Daily coverage from across the country, written for the expat community
Results for “Extra”Clear
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.
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.
Indigenous leader Marlon Vargas calls President Noboa's urgent mining and energy reform a threat to water, territories, and collective rights. The National Assembly has until March 2 to vote on the bill, and CONAIE is calling for unity against it.
A joint investigation by the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands confirmed that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with epibatidine — a rare neurotoxin produced by a poison dart frog native to Ecuador's southwestern Andes.
A motorcycle factory blaze on February 9, the Multicomercio building inferno on February 11 that burned for 50 hours and collapsed two towers, and a third alarm-3 fire on February 15 — all in Guayaquil within six days. The Interior Minister says the fires aren't coincidental. Here's the full timeline.
Two armed men in motorcycle helmets robbed a café on García Moreno and Vía del Ferrocarril in Cumbayá on February 9, demanding phones and belongings at gunpoint. It's the second café robbery in five weeks in the valley — after the high-profile January 7 holdup at influencer Michelle Katz's Boker Tov café that left the community shaken.
INAMHI forecasts heavy rainfall with electrical storms across most of Ecuador through February 19, with three provinces on red alert and nine on orange. The highlands face afternoon thunderstorms, the coast faces flooding risks, and four highways remain closed from earlier weather damage.
Ecuador’s largest gold mine exported a record $1.8 billion in 2025 — a 51% jump from the prior year — as gold prices topped $5,000 per ounce for the first time. Lundin Gold just announced $100 million in new exploration spending and discovered a fifth copper-gold deposit, signaling the mining boom is just getting started.
A major landslide at kilometer 36 of the Calacalí–La Independencia highway on Friday night has completely shut down one of the two main routes connecting Quito to the coast. Travelers face 7-hour detours via Alóag–Santo Domingo as Carnival weekend begins.
Everything expats need to know for the February 14-17 long weekend: tourism VAT drops from 15% to 8%, all bank branches close for four days, three highways are completely shut from landslides, domestic workers get double pay, and nearly 47,000 police officers are on the streets.
President Daniel Noboa has been invited to a Trump-hosted Latin American presidential summit on March 7 in Miami, aimed at countering Chinese influence in the region. The U.S. also highlighted Ecuador's mining potential and signed a critical minerals agreement.
Rural roads around Vilcabamba are choked with mud, drainage systems are blocked, and students in Chaguarpamba can't get to school. But there's a silver lining: the government just announced $48 million for Loja road rehabilitation, including the critical Loja-Malacatos-Vilcabamba corridor.
