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☆ Death toll from violent incidents in Ecuador's prisons hits 18
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Alexandra Valencia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Clashes between organized criminal gangs have taken place since Saturday at the prison, one of the most dangerous in Ecuador. In other prisons, inmates took nearly 100 guards hostage and prisoners in some jails began hunger strikes, without explaining why. Ecuador has long been plagued by prison violence. Military intervention in Ecuador's prisons will continue until control has been retaken and there is no threat to prisoners or officials, the government said. Lasso has regularly declared states of emergency in the country's prisons as he tries to tackle violence that has surged since 2021, claiming the lives of hundreds of prisoners.

Persons: Guillermo Lasso, Karen Toro, Lasso, Los Rios, Agustin Intriago, Alexandra Valencia, Oliver Griffin, Valentine Hilaire, William Maclean, Bill Berkrot Organizations: National Assembly, REUTERS, Ecuador, Duran, Sunday, Thomson Locations: Quito, Ecuador, QUITO, Guayaquil, Manabi, Los, Manta

☆ Ecuador declares state of emergency amid violent clashes
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Lasso declared the state of emergency in the provinces of Manabi and Los Rios and in the city of Duran, near Guayaquil, after Agustin Intriago, the mayor of coastal city Manta, was shot dead on Sunday. It also comes on the back of riots over the weekend in the prison Penitenciaria del Litoral, in Guayaquil, involving clashes between gangs inside the prison. Lasso has frequently resorted to declaring states of emergency as Ecuador struggles with prison riots and waves of violence throughout the country. The state of emergency will last for 60 days in the provinces, while the curfew will vary during that period, the government said. Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Guillermo Lasso, Karen Toro, Lasso, Agustin Intriago, del, Prisoners, Alexandra Valencia, Carolina Pulice, Sonali Paul Organizations: National Assembly, REUTERS, Monday, Rios, United Nations, Inter, American, Human Rights, Thomson Locations: Quito, Ecuador, QUITO, Manabi, Duran, Guayaquil, Cotopaxi, El Oro, Napo

CNN —More than 90 prison security agents are currently being held by inmates across five different prisons in Ecuador, according to the country’s penitentiary service SNAI, amid escalating violence in the country which saw the mayor of Ecuador’s sixth largest city killed over the weekend. Together with the National Police, SNAI said it was working to secure the agents’ release and return prisons to normal operations. Inmates at several prisons have begun hunger strikes as they demand better conditions in the cells. Hundreds of inmates have been killed in recent years in Ecuador as members of competing criminal organizations square off with each other inside the prisons, which are often self-ruled by the criminal organizations. A woman cries outside outside the Guayas 1 prison a day after a fight between rival gangs left six inmates dead in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on July 24, 2023.

Persons: SNAI, ’, Agustin Intriago, Juan Zapata, Marcos Pin, Ariana Chancay, Guillermo Lasso, “, ” Intriago, Lasso, Luisa Gonzalez, Otto Sonnenholzner, Yaku Perez, Intriago Organizations: CNN, National Police, Manta, Getty, Authorities, Twitter Locations: Ecuador, Ecuador’s, Guayaquil, AFP, Ecuadorian, South America, United States, Canada, Asia, Colombia

☆ Soccer’s Next Big Thing Is Buying in Bulk
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Wednesday evening, the Colombian club Atlético Huila decided to treat its players and its coaching staff to what could be best thought of as an office night out. It finished at the bottom of the Apertura, the first half of the Colombian campaign. The host duly offered Huila an invitation to watch its Copa Libertadores game against Argentinos Juniors at its compact, modern stadium. What Huila’s players saw was, first and foremost, rousing entertainment. Thanks to a last-ditch goal from Kevin Rodríguez, Independiente won, 3-2, securing the top spot in its group in the process.

