.71% in February 2022 compared to the same month in 2021, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC). In monthly terms, the...

A gray cloud threatens to bring problems to farmers: the possibility that the war in Ukraine will affect the supply of fertilizers. Russia is the main supplier of this product and now there are logistical problems for that country to export it. At the beginning of the war, shipping companies suspended routes and some ports closed for security reasons, or due to...

The price of WIT oil, a reference for Ecuador, rose over one hundred dollars, but it is volatile. Six days after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of oil increased again yesterday. The price of Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI) skyrocketed from $100 to $106, or 11% more. The reference barrel in...

On the official list of Ecuadorians in Ukraine, there are those who want to return and those who prefer to stay, despite the uncertainty. The government is asking them to return and is preparing more flights to bring them. A group of Ecuadorians who managed to flee the war in Ukraine will arrive in...

Last week, President Guillermo Lasso said that intermediaries who benefited from the commercial and financial contracts that Ecuador and China signed “are fully identified.” According to Lasso, these Ecuadorian and foreign intermediaries who participated in a corruption plot have used China and abused Ecuador. And to give a clue as to who he is referring to, the...

The Ecuador Ministry of Tourism presented its marketing plan for 2022, as well as the objectives up to 2025.  The 2022 to 2025 tourism investment budget is $47.3 million, divided into four years, $41.6 million will be used to promote the country. In 2022, the Ministry of Tourism will allocate a budget of $3,316,196...

Update to: The INA Papers case tarnishes Moreno’s legacy Published: Volume 6, issue 19 The Prosecutor’s Office revived the previous investigation, which was opened in 2019, against former President Lenín Moreno, his family and circle of friends. The US banking system is featured in the case. Almost three years after the preliminary investigation was...

In seven years, Wilder Sánchez Farfán, alias ‘Gato’, went from being the right hand of Telmo Castro to one of the most important drug traffickers in the world. June 6, 2013 was the first time that Wilder Sánchez Farfán appeared on the scene. That day the authorities arrested him in the Galaxia operation, when...

The sustained downward trend in covid-19 cases in Ecuador, after the Ómicron peak, shows a positive scenario for the authorities amid the pandemic. According to the epidemiological report of February 10, 2022, in the fifth week of the year, 25,858 reported infections were reported. This compares to 50,168 registered in the second week of January. This was a reduction of 48%. The decrease was also...

At least four changes are being analyzed for a reform of the Social Security Law, according to Francisco Cepeda, president of the Board of Directors of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS). The manager said last Friday, February 11, 2022, that raising the retirement age, adjustments to the calculation basis for retirement pensions, and the creation of a personal contribution account to access a higher retirement pension will be discussed. Changes in the State contribution to the pension fund will also...

Between 2017 and 2020 in Ecuador, the following occurred: 1,461 floods, 11,336 forest fires, 4,157 landslides and 113 volcanic activities. Pujilí, La Maná, Pangua and Sigchos, in Cotopaxi, are on the list of the lastest cantons affected by natural disasters. In this case, floods. And as is already a tradition in the country, the...

Investigations reveal that Ecuadorians Roberto Cortés and Ernesto Weisson created a network of fraudulent investments that operated in Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. There are now more than 40 criminal, civil and bankruptcy court cases in the US court system related to the Biscayne Capital network. Biscayne Capital is an investment firm that...

The Constitutional Court has recognized that wild animals are subject to protection rights as they are part of nature. The sentence was published Saturday, February 5th, but was issued in the Court’s session of January 27th. The sentence had six votes in favor from the Constitutional Judges Karla Andrade Quevedo, Ramiro Avila Santamaría, Agustín Grijalva Jiménez, Alí...

 The area most affected by the oil spill is within the Cayambe Coca National Park. The Ministry of Environment also announced administrative actions.  Forty-eight hours after the rupture of the Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline (OCP) caused an oil spill in the Piedra Fina sector (in the Napo province), the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MATE) published a...

The security reform, presented by the Government, proposes that deprivation centers become strategic sectors, and under an emergency figure the military could enter to protect them. The fifth axis of the draft Law on Comprehensive Security and Strengthening of the Public Force, which the Government already presented to the Assembly, aims to improve the...

Since November 2021, Customs has detected multiple attempts to send packages with weapons and drugs via courier services. The first alert was triggered on November 22, 2021, when customs personnel found 2,000 rounds of ammunition in a package that allegedly contained quilts. The discovery occurred after passing the merchandise through X-ray equipment. The flight...