Ecuador

Four Seasons in a Day: An Expat’s Foray Into Ecuador

Lee Polevoi

Getting across Cuenca’s busy streets feels sometimes like the Wild West, except here it’s a flood of vehicles hurtling towards defenseless pedestrians, not evenly matched gunfighters in the OK Corral. Traffic on the redondel, or roundabout, spews forth an endless stream of cars, taxis, buses and motorcycles at high speed. Stoplights and stop signs offer suggestions, not mandates. Don’t count on drivers stopping to let you across. If they do, it may be accompanied by an angry chorus of car horns. 

The Problem of Women’s Rights and Politics in Ecuador

Angelo Franco

This distinction is significant because it elucidates the current role of women in this South American country, both at the political and constituency levels. Practices and philosophies that may appear commonplace within American politics are disputably still in their infancy in Ecuador. And while women may make up 38 percent of the National Assembly in Ecuador, the power they yield to enact legislature for women’s rights remains largely dependent on the executive branch: PAIS Alliance, the president’s political platform, controls the assembly with 74 members out of 137. 

How the Assange Case Catapulted Ecuador to the Limelight

Roger Burbach and Marc Becker

Rafael Correa, the president of one of South America's smallest countries with almost 15 million inhabitants is taking a dramatic stand against Great Britain, Sweden and the United States by granting political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Correa in an address to the Ecuadorian people on Saturday said, “I don't know who they think I am or what they think our government is. But how could they expect us to yield to their threats or cower before them? My friends, they don't know who they are dealing with.”

Subscribe to RSS - Ecuador