Persons: Atlético Huila, Huila, Kevin Rodríguez Organizations: Colombian, Independiente del Valle, Copa Libertadores, Argentinos Juniors, Independiente, Estadio Banco Guayaquil Locations: Sangolqui, Ecuador’s, Quito

☆ Why Migrant Women Are Turning Toward Construction Jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Stefanos Chen | Ana Ley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Roxana García sat in a packed classroom on a recent night in Jackson Heights, Queens, with 38 strangers — a chef, an I.T. technician, and a business manager among them — all with a single goal: To get a job in construction, one of the few industries open to New York’s surging migrant population. Ms. García, 36, a nurse who flew to New York three months ago from Guayaquil, Ecuador, with her partner and two children, has subsisted since then on housecleaning jobs, but in construction, she sees a future: being able to afford better care for her prediabetic teenager and the means to take her family to Disneyland. “I came here with a suitcase full of dreams,” she said in Spanish. “If I can make this into a career, that would be excellent, because I can’t focus on what I once was.”

Persons: Roxana García, García, ” Locations: Jackson Heights , Queens, New York, Guayaquil, Ecuador

This would see Lasso resign, triggering snap elections for both the presidency and the National Assembly, according to a clause in the Ecuador’s constitution. While Ricachon believes Ecuador’s president Lasso should complete his mandate, Zamora thinks the president’s time is up and that the country’s problems require a new leader. Once the president wraps up his defense on Tuesday and leaves the legislature, each of Ecuador’s 137 National Assembly members will be accorded ten minutes to speak. Then Saquicela, the National Assembly president, will set a date within five days for the impeachment vote. Members of unions and civil society groups demand that Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso leave office amid rising crime and insecurity, in Quito, Ecuador May 1, 2023.

☆ Ecuadorean authorities detain former energy minister in bribery probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

QUITO, May 15 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean authorities have detained a former energy minister amid an investigation into alleged bribery linked to state oil firm Petroecuador, the attorney general's office said on Monday. An investigation of Xavier Vera, Ecuador's former minister of mines and energy, began last October following several corruption allegations, including that he arranged jobs at Petroecuador in exchange for bribes. "The attorney general's office, with the support from (Ecuadorean police) executed an arrest warrant against Xavier V., within an investigation for alleged bribery," the attorney general's office wrote in a message via Twitter, referring to Vera. He isn't running away from the investigation, he isn't running away from the process," Vera's lawyer, Carlos Sanchez, told local television channel Ecuavisa. Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito Writing by Sarah Morland Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

And Ecuadorian authorities have struggled to tackle this public security crisis “efficiently because it is mired in (a) political crisis,” González says. Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso is at the center of this storm, and his popularity has tanked amid widespread discontent with spiraling crime rates. Before President Guillermo Lasso took office, Ecuador had already become a key transit hub for cocaine due to its location between Peru and Colombia. Lasso told Ecuador’s legislative commission investigating him that he had not evaded taxes and that his tax trajectory was legally supported. Members of unions and civil society groups march on International Workers' Day to demand that Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, who is facing an impeachment process, leave office on May 1, 2023.

☆ Armed attack kills 10 in Ecuador port Guayaquil
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 30 (Reuters) - An armed attack has killed 10 people in the Ecuadorean port city of Guayaquil, the public prosecutor's office of Ecuador and police reported on Sunday. Three people were wounded, including a 5-year-old girl, police said on Sunday. A rifle and 9-millimeter caliber guns were found at the scene, the Ecuadorean Prosecutor's Office posted on its Twitter account. "We believe that this has to do with a struggle between organized criminal groups over the fight for territorial control," National Police Commander William Villaroel told a news conference. The Ecuadorean government declared a state of emergency in early April in Guayaquil and surrounding areas in an effort to curb surging violence in the Pacific port city.

☆ Gang clash leaves at least 12 dead in Ecuador prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

QUITO, April 15 (Reuters) - At least 12 inmates were killed in an Ecuadorian jail amid a new clash between gangs, the SNAI prison agency said on Saturday, in the latest chapter in the South American nation's prison violence. The confrontation occurred on Friday in the prison known as La Penitenciaría, in the city of Guayaquil, one of the country's most dangerous. The entity added that the prosecutor's office and the police are in the prison for the identification of the dead bodies. Last year, a United Nations delegation found that the violence in Ecuador's prisons was caused by years of state neglect of the penitentiary system. Friday's clash follows the murder of three female prison officers outside the prison in Guayaquil.

