Ecuador virus cases plunged 37% in August, the most in South America after Brazil (40%), according to the WHO. In comparison, neighbors Colombia and Peru saw cases jump by 8% and 67%, respectively, in the same time period. On average, South American daily confirmed virus cases rose 35% in August, the data show. To be… Read More Flattening the Curve: Ecuador and Brazil Pull Ahead in August
Indigenous elites stood at the intersection of political subjugation and cultural survival in Spanish and Portuguese America. Over more than three centuries they acted as intermediaries between their communities and outsiders, as defenders before the law, and even as collaborators with local power groups in the exploitation of their own people. As such, they wielded… Read More Indigenous Elites: Survival and Subjugation in Colonial Latin America
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. Tensions between urban and rural areas as well as between descendants of European and Andean ancestry still exist and remain a source of scholarly interest in the region.… Read More Surveying the Field: Peasant Power in Andean History
When historian James Lockhart published his renown article “Encomienda and Hacienda” in 1969, the modern historiography on haciendas was already more than forty-years-old.[1] Yet even after decades, historians were only beginning to understand these New World estates in terms of their origins and functions as colonial institutions. Early twentieth century scholars debated the extent of… Read More Between Two Worlds: Andean Haciendas in Colonial History
(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
In 1503, the Spanish monarchy issued its first decree for the resettlement of indigenous groups in the Caribbean so that they would “live together” and “not remain or wander separated from each other in the backcountry.” [1]As the European conquest spread to North, Central, and South America, these new settlements – known as reducciones and… Read More Moving to the Suburbs: Reducciones in Recent Latin American Historiography
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
By Nathan Gill and Andrew Willis April 8, 2016 (Bloomberg News) — Oil-producing countries must take the necessary steps to stabilize the global crude market in a bid to improve prices, Ecuador Foreign Minister Guillaume Long said on behalf of Latin American nations after a gathering in Quito. Waiting for the market to balance itself would… 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 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
By Nathan Gill and David Wethe (Bloomberg) — Andes Petroleum Ecuador Ltd. and Repsol SA, Ecuador’s two biggest foreign oil producers, are shelving plans to drill exploratory wells amid a payment dispute with the OPEC nation’s government, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Andes, owned by China National Petroleum Corp. and… Read More China’s Andes Said to Join Repsol in Ecuador Oil Drilling Freeze
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… Read More Ecuador Approves New Labor Law With Changes to Public Pensions
Alejandro Velasco, Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela (Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015). Alejandro Velasco’s Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela (2015) uses the Caracas superblock housing complex, known today as 23 de Enero, to analyze Venezuela’s transition from the dictatorship of Marcos… Read More Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela: Velasco
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… Read More 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 that… Read More GMO Settles With Ecuador Over Bonds That Defaulted Six Years Ago
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… Read More Ecuador GDP Growth Slowed in 2014 for Third Year on Oil Decline
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador got $924 million in previously undisclosed loans from Deutsche Bank AG and other lenders, showing the extent of President Rafael Correa’s effort to line up a record amount of financing as oil prices plunge. The country took $181 million in two separate loans from units of Deutsche Bank and… Read More Ecuador Discloses Loans From Wall Street, China as Oil Sinks
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Union Andina de Cementos SAA, Peru’s biggest cement supplier, expects growth in exports will help offset weakening demand from local miners. Overseas sales of clinker, an ingredient in cement production, will surge 18 percent to about 500,000 metric tons this year, Ricardo Rizo Patron, chairman of the company, said Wednesday… Read More Peru Top Cement Maker Unacem Says Exports to Offset Mining Slump
By Katia Porzecanski and Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador sold $750 million of five-year bonds overseas to meet its financing needs amid a plunge in the price of crude oil. The country sold the securities to yield 10.5 percent, according to a person familiar with the matter, who isn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked… Read More Ecuador Said to Sell $750 Million of Five-Year Bonds at 10.5%
