The following articles are marked as unlocked and do not require an active membership.
To gain access to all weekly reports on Ecuador’s economics, politics, crime and more, consider becoming a member. Click here for more information.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is “open” to adjusting the program with Ecuador with the new president emerging from the ballot, “if the government so wishes,” the director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the Fund, Alejandro Werner, said on Monday. “The Fund is always open to modifying programs,” Werner said in a video...
Ecuador heads to the polls this week to elect its next President (and Vice president and some Assembly members), in what is likely to be an historic outcome, moving the country either slightly to the right or firmly back into the far left that ruled during Rafael Correa’s 10 years as President. The most...
Well, Ecuador elects a new president this Sunday. But the odds are that no candidate will get enough votes in the first round for outright victory (there are 16 candidates!). So, there will be a run-off in April. Oddsmakers say it will likely be between Rafael Correa’s buddy Andrés Arauz and Lenin Moreno’s nemesis, Guillermo...
Tracking the spread and outcome of the coronavirus in Ecuador: Updated for Tuesday, January 27, 2021 Last week we shared information from the El Universo newspaper that outlined the rate with which the coronavirus was continuing to spread throughout the country. The numbers at that time were alarming, and there was little good news...
While it works on completing the processes to receive its certifications to fly, Ecuatoriana Airlines has set the month in which it will tentatively start operating in Ecuadorian territory: July. By July, the company expects to have its initial crews ready to begin its flights. The company will start hiring in April and training in May. The...
Tracking the spread and outcome of the coronavirus in Ecuador: Updated for Tuesday, January 19, 2021 This week, in addition to providing our summary, we are also including information reported by El Universo newspaper that has taken a look at things differently than how we have been tracking. They reported this week on the...
The United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has reached an agreement with Ecuador for $3.5 billion in funding for economic reactivation, in exchange for Ecuador excluding China and its companies from a role in its telecommunications networks. Adam Boehler, the Chief Executive of the US development bank, signed the deal in an event...
Well, the day has finally arrived. The inauguration of a new President in the United States will happen tomorrow. Of course, what the day will look like is only known to a handful of people who a) are trying to make sure that it happens and that everyone is safe, or b) will do...
Last weekend, the National Electoral Council (CNE) held a mandatory presidential debate over two days, for the participation of 16 registered candidates for the February 7th elections. The debates took place on Saturday and Sunday evenings at the National Theater of the House of Ecuadorian Culture. The event was organized by the newspaper El Comercio,...
On January 5, 2021, Wilson Tenorio, President of the Guayas College of Physicians, urgently asked that flights from Europe be suspended due to the increase in cases on that continent from the new strain of the coronavirus detected in the United Kingdom. The request was also made due to the increase in cases sustained...
After the declaration of unconstitutionality of the state of exception, which was reported on Saturday, January 2, 2021 by the Constitutional Court, the National COE issued new resolutions on Sunday, January 3, aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the country. In the resolution of January 3, 2021, the National COE referred to...
Single-use plastics and polystyrene containers will soon become extinct in Ecuador. On November 4, 2020, the National Assembly approved the Organic Law for the Rationalization, Reuse and Reduction that prohibits the use of single-use plastics in commerce. The law went into effect in the country on Monday, December 21st, after it was published in...
Tracking the spread and outcome of the coronavirus in Ecuador: UPDATED FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2020 THE NUMBERS In our last two reports, we were optimistic with the COVID-19 situation in the country; unfortunately, that optimism has been replaced with serious concern as the statistics representing the Christmas holiday were released. The increase in...
A couple of weeks ago, we ran an article on Ecuador Verifica, an initiative in the country that brings together 14 media, 9 civil society organizations and 7 universities. Its objectives are to combat misinformation, verify the veracity of the speeches of the candidates (and their supporters or detractors) for the 2021 Ecuadorian election, and...