☆ Ecuador's Lasso authorizes civilian use of guns, citing insecurity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 2 (Reuters) - Ecuador has authorized the carrying and use of guns by civilians, President Guillermo Lasso said in a televised broadcast, citing rising crime and insecurity in the Andean country. "We have a common enemy: petty crime, drug trafficking, and organized crime," Lasso said late on Saturday in a message also posted on Twitter. To fight rising insecurity, the government will allow civilians to carry and use guns, he added. "We've modified the decree that allows the possession and carrying of guns. Lasso did not say how long the state of emergency would last.

☆ Digging with scant hope, families search for dozens missing in Ecuador landslide
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] People dig amid debris as they look for relatives, following a landslide, in Alausi, Ecuador March 28, 2023. REUTERS/Karen ToroALAUSI, Ecuador, March 28 (Reuters) - Families and rescue groups in Ecuador worked to find dozens of people still missing after a landslide smothered buildings and a stadium in the small city of Alausi, with the official death toll of seven expected to rise. Some 64 people were missing as of Monday night, according to Ecuador's disaster agency, and around 32 survivors had been rescued. Using spades, relatives dug through the dirt in spots they believe their loved ones were when the landslide hit. President Guillermo Lasso visited the area on Monday night and offered to extend the rescue efforts to find the missing.

☆ Ecuador, Belgium sign deal to fight crime after mega cocaine bust
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Karen ToroQUITO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Ecuador and Belgium on Monday agreed to increase bilateral cooperation in their fight against international organized crime, a day after Ecuadorean police seized nearly nine tonnes of drugs bound for the European country. Ecuadorean police found some 8.78 tons of cocaine hidden in a container with bananas, the organization said on Sunday. The size of the seizure over the weekend makes it necessary for Ecuador to further strengthen cooperation with the Belgian government, Ecuador's Interior Minister Juan Zapata told reporters. Of the 201 tonnes of drugs seized in Ecuador last year, almost 18% was destined for Belgium, specifically Antwerp, Zapata said. So far in 2023, Ecuador has seized some 39 tonnes of drugs, especially cocaine, according to police data.

☆ Ride-hailing app Cabify shutters Ecuador operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 15 (Reuters) - Ride-hailing application Cabify will end its operations in Ecuador in mid-March after a "constant process of analysis" on the market, the company said on Wednesday. Late last year, the company, which says it has more than 42 million registered users, said it would invest $300 million through 2024 to expand its presence in Latin America. It did not specify how many users or drivers were affected by the closure in Ecuador. Cabify, which is headquartered in Spain and a considered a "unicorn," a start-up with a valuation above 1 billion euros, is planning to go public soon. Reporting by Valentine Hilaire; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Anthony EspositoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ecuador reaches trade deal with China, aims to increase exports, Lasso says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

GUAYAQUIL, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso said on Tuesday the country has sealed a free trade deal with China, an agreement expected to increase exports and boost growth in the South American country's industrial sector. The negotiation between China and Ecuador has been successfully concluded," Lasso tweeted. With the deal, Ecuadorean exports will have preferential access to China, and the South American country's manufacturers will be able to acquire machinery and inputs at lower costs, Lasso added. Lasso has previously said the deal would secure an additional $1 billion in Ecuadorean exports to China. Between January and October 2022, Ecuadorean non-oil exports to China totaled $4.9 billion, a figure higher than any other nation with which Ecuador does export business.

☆ Ecuador not looking for new agreement with IMF, will maintain ties
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GUAYAQUIL, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Ecuador has fully financed its budget for next year and is not looking for a new credit agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country's economy minister said on Friday, adding that the government will maintain close ties with the fund. The IMF this week concluded the latest review of its $6.5 billion financing agreement with Ecuador, opening the way for a final disbursement of $700 million to the South American nation. "We have already financed next year's budget without counting on resources from a potential program with the IMF," Arosemena told reporters in Guayaquil. The IMF agreement that ends this year established goals that included tax reform, audits of public companies such as Petroecuador, anti-corruption efforts and aid to the poor. The Ecuadorian government will decide during the first quarter of 2023 if it needs a new credit agreement with the IMF.

