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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, May 10th 2024 - 21:14 UTC

Tag: Ecuador

  • Monday, August 14th 2023 - 10:08 UTC

    Ecuadorian party picks yet a new candidate to replace Villavicencio

    Zurita and González Náder wear police bulletproof vests

    Only hours after announcing that Vice Presidential candidate Andrea González Náder would pick up the baton from the assassinated Fernando Villavicencio, Ecuador's Movimiento Construye recanted Sunday and picked journalist Christian Zurita to top the ticket for the Aug. 20 elections. Náder thus returned to her original slot, it was explained in Quito.

  • Friday, August 11th 2023 - 11:17 UTC

    Major haul of cocaine in Rotterdam: eight tons in a shipment of Ecuadorean bananas

    The cocaine was hidden in a container alongside bananas on a ship that had arrived from Ecuador. Some 8,000 packets of the drug were discovered in the containers.

    Ecuador again is headlines. Netherlands authorities have seized eight tons of cocaine in the port of Rotterdam, prosecutors announced on Thursday. The drug is valued at an estimated US$660 million and represents the biggest haul ever recorded at the port. The last biggest was a 4,500-kilogram haul made in 2020.

  • Thursday, August 10th 2023 - 11:25 UTC

    Hitmen assassinate Presidential candidate in Ecuador

    A former journalist and assemblyman, the 59-year-old Villavicencio was said to be very close to President Lasso

    Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio died after being attacked by hitmen on his way out of a campaign rally in downtown Quito ahead of the upcoming Aug. 20 elections, Interior Minister Juan Zapata confirmed in the Ecuadorian capital. Other people were wounded, it was reported.

  • Saturday, August 5th 2023 - 10:50 UTC

    Nine Ecuadorian prison officials arrested after police raids

    President Guillermo Lasso explained that these operations had been undertaken “for the safety of the citizens and of the people deprived of their freedom”

    Ecuadorian authorities confirmed Friday that nine officials from the country's prisons bureau in the city of Guayaquil had been arrested after weapons, explosives, and drugs were found in their offices “following the inspection of wards in the Penitenciaría del Litoral,” the Prosecutor's Office said on its Twitter account after some 2,000 troops carried out three raids resulting in “the seizure of firearms, bladed weapons, ammunition, explosives, drugs, among other prohibited objects.”

  • Monday, July 31st 2023 - 10:44 UTC

    Avian flu: Contingency protocols activated in Ecuador

    Special teams have been placed under round-the-clock alert while a vaccination plan against the disease was extended

    Ecuadorian authorities have actuated contingency protocols after a new outbreak of avian influenza was confirmed in a commercial farm in the Andean province of Cotopaxi, the Agency for Regulation and Control of Animal and Plant Health (Agrocalidad) announced Sunday in Quito.

  • Wednesday, July 26th 2023 - 10:16 UTC

    Ecuador: Death toll in prison clashes rises to 31

    “The force of the State will never bend,” said Interior Minister Juan Zapata

    Ecuadorian authorities Tuesday confirmed that the number of inmates killed in prison clashes nationwide since July 22 had reached 31. In this scenario, President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in all correctional facilities for 60 days, through which some 2,700 law enforcement officers carried out a control operation at the premises, it was announced.

  • Tuesday, July 25th 2023 - 11:19 UTC

    State of emergency and curfew decreed in Ecuador

    President Lasso made the announcement

    Ecuadorian authorities Monday declared a new state of emergency and curfew in two provinces and one city following an escalation in acts of violence, including the murder of the mayor of Manta, the country's third-largest city.

  • Monday, July 24th 2023 - 10:35 UTC

    Mayor of Ecuador's third-largest city shot dead

    Intriago was elected mayor of Manta for the 2019-2023 term and re-elected until 2027

    Agustín Intriago, the 38-tear-old mayor of Manta, Ecuador's third-largest city, was assassinated Sunday by hitmen, who shot him at least three times in the chest at around 1.30 pm local time while he was visiting a construction site, Interior Minister Juan Zapata confirmed.

  • Friday, July 14th 2023 - 10:50 UTC

    Ecuador short of rice, looks to Mercosur members as a potential supplier

    Colombia is the main rice supplier to Ecuador, with private companies opting to import to meet market demand

    Mercosur members have been added to Ecuador’s list of potential rice suppliers as the Andean country seeks to import rice to keep its stocks full, as they have been significantly depleted due to crop issues. Ecuador shortfall production could reach some 200,000 tons.

  • Monday, June 26th 2023 - 10:22 UTC

    Bomb threat ruled out in KLM flight arriving in Quito

    The flight back to Amsterdam was delayed due to the security measures

    Ecuadorian police Sunday ruled out a bomb threat on a KLM flight arriving in Quito from Amsterdam, it was reported.