Ecuador

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s president charged Friday that the Indigenous leader heading a nationwide strike is seeking to stage a coup and warned he will use all legal tools to contain the violence unleashed by the demonstrations.

In televised remarks, President Guillermo Lasso said Leonidas Iza, leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, intends to “overthrow the government.” But Lasso added that he was willing to engage in talks on ending protests that were in their 13th day.

QUITO, June 22 (Reuters) - Thousands of indigenous protesters held a peaceful march through Ecuador's capital, Quito, on Wednesday to demand that President Guillermo Lasso address price rises that have ignited 10 days of demonstrations across the country.

Disquiet over costs for fuel, food and other basics has exploded into sometimes-violent protests in several cities, led largely by major indigenous groups who traveled to Quito to protest.

QUITO, June 20 (Reuters) - Thousands of indigenous demonstrators marched through Ecuador's capital on Monday urging President Guillermo Lasso to agree to demands for economic and social support, the latest in a series of protests that have injured dozens and disrupted the economy.

Amid a surge in the cost of living, the protests began last Monday with a list of 10 demands, including a fuel price cut, preventing further expansion of Ecuador's oil and mining industry, and more time for small and medium-sized farms to pay off debt.

QUITO, June 18 (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso has declared a state of exception in three of the Andean country's provinces, in a bid to calm protests called by indigenous groups in rejection of the government's economic policies.

The measure will last for 30 days in the provinces of Imbabura, Cotopaxi, and Pichincha - areas that include capital city Quito - which have seen greater violence amid protests, with attacks on flower farms and damage to infrastructure, while police officers have also been detained by protesters.

QUITO, May 20 (Reuters) - Ecuador's former vice-president Jorge Glas, who served 4-1/2 years in prison on a bribery conviction before being released last month, was arrested on Friday by police under a court order to return him to jail.

Earlier in the day a tribunal annulledthe decision that freed him in April and ordered him back into custody.

QUITO, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency for 60 days starting from Friday in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Esmeraldas and Manabi, which have been plagued by delinquency and criminality related to drug trafficking.

Lasso announced the measure on Friday in a message broadcast live by the General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency through its official internet channels.

QUITO, March 29 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso said on Tuesday he would use decrees, referendums and other tools to meet his election promise to reactivate the country's struggling economy, bypassing the national assembly, where lawmakers have rejected his proposals.

The comments from the conservative ex-banker came after the assembly last week voted down an investment bill which Lasso's opponents decried as privatization of public assets. 

QUITO, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Ecuador expects to pull together a trade deal with China at the end of this year and will begin formal debt re-negotiations with the Asian country, Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso said on Saturday, after a Beijing visit with his counterpart Xi Jinping.

China became Ecuador's top lender over the last decade, with millions of dollars in long-term credit tied to the handover of crude oil, large investments in hydro-electric and mining projects and other loans.

QUITO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from Monday's floods in Ecuador's capital Quito rose to 26 on Thursday, with 10 people still missing and 53 injured, Mayor Santiago Guarderas said during a press conference.

A survey of the aftermath showed eight houses had collapsed and 24 sustained damage, and 27 vehicles and 22 motorcycles were damaged, along with 20 utility poles and seven substations belonging to the Quito electric company.

QUITO, Jan 3 (NNN-Xinhua) — Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced that he has appointed former presidential adviser Juan Carlos Holguin as the new minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, replacing Mauricio Montalvo, who has been serving in the position since May 24, 2021.

Lasso wrote on Twitter that Holguin assumes following the president’s decision to “entrust new functions” to Montalvo, “which will be announced tomorrow during the award ceremony with which I will thank him for his services.”