By N. H. Gill(Oct. 25, 2022) — On Oct. 25, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a criminal indictment against Nilsen Arias Sandoval, a high-ranking official at Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, Petroecuador, for taking part in a widespread bribery and money laundering scheme during the administration of ex-Pres. Rafael Correa. Sandoval allegedly “accepted and… Read More United States v. Nilsen Arias Sandoval
Ecuadorian voters elected Guillermo Lasso, a 65-year-old former chief executive officer of Banco de Guayaquil SA, as the next president of the South American nation.… Read More Guillermo Lasso Wins Ecuador Election Defeating Correa Protégé in Presidential Vote
On February 12, a wall of rocks and mud buried Chanchán, a small community in the Andean province of Chimborazo in central Ecuador… Read More Political Landslides: Water and the Environment in Ecuador’s Presidential Elections
The Reserva Ecológica Antisana, located in the Andean cordillera southeast of Quito, is one of the few remaining areas in the Ecuadorian highlands where relatively large populations of endemic plants and animals continue to thrive. … Read More Reserva Ecológica Antisana
The International Monetary Fund approved $2 billion to help Ecuador “restore macroeconomic stability and pursue the unfinished structural agenda” … Read More IMF Approves $2 Billion Loan for Ecuador to Shore up Economy
“esta es una placa de la ignominia, esta es una placa en donde consta y queda constancia para las futuras generaciones que los más altos personeros de un país cometieron un delito: recibieron coimas y con esas coimas se beneficiaron personalmente o pretendieron perennizar a su movimiento político en este país.”… Read More The Tablet of Disgrace
Ecuador virus cases plunged 37% in August, the most in South America after Brazil (40%), according to the WHO.… Read More Flattening the Curve: Ecuador and Brazil Pull Ahead in August
Ecuador won approval to restructure about a third of its international bonds this week, alleviating part of the fiscal hangover from the Correa administration’s ruinous decade in power.… Read More Ecuador Credit Talks Silent on Debts to History
Quitoloma is an Incan fortress on a hill above El Quinche, east of Quito. The site was part of what is known as the Pambamarca fortress complex, thought to be the largest pre-Colombian military site in the Americas. … Read More Quitoloma: Commanding Sites in Forgotten Places
Max Fisher, an international reporter and columnist for The New York Times, kicked off a debate last month about the “Latin Americanization” of the U.S. … Read More Spotting Trends: ‘Bad Hombres’ in the News
I’ve watched the coronavirus crisis unfold from a quiet street in the suburbs of Quito … Read More Dispatch from Quito: Coronavirus and La Cuarentena in Ecuador
Landslides severed Ecuador’s two oil pipelines last week, spilling heavy crude into the Coca River in the country’s northeastern Amazon region. Now, amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis … Read More Ecuador Landslide Deepens Virus Crisis as Oil Pipelines Severed for Weeks
Ecuadorian ex-President Rafael Correa is on trial again, this time for campaign-finance fraud. Three years after a national referendum forced him from office, Correa is being tried in absentia … Read More Ecuador’s Splintered Left on Trial with Correa
(Published originally in Mediato) La mina de oro y plata Río Blanco, atacada y quemada este mes por manifestantes de la comunidad, es emblemática en la industria minera ecuatoriana por todas las razones equivocadas. Haciendo caso omiso a la resistencia de las comunidades locales, del Municipio de Cuenca y de la provincia del Azuay, el gobierno… Read More Minería: del dicho al hecho
(Published originally in Mediato) 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 la… Read More Correa, China y la Asamblea, afectados por el informe de la deuda
(Published originally in Mediato) 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 Oriente… Read More Ecuador habló: La minería es peor que Correa
By N. H. GillOn April 2, 2017, Lenín Boltaire Moreno Garcés, a popular former vice-president, won Ecuador’s presidential elections with 51 percent of the vote, defeating Guillermo Lasso, an executive of the nation’s second-largest bank. Outgoing President Rafael Correa, in power since 2007, supported Moreno in an election campaign marred by irregularities.
