The coronavirus outbreak in Ecuador is increasing pressure on President Lenin Moreno to default on US$ 17 billion in debt and devote more resources toward fighting a pandemic that has left bodies in the streets of the nation’s largest city.
Ecuador's economic capital Guayaquil is reeling from the most aggressive outbreak of COVID-19 in Latin America after the pandemic hit the city “like a bomb,” its mayor said. Cynthia Viteri has emerged from her own bout with the virus to battle the worst crisis the port city of nearly 3 million people has known in modern times.
The authorities in Ecuador have collected at least 150 bodies of people who died due to the coronavirus from the streets and homes of Guayaquil, the main port city in the country. The latest data reveals that there have been at least 3,100 have tested positive for COVID-19.
Former President Rafael Correa went on trial before Ecuador’s highest court starting Monday on charges of campaign finance fraud and accepting millions of dollars in bribes.
Prolific Galapagos giant tortoise Diego is being released back into the wild after being credited by authorities with almost single handedly saving his species from extinction. The 100-year-old tortoise, who was recruited along with 14 other adults for a captive breeding program, will be returned to his native island of Espanola in March, the Galapagos National Parks service (PNG) said on Friday.
Mexico granted political asylum on Thursday to four members of Ecuador's opposition holed up in its embassy in Quito since widespread social unrest in October, the foreign ministry said. The four lawmakers, including former Congress speaker Gabriela Rivadeneira, “took a commercial flight to Mexico” early Thursday, the ministry said in a statement.
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved a delayed loan tranche for Ecuador, releasing nearly US$500 million under a three-year aid program. The IMF board gave the go-ahead for a US$4.2 billion loan in March to help support the oil-rich nation's economic reforms, but massive protests led by indigenous groups erupted in October when President Lenin Moreno scrapped fuel subsidies, causing gasoline prices to soar.
By Gwynne Dyer – Journalists don’t just travel in packs; they write in packs, too. And what they’re writing this week is endless pipe-sucking ruminations about what’s driving the seemingly synchronized outbreak of protests in a large number of very different countries around the world.
On Sunday, October 27, in Uruguay, a new president, and Parliament will be elected. According to pollsters, the same parties as in 2014, the official Frente Amplio (FA, Broad Front) and the conservative National Party, will go on second ballotage in November. However, the novelty is that the Legislature will be made up of a minimum of six parties (a historical record) and a maximum of nine.
Ecuador on Sunday said it had resumed crude oil exports curbed by violent protests that forced several wells in the Amazon to halt operations.