☆ Ecuador's trade agreement with China is 'practically closed,' says Lasso
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso said on Wednesday that the country is on the verge of closing a free trade agreement with China, a deal that would increase exports and boost employment in the South American country's manufacturing industry. "A highly efficient negotiation has been carried out in less than 10 months and I can confirm that the agreement is practically closed," Lasso said during a meeting of businessmen from China and Latin America in the city of Guayaquil. The deal is set to secure an additional $1 billion in Ecuadorian exports to China. "Our industrial sectors' interests have been taken into account, having guaranteed the protection of employment in manufacturing areas," Lasso added. Ecuador also planned to sign a trade agreement this year with Mexico, to ensure its entry into the Pacific Alliance, besides agreements with South Korea and the Dominican Republic.

☆ 'I have no words': Ecuadoreans celebrate historic World Cup opener win
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Alexandra Valencia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Fans watch the open match Qatar v Ecuador during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in Ibarra, Ecuador November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Karen ToroQUITO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Thousands of euphoric Ecuadoreans celebrated on Sunday in various cities around the South American nation after the country's historic victory against host nation Qatar in the opening game of the soccer World Cup. The game marked the first time a host nation had been beaten in a World Cup opener. The first round of Group A games will be completed on Monday with the game between the Netherlands and Senegal. Ecuador will play again on Friday against the Netherlands, while Qatar will face Senegal.

☆ After rocky buildup, football ready to grab World Cup spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Steve Keating | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

As host of the Middle East's first World Cup the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is expected to welcome a star-studded guest list of celebrities and political leaders including Saudi Arabia's crown prince and the presidents of Egypt and Algeria. The controversy that has long surrounded the decision to award the tiny Gulf state the World Cup has built to a crescendo ahead of the tournament, with unrelenting scrutiny of its treatment of migrant workers and the LGBT+ community. "We are ready," Hakeem Ahmad told Reuters as he entered the stadium with his wife and two children. "Whatever happens on the pitch, the world should look kindly on us today. "We hope that after today people will see Qatar in a different light, for who we really are.

☆ Two dead in gang violence at Ecuador prison after inmate transfers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Alexandra Valencia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Soldiers guard a gate after several inmates were killed in fights between gangs, in Guayaquil, Ecuador November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Santiago ArcosQUITO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Fighting between gangs at Ecuador's most violent prison has killed at least two people, prisons agency SNAI said on Wednesday, on the heels of attacks against police over prisoner transfers. The transfers are an attempt to reduce overcrowding and improve conditions for inmates, SNAI has said. Lasso has repeatedly accused drug gangs of using violence - including inside prisons - to retaliate against his government's efforts to combat them. Ecuador's prison system has faced structural problems for decades, but jail violence has soared since late 2020, killing at least 400 people and terrorizing inmates' families.

☆ Five police killed in Ecuador; state of emergency declared
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Alexandra Valencia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Vicente Gaibor del PinoQUITO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - At least five Ecuadorean police officers were killed on Tuesday in explosive attacks in response to prisoner transfers from overcrowded and violent penitentiaries, prompting President Guillermo Lasso to declare a state of emergency in two provinces. He declared a state of emergency in Guayas and Esmeraldas provinces, where security forces will intensify operations and a curfew will come into force from 9 p.m. local time. Three other officers were killed in the city and nearby later in the day, the police said on Twitter. Three explosions were reported in Esmeraldas and seven prison officers were taken hostage by inmates in protest of prisoner transfers. read moreSNAI said 515 prisoners had so far been transferred from Guayaquil's Penitenciaria, Ecuador's most violent prison, to others around the country.

☆ Even airline employees are having trouble finding a seat home from Europe this summer
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-12 | by ( Leslie Josephs | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

International passengers walk through the arrivals area at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport on November 26, 2021 in London, England. Airlines want people to take a European vacation this summer — as long as it's not their employees. United is also telling staff about the challenges with overseas travel this summer and to prioritize customers, a spokesman said. Strains at some European airports could persist after the peak summer travel season. Correction: American Airlines has barred staff from only using their flight benefits for personal travel from London Heathrow Airport through "at least" Sept. 11.

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