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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 7th 2026 - 22:03 UTC

Tag: Ecuador

  • Thursday, February 16th 2023 - 20:54 UTC

    Ecuador and Peru fighting a losing battle with China on giant squid fishing in the southeast Pacific

    The squid catch has increased: in the last five years alone, between 800,000 tons and 1.16 million tons have been caught. China has a declared fleet of 671 ships.

    Giant squid, squid or Dosidicus gigas, measures up to 3 meters in length and can reach 50 kilos in weight. It is one of the main species of the southeastern Pacific Ocean and at the same time it is one of the species with the greatest commercial pressure in the world. Thousands of tons are extracted every month, a large part, from the international waters located off the seas of Ecuador, Peru and Chile. The main player behind that voracious appetite is China: it has a declared fleet of 671 ships.

  • Friday, February 10th 2023 - 09:42 UTC

    Ecuador's President reshuffles cabinet after referendum defeat

    Lasso's administrative changes were “minimal” after the blow he suffered during the weekend, an analyst explained

    Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso Thursday reshuffled his cabinet after losing last Sunday's referendum and local elections to the left. The conservative head of state brought on some fresh air to his administration by changing the government minister and two of his most loyal advisors, in addition to making new appointments where the opposition prevailed.

  • Tuesday, February 7th 2023 - 10:04 UTC

    Ecuador's referendum a major setback for President Lasso

    In addition to losing the referendum, the opposition leftwing Citizen Revolution party of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) won the mayoralties of Quito and Guayaquil

    Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso Monday admitted defeat in Sunday's referendum through which he intended to garner enough consensus for the remainder of his term after 18 months in office. Citizens were asked, among other issues, to decide whether national offenders could be extradited abroad to face drug-trafficking charges. Lasso favored the idea, a slim majority did not with 47% of the votes counted.

  • Monday, February 6th 2023 - 10:23 UTC

    Ecuador's referendum goes on uneventfully

    The results will be released as soon as vote counting is done, Atamaint said

    Ecuador's National Electoral Council (CNE) announced Sunday that turnout for the national referendum called by President Guillermo Lasso seeking endorsement after 18 months in office had reached 80.74 %. Ecuadorians were also voting to elect the members of the Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS), in addition to municipal authorities.

  • Wednesday, February 1st 2023 - 09:54 UTC

    Presidents Petro and Lasso deepen Ecuador-Colombia cooperation

    The Binational Council against environmental crimes agreed upon between Petro and Lasso is to convene every six months

    Presidents Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador and Gustavo Petro of Colombia Tuesday launched the XI Binational Cabinet between the two countries to jointly develop “a work agenda to strengthen relations between the two nations,” according to a statement from Quito.

  • Wednesday, January 25th 2023 - 08:51 UTC

    Ecuador: Anticorruption secretary resigns amid growing scandal

    The fact that a former official has fallen “into the temptation of earning ill-gotten money” cannot be generalized, Lasso insisted

    Luis Verdesoto Monday turned in his resignation as Secretary of Anticorruption Public Policy amid growing allegations of corruption in Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso's entourage.

  • Monday, January 23rd 2023 - 09:44 UTC

    Pope welcomes Ecuadorian President, calls for no more deaths in Peru

    Lasso and Francis met for 50 minutes.

    The Argentine-born Pope Francis welcomed Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso at the Vatican during the weekend to discuss indigenous issues and other matters concerning South America. Last week, the Catholic leader also held a meeting with Paraguay's Mario Abdo Benítez.

  • Thursday, January 12th 2023 - 11:20 UTC

    First human patient with avian flu reported in Ecuador

    The consumption of chicken and eggs poses no risk to human health, the authorities insisted

    Ecuadorian health authorities have confirmed the first case of avian influenza in a human patient. The Ministry of Public Health (MSP) announced it was a 9-year-old girl who had been in contact with infected birds in the province of Bolivar.

  • Saturday, January 7th 2023 - 06:57 UTC

    Ecuador expects to ink a wide ranging free trade agreement with China

    “Good news to start 2023. The FTA negotiation between China and Ecuador has been successfully concluded,” president Guillermo Lasso said on Twitter.

    Ecuador has reached a free trade agreement with China which is expected to increase the country's exports by a billion US dollars as well as boost the growth in the industrial sector, it was announced.

  • Tuesday, January 3rd 2023 - 23:02 UTC

    Not bananas: shrimp now Ecuador's second-most-exported product

    Shrimp and also bananas keep Ecuador from signing an FTA with Mexico

    After a steady growth since 2018, shrimp has taken over as Ecuador's second-most exported item behind oil, thus toppling bananas from a notch they had held for quite a while, it was reported in Quito.