Bloomberg Businessweek, March 28 — April 3, 2016 Susan Lamy and her husband, Jean Pierre, owned a successful interior design business in Westport, Conn., but they still worried about how they would make ends meet in retirement. “Just paying for the basic necessities was killing us, and we could see that there was no way… Read More Greetings From Gringolandia
By Nathan Gill April 19, 2016 (Bloomberg) — Before a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador on Saturday, the South American nation’s finances were already in tatters as the government struggled to meet payments to municipal authorities, oil companies and even cancer hospitals. Cut off from global bond markets, President Rafael Correa must now find enough money to… Read More Bailout Risk Grows for Ecuador After Worst Earthquake in Decades
By Benjamin Bain and Nathan Gill April 16, 2016 (Bloomberg) — World leaders from the Vatican to Washington offered support to Ecuador as casualties mounted following one of the strongest earthquakes to strike the South American country in decades. By Sunday evening, the number of dead had climbed to at least 246, from 77 earlier… Read More Ecuador Quake Death Toll Rises as World Leaders Offer Support
By Nathan Gill and John Quigley April 12, 2016 (Bloomberg) — The victory by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former finance minister, for second place in Sunday’s Peruvian president elections sets up a showdown between two business-friendly candidates, part of a regional backlash against left-wing politicians. Kuczynski, a 77-year-old Oxford-trained political economist who’s spent more than 50… Read More 77-Year-Old Wall Street Favorite to Face Fujimori in Peru Runoff
Oil-producing countries must take the necessary steps to stabilize the global crude market in a bid to improve prices, Ecuador Foreign Minister … Read More Latin America Oil Producers Call for Action to Improve Prices
By Nathan GillNovember 18, 2015 (Bloomberg) — Ecuador is poised to do something it’s never done in its more than 180-year history: repay a bond. “What’s positive is that Ecuador has a new chance to honor, for the first time, the payment of its bonds,” said Santiago Mosquera, a former Fitch Ratings analyst who is… Read More Eight Defaults and 180 Years Later, Ecuador to Repay Bondholders
By Nathan Gill August 24, 2015 (Bloomberg) — As emerging markets come unhinged around the world, few nations face tougher challenges than Ecuador, a dollarized oil producer in El Nino’s path, where street protests are flaring up alongside one of the planet’s most dangerous volcanoes. “Sometimes it makes you want to laugh,” said Jose Hidalgo, director… Read More Everything Is Going Wrong in Ecuador
By Nathan Gill July 9, 2015 (Bloomberg) — Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for crimes committed by the Catholic Church during the colonization of the Americas at a summit in Bolivia, home to one of the region’s largest indigenous populations. “I say with sorrow that the church has committed many serious sins against the indigenous… Read More Pope Apologizes for Church Abuse in Conquest of the Americas
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Pope Francis, the first Latin American to lead the Catholic Church, called for unity and greater respect for diversity Tuesday during a mass in Quito, where thousands camped overnight in the rain to hear the pontiff speak. “There was no shortage of conviction or strength in that cry for freedom… Read More Pope Seeks Unity in Latin America Plagued by Political Strife
By Nathan Gill and John Follain July 5, 2015 (Bloomberg) — Pope Francis arrived in Ecuador Sunday, starting a nine-day visit to South America in which he’s expected to focus on the poor and challenge policies on oil drilling that damage the environment.“In the words of the gospel, we can find the keys that will… Read More Pope Francis Brings Focus on Poor to South America
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — This year’s climb in crude prices, however slight, brought relief to Venezuelan and Ecuadorean bondholders after last year’s crash decimated the oil producers’ revenue and prompted concern they were running short of cash. Now, the pessimism is back. While New York oil futures have surged 36 percent from a six-year… Read More Venezuela Bonds Trapped by Oil’s New Normal as Relief Rally Ends
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador, the world’s biggest grower of flavored beans used in fine chocolate, will probably lose about 15 percent of this year’s cocoa crop after heavy rains hurt farms in the Andean nation’s coastal region, the National Cocoa Exporters Association said. Anecacao, as the association is known, reduced its 2015 forecast… Read More Ecuador Cocoa Forecast Cut to 230,000 Tons After Rains Hit Crops
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador President Rafael Correa’s attempt to defuse nationwide protests by back-tracking on two controversial tax proposals failed to prevent opposition supporters marching for a ninth straight day Tuesday. Protesters gathered in the capital city, Quito, less than 24 hours after Correa called for calm and announced he would delay plans… Read More Correa’s Back-Track on Tax Bills Fails to Halt Ecuador Protests
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador’s home-grown digital currency is nothing to fear. At least that’s the conclusion of analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to Credit Suisse Group AG and Nomura Securities International Inc. The country’s bonds fell last week after the government ordered banks to start accepting a new electronic tender it created… Read More JPMorgan Says Not to Worry as Ecuador Promotes Digital Currency
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador, which uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, will require banks to offer services tied to a government-created electronic coin. Lenders with assets greater than $1 billion as of Dec. 31 have 120 days to fulfill the requirement, while smaller banks will get as long as a year,… Read More Ecuador Requiring Banks to Offer Electronic Currency Services
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Enrique Perez, who’s been building homes for most of his life in Ecuador, is finally going to make one for himself. Perez is an unlikely beneficiary of the plunge in crude prices. That prompted Ecuador, an OPEC nation, to offer mortgage subsidies to people like Perez, a construction worker. Ecuador… Read More South America’s Commodity Rout Spurs Public Spending on Housing
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