Last month, the National Assembly approved a bill that seeks to reduce the use and trade of single-use plastic material such as bags, straws, containers for beverages and food. The bill now awaits the signature of Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno for final approval. The ‘Organic Law for the Rationalization, Reuse and Recycling of Single-Use...
Finance Minister Mauricio Pozo announced on Thursday that the country is negotiating the support of multilateral organizations to issue a bond in the international markets to support the private productive sector. Ecuador is in negotiations to issue an international market bond that will allow it to raise around $3 billion to support the recovery...
“I’m thankful.” It’s the time of year for us to all look back on how things have gone, and are going for us, and hopefully feel that way. This year that will be difficult for so many people. Not just here, or in the US, but throughout the world. So many people have suffered...
As many of you know, I lost two friends to COVID-19 last year. One in May and one in August. Some people didn’t believe me when I wrote about this, said it was all a hoax. With all the death and illness since then, I suspect many of those doubters have now been silenced....
The new Unified Basic Salary (SBU) of the Ecuadorian worker for 2021 remains at $400. This was decided by the Ministry of Labor, after the workers and employers did not reach an agreement in the National Labor and Wages Council (CNTS), made last Friday. The announcement was made by the Minister of Labor, Andrés...
At the end of 2016, the United States Department of Justice made it known that Ecuador was part of a corruption plot led by the Odebrecht company to obtain public contracts through the delivery of bribes. Last week, they clued Ecuador in to another scandal: between 2015 and July 2020, bribes were received by...
Tracking the spread and outcome of the coronavirus in Ecuador: UPDATED FOR TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2020 Across the country, reported cases of coronavirus are going up, hospitals are seeing more admissions and ICU beds are becoming scarce, and places that had seemed to stop the virus—for example, Guayaquil—are seeing it surge back with rapid...
Last November 11th marked four years since the signing of the Multiparty Trade Agreement (MCA) between Ecuador and the European Union (EU). It was signed in Brussels before representatives of Colombia and Peru, who were already part of that treaty since June 26, 2012. It was put into effect on January 1, 2017 and is now entering its fifth...
Tracking the spread and outcome of the coronavirus in Ecuador: UPDATED FOR TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2020 The big question this week is where we stand with the spread of COVID-19 in Ecuador’s larger cities, and what does the government say about the numbers. Because the two pieces of information are not in synch. Last...
It’s been almost a year since Houston, Texas expat Nancy Thalmann was killed in her Challuabamba home while her husband Doyle slept in the next room. Her attacker was finally sentenced this past week. The Azuay Criminal Guarantees Court unanimously sentenced Alfredo José R., to 34 years and eight months in prison, for both...
This week we are all being inundated with volumes of witty, angry, happy, stupid, smart, and all-around lifeless columns about what Donald Trump is doing in his reaction to his loss in the 2020 US Presidential Election. And it’s not just he who is being written about ad nauseum, it’s also the Republican Congress,...
Last Thursday it was announced that Ecuador closed an agreement with AstraZeneca for the acquisition of five million doses of the vaccine that it is developing with the University of Oxford. According to the World Health Organization, worldwide there are eleven proposals for vaccines against COVID-19 that are in phase 3 clinical trials in...
Last Tuesday, Ecuador and the United States signed a first-phase trade agreement in Quito. The government emphasized that this is the first firm step towards the achievement of a definitive trade agreement between both nations. This first phase of the agreement was the result of three meetings the Council for Trade and Investment (TIC), had...
Last October 6th, two metropolitan traffic guards prevented a woman from jumping off a pedestrian bridge in southern Quito; three weeks later, another agent prevented a man from jumping into the Chiche River, in Puembo, northeast of the capital. Near that parish, in Pifo, a few days later, two children were found dead from poisoning and their mother was taken...
Wow, what a week. I thought that I had seen it all with Donald Trump, but I was wrong. I knew he would not take being a “loser” very well, but I didn’t expect him to try to “burn down the house” on his way out. Nor did I expect to see so many...