ecuador

Ecuador Leader’s Motorcade Ambushed, Officials Say

September 30, 2025 12:20 pm

A humanitarian convoy led by Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa came under violent attack on Sunday night, leaving 17 soldiers kidnapped and dozens injured, according to government officials.

Spokeswoman Carolina Jaramillo said the convoy, which was delivering aid during a national strike, was ambushed in Cotacachi, Imbabura province, by around 350 people armed with Molotov cocktails. The group also included diplomats from the UN, the European Union, Italy and the Vatican.

President Noboa posted photographs of shattered windscreens on social media after the assault, blaming what he described as “armed protesters who resist Ecuador’s progress and chose violence.” He added that …

Crime Gangs Blamed As Five Die In Ecuador Blast

Crime Gangs Fingered As Five Die In Ecuador Blast

August 15, 2022 4:18 am

No fewer than five people were confirmed dead and 16 others injured following an explosion on Sunday in the port city of Guayaquil in Ecuador, an attack the government blamed on organized crime, officials said.

The President of the country, Guillermo Lasso had declared a state of emergency in the country’s second-largest city of Guayaquil following the report, where eight houses and two cars were destroyed in the blast.

Lasso had also taken Twitter to warn that his year-old government would ‘not allow organized crime to try to control the country.’

The state of emergency will be in force from …

13 Inmates Killed As Fresh Crisis Erupts In Ecuador Prison

July 20, 2022 4:42 am

No fewer than thirteen inmates have been confirmed dead and two others injured following yet another bloody fight in a notorious Ecuadoran prison yesterday, law enforcement officials have revealed.

‘Unfortunately, central command reports 13 (inmates) dead and two injured,’ the South American country’s prison authority SNAI said on Twitter.

The incident took place at the same Bellavista prison in the town of Santo Domingo de los Colorados, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Quito, where 44 inmates were killed in a bloody brawl in May.

Prison officials, aided by the military and the police, were able to regain control of …

Ecuador Moves To Cut Fuel Prices To End Weeks Of Protests

June 28, 2022 5:40 am

The embattled President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso has announced that the country will cut fuel prices, which had sparked weeks of demonstrations, though less than what the protesters have been demanding.

Speaking in a television and radio address on Tuesday, he said; ‘I have decided to reduce the price of gasoline by 10 cents per gallon and diesel also by 10 cents per gallon’.

Africa Daily News, New York reports that the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which since June 13 has been going about and blocking roads as well as occupying oil wells in different …

Coronavirus Overwhelms Ecuador, Police Pick 800 Bodies

April 13, 2020 7:02 am

Ecuador said police have removed almost 800 bodies in recent weeks from homes in Guayaquil, the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus outbreak.

The police moved in after the disease overwhelmed emergency services, hospitals and funeral parlours.

Mortuary workers in the Pacific port city have been unable to cope with a backlog, with residents posting videos on social media showing abandoned bodies in the streets.

“The number we have collected with the task force from people’s homes exceeded 700 people,” said Jorge Wated, who leads a team of police and military personnel created by the government to help with the chaos …

Ecuador Court Upholds Ex-Vice President’s Prison Sentence

October 17, 2019 10:33 am

Ecuador on Wednesday reaffirmed the six-year prison sentence given to former vice president Jorge Glas for receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks as part of a corruption scandal, the prosecutor’s office said.

Glas, who was convicted of receiving $13.5 million in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, has been imprisoned in Latacunga, south of Quito, since 2017.

The National Supreme Court of Justice declared Glas’s appeal inadmissible and so “the sentence was ratified,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

He served as the vice president under leftist Rafael Correa between 2013 and 2017 and under current president Lenin Moreno …