Luis Gerónimo de Oré: The World of an Andean Franciscan from the Frontiers to the Centers of Power (Review)
In 1586, a 32-year-old Franciscan friar named Luis Gerónimo de Oré began his first job in an Indigenous parish in the Colca Valley in the Peruvian Andes as an “outsider and perhaps more alone among the ‘others’ than he had been at any time in his life” (p. 91). When…
Ecuador Police Storm Mexican Embassy to Arrest Ex-VP Jorge Glas
Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito on April 5 to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador granted him political asylum earlier in the day.
Survival and Subjugation in Colonial Latin America
Indigenous elites stood at the intersection of political subjugation and cultural survival in Spanish and Portuguese America.
Mastering the Law: Slavery and Freedom in the Legal Ecology of the Spanish Empire (Review)
In 1629, Catalina Angola and Domingo Angola, two African-born captives enslaved near what is today the northern Colombian city of Cartagena, learned that Catalina’s enslaver was moving her to the city. Fearing their separation, the couple petitioned their parish priest for marriage, hoping the Catholic Church’s respect for the sacrament…
Nature Wars
Political Landslides: Water and the Environment in Ecuador’s Presidential Elections
On February 12, a wall of rocks and mud buried Chanchán, a small community in the Andean province of Chimborazo in central Ecuador
Nature Wars is a bi-weekly newsletter providing expert research and in-depth analysis of the conflicts — environmental, social, and ideological — shaping natural resource markets in the South American Andes and Amazon.
News
Ecuador Declares State of ‘Internal Armed Conflict’ to Fight Criminal Networks
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of “internal armed conflict” against transnational criminal networks after a wave of street violence swept the South American country.
Ecuadorian Banana Magnate Daniel Noboa Wins Special Presidential Election
Daniel Noboa, a 35-year-old businessman and son of Ecuador’s wealthiest family, was elected president after outgoing president Guillermo Lasso called for new elections and dissolved congress in May.
Assassination Days Before Presidential Vote Shakes Ecuador – and Region
For years, Ecuador has been labeled a bastion of peace in a region racked by violence and political unrest. But the recent assassination of anti-corruption presidential hopeful Fernando Villavicencio shattered that perception, highlighting how the small South American nation is facing down a rapidly expanding war on organized crime amid…
Ecuador President Dissolves Congress as Impeachment Investigation Expands
Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the Andean nation’s congressional assembly and called for new elections, citing “grave political crisis and internal commotion.” Lasso, a 67-year-old former banker who took office in May 2021, used a constitutional provision known as “muerte cruzada,” to end a congressional impeachment inquiry into corruption and…
Essays
Peasant Power and Rural Revolutions in Andean History
Like many global hot spots of the twentieth century, the Andes is marked by its history of structural inequality, racial conflict, and legacies of poverty and violence.
Correa, China y la Asamblea, Afectados por el Informe de la Deuda
El informe borrador –el cual aún no es concluyente– de la Contraloría sobre la deuda pública, presentado el 14 de marzo pasado, es un triunfo estratégico para el presidente Lenín Moreno. No solo permite responsabilizar al expresidente Rafael Correa del despilfarro fiscal, sino que Moreno también puede hacer corresponsable a…
Ecuador Habló: La Minería es Peor que Correa
El referéndum del 4 de febrero fue significativo. En su nivel más obvio, le dio al presidente Lenín Moreno una sólida victoria política y al expresidente Rafael Correa una derrota asombrosa. Pero más allá de las reacciones en Quito, los votantes en las zonas mineras de la Sierra y el…
Eight Defaults and 180 Years Later, Ecuador to Repay Bondholders
Ecuador is poised to do something it’s never done in its more than 180-year history: repay a bond.
Book Reviews
Ayoreo Women and the Sexual Economy of the Paraguayan Chaco (Review)
Canova, Paola. Frontier Intimacies: Ayoreo Women and the Sexual Economy of the Paraguayan Chaco. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020.
Indigenous Revolution in Ecuador and Bolivia (Review)
Paige, Jeffery M. Indigenous Revolution in Ecuador and Bolivia, 1990-2005. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2020.
Urban Mountain Beings: History, Indigeneity, and Geographies of Time in Quito (Review)
Fine-Dare, Kathleen S. Urban Mountain Beings: History, Indigeneity, and Geographies of Time in Quito, Ecuador. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2020.
Amor y sexo en la historia de Quito (Review)
Gomezjurado Zevallos, Javier. Amor y sexo : en la historia de Quito. Quito: PPL Impresores, 2019.
