Daily coverage from across the country, written for the expat community
Ecuadorian soldiers stormed a clandestine jungle base in Esmeraldas province at dawn on February 17, capturing the Colombian leader of an Oliver Sinisterra Front cell and ten Ecuadorian members — the same FARC splinter group that kidnapped and murdered El Comercio journalists in 2018.
Ecuador's Superintendency of Companies ordered an external administrator installed at Granasa, publisher of two of the country's largest newspapers, after the company refused to hand over internal legal records. The Inter-American Press Society called it 'an intimidating act' of indirect censorship.
A mudflow of rocks and debris cascaded through the streets of Alausí on Wednesday — the third landslide event in the Chimborazo canton in just two weeks. The military has deployed to clear roads and assist evacuations as the rainy season intensifies.
Informal moneylenders continue to charge usurious interest rates in Loja’s market economy despite government programs offering subsidized microloans — a problem that traps local vendors in debt cycles and affects the cost of goods for everyone, expats included.
Quito was pounded by hail and electrical storms Wednesday afternoon, then blanketed by dense fog Thursday morning. Ecuador’s weather agency forecasts intensifying rainfall through March, raising mudslide risk in the capital’s surrounding valleys.
Manabí province’s two largest cities generated $20.5 million in tourism revenue during the four-day Carnival holiday, with Manta recording 90% hotel occupancy and the Mariana Fest alone drawing 60,000 people to El Murciélago beach.
A group of individuals dragged a dolphin ashore at Crucita beach in Manabí during Carnival and gutted it in front of dozens of tourists and a police officer. Ecuador’s Environment Minister has ordered a criminal investigation under wildlife protection laws that carry up to three years in prison.
Gunmen opened fire with more than 50 rounds at a group gathered in a northern Guayaquil park near a school late Wednesday night, killing four people aged 25 to 65 and wounding two others in the latest act of sicario violence in the city.
Ecuador’s Interior Minister announced that the La Roca maximum-security prison in Guayaquil will be repurposed exclusively for female inmates within four weeks, while construction on a massive new 15,000-bed prison facility begins at the end of Q1.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar is visiting Ecuador as part of a broader Latin American diplomatic push, with negotiations beginning on a trade agreement and expanded security cooperation including surveillance technology and agricultural innovation.
President Daniel Noboa will join five other Latin American leaders at a Trump-hosted summit in Miami on March 7, forming a regional bloc focused on countering China’s influence, boosting security cooperation, and expanding trade — with Ecuador’s new US deal as the centerpiece.
Ecuador's National Assembly voted 116–0 to censure and remove Judicial Council president Mario Godoy for 'manifest ineffectiveness' — a rare unanimous decision that could reshape how the courts handle visa cases, property disputes, and legal proceedings.
