Latest
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…
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…
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…
United States v. Nilsen Arias Sandoval
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…
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Environmental News
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
Reserva Ecológica Antisana
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…
Ecuador Landslide Deepens Virus Crisis as Oil Pipelines Severed for Weeks
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
Ecuador’s Splintered Left on Trial with Correa
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
La Minería en Ecuador: Del Dicho al Hecho
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.…
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…
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Political News
Guillermo Lasso Wins Ecuador Election Defeating Correa Protégé in Presidential Vote
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.
IMF Approves $2 Billion Loan for Ecuador to Shore up Economy
The International Monetary Fund approved $2 billion to help Ecuador “restore macroeconomic stability and pursue the unfinished structural agenda”
The Tablet of Disgrace
“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…
Spotting Trends: ‘Bad Hombres’ in the News
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.
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…
Lenín Moreno Wins Ecuador Election with Correa Support
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…
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Economic News
Ecuador Credit Talks Silent on Debts to History
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.
Dispatch from Quito: Coronavirus and La Cuarentena in Ecuador
I’ve watched the coronavirus crisis unfold from a quiet street in the suburbs of Quito
Greetings From Gringolandia
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…
Bailout Risk Grows for Ecuador After Worst Earthquake in Decades
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…
Latin America Oil Producers Call for Action to Improve Prices
Oil-producing countries must take the necessary steps to stabilize the global crude market in a bid to improve prices, Ecuador Foreign Minister
Venezuela Bonds Trapped by Oil’s New Normal as Relief Rally Ends
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…
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Latin American Markets
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.
Andean News
Quitoloma: Commanding Sites in Forgotten Places
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…
Ecuador Quake Death Toll Rises as World Leaders Offer Support
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…
77-Year-Old Wall Street Favorite to Face Fujimori in Peru Runoff
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…
Everything Is Going Wrong in Ecuador
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,…
Pope Francis Brings Focus on Poor to South America
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…
Correa’s Back-Track on Tax Bills Fails to Halt Ecuador Protests
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…
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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 he left the valley nine…
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 of matrimony would help them…
Cayambe Mitma Sites After Incan Conquest: Map
Long before the Spanish conquest, an invading army of soldiers fighting for the Inca state conquered what is today northern Ecuador.
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.
Geographic landmarks and cultural sites at Guachalá: Map
Geographic landmarks and cultural sites around Guachalá, including Pambamarca complex and territory southeast of the Río Pisque.
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.
Flattening the Curve: Ecuador and Brazil Pull Ahead in August
Ecuador virus cases plunged 37% in August, the most in South America after Brazil (40%), according to the WHO.
Plotting Pachakuti: Incan Conquest Sites in the Galvin Murúa
Martín de Murúa was a Basque Mercedarian friar who wrote the Historia General del Piru (c.1580-1616), an illustrated history of what are today the South American nations of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
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.
Inka Militarism at the Pambamarca Complex (Review)
Citation Connell, Samuel V., Amber Anderson, Chad Gifford, and Ana Lucía González. “Inka Militarism at the Pambamarca Complex in Northern Ecuador.” Latin American Antiquity 30, no. 1 (March 2019): 177–97.
Survival and Subjugation in Colonial Latin America
Indigenous elites stood at the intersection of political subjugation and cultural survival in Spanish and Portuguese America.
Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador’s Textile Economy (Review)
Corr, Rachel. Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador’s Textile Economy. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2018.
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.
Land Reform, Historical Consciousness and Indigenous Activism in Late Twentieth-Century Ecuador (Review)
Huarcaya, Sergio Miguel. “Land Reform, Historical Consciousness and Indigenous Activism in Late Twentieth-Century Ecuador.” Journal of Latin American Studies 50, no. 02 (May 2018): 411–40.
The FBI in Latin America: The Ecuador Files (Review)
Becker, Marc. The FBI in Latin America: The Ecuador Files. Radical Perspectives : A Radical History Review Book Series. Durham ; London: Duke University Press, 2017.
Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions (Review)
Lewis, Tammy L. Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions: Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents, and Ecoresisters, 2017.
Simbolismo y Ritual en las Sublevaciones Indígenas (Review)
Citation Moreno Yánez, Segundo E. Simbolismo y ritual en las sublevaciones indígenas. Primera edición. Biblioteca de historia, volumen 47. Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, 2017.
El Sistema Político Ecuatoriano (Review)
Citation Flavia Freidenberg and Simón Pachano, El Sistema Político Ecuatoriano, Serie Atrio (Quito, Ecuador: FLACSO Ecuador, 2016).
Investigación Subacuática en las Lagunas de Yahuarcocha (Review)
Echeverría-Almeida and Athens underwater survey of the Laguna Yahuarcocha (Lake of Blood) builds on earlier subaquatic research performed in the lake in the early 2000s.
The Andean Wonder Drug: Cinchona Bark and Imperial Science in the Spanish Atlantic (Review)
Matthew Crawford’s The Andean Wonder Drug is a fascinating history of quina, the medicinal tree bark of the chinchona tree, native to the Andean forests of South America.
Historia de la Conservación Ambiental en el Ecuador (Review)
Bustamante Ponce, Teodoro. Historia de La Conservación Ambiental En El Ecuador: Volcanes, Tortugas, Geólogos y Políticos. 1. ed. Serie Atrio. Quito, Ecuador: FLACSO Ecuador : Editorial Abya Yala, 2016.
Pope Apologizes for Church Abuse in Conquest of the Americas
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…
Pope Seeks Unity in Latin America Plagued by Political Strife
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…
Ecuador Approves New Labor Law With Changes to Public Pensions
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador’s congress approved changes to the Andean nation’s labor laws on Tuesday, including the removal of a government subsidy meant to cover almost half of state pensioners’ monthly payments. Lawmakers approved the measure proposed by President Rafael Correa in a 91-to-29 vote, while government supporters and political opposition groups looked…
Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela (Review)
Velasco, Alejandro. Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015.
GMO Settles With Ecuador Over Bonds That Defaulted in 2009
By Katia Porzecanski and Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo LLC, a Boston-based money manager, dismissed its lawsuit against Ecuador over debt the nation defaulted on six years ago. The parties agreed to dismiss the suit filed in December in Manhattan federal court, agreeing that each side would pay its own costs and…
GMO Settles With Ecuador Over Bonds That Defaulted Six Years Ago
By Katia Porzecanski and Nathan Gill(Bloomberg) — Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo LLC, a Boston-based money manager, dismissed its lawsuit against Ecuador over debt the nation defaulted on six years ago. The parties agreed to dismiss the suit filed in December in Manhattan federal court, agreeing that each side would pay its own costs and that…
World’s Costliest Bond Sale in Decade Shows Ecuador Cash Crunch
By Katia Porzecanski and Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Six years ago, Ecuador President Rafael Correa’s government denounced the 10 percent in annual interest the country paid on its bonds as “usury.” So when the 51-year-old former economics professor was willing to pay 10.5 percent in a sale of notes this month, it raised speculation the…
Ecuador GDP Growth Slowed in 2014 for Third Year on Oil Decline
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — The rate of growth in Ecuador, South America’s seventh biggest economy, slowed for a third year in 2014 as falling crude oil prices and a refinery shutdown offset gains from higher fishing and electricity output. Gross domestic product rose 3.8 percent in 2014 from a year earlier, less than the…
