Ecuador News

By Fernando Goya Although most of Ecuador’s indigenous community supports a “yes” vote in a referendum to end oil production in the Amazonian Yasuní National Park, a group of Waorani women staunchly oppose it. In fact, they plan to bar environmental activists supporting the referendum from entering their ancestral lands in the Amazon region, where...

Ecuador and India signed the Artemis Accords last week in Washington, D.C., bringing the total number of countries that have agreed to sustainable and peaceful space exploration to 27. The Artemis Accords, which share their name with NASA’s Artemis program of moon exploration, are a framework co-authored by NASA and the U.S. Department of State that lays out...

Although Ecuador’s cross death elections are two months away, several candidates and their supporters are already talking about throwing their support to one of the top finishers in a runoff election. “Based on both public and private polling, everyone knows there will be a runoff,” says Ramiro Diaz, a supporter of former vice president Otto...

The U.S. State Department is advising travelers to exercise “extreme caution” if they visit Ecuador’s El Oro, Manabí, Santo Domingo, Los Ríos, Santa Elena, Cañar and Carchi provinces. In a statement issued last week, the State Department said that “robberies, kidnappings and violent deaths are common” in the seven provinces, recommending against all travel in...

By Kat Lister The late May sun is streaming through Wendy Mitchell’s conservatory windows as she sits in her armchair and gazes out on to her garden in bloom. Spring is finally yielding to summer and in this small corner of east Yorkshire and the fading forget-me-nots and primroses are giving way to the vivid...

By Fernando Gimeno Ecuador is facing a crucial moment for the future of its oil industry, a key pillar of the Andean nation’s economy. In a referendum scheduled to coincide with an early general election on Aug. 20, voters will decide whether or not to ban crude production at an Amazon block located within the...

By Susana Madera What once was a rugged mountain, covered with weeds and bushes, now has been transformed into a “living laboratory” with some 30,000 plants of assorted species and varieties planted on some 40 hectares (100 acres) in the Pablo Arenas parish in Ecuador’s Imbabura province. Formerly known as San Juan Hill, the site...