Timeline Ecuador
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USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ectoc.html
6000BC Researchers in 2007
reported that evidence for the use of chili peppers date back to
this time in Ecuador. Botanists if general agreed that chili peppers
originated in Bolivia. Evidence for early use was also found in the
Bahamas, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.
(SFC, 2/16/07, p.A7)
c500 The Manteno people
inhabited the area of northern Ecuador. It was believed that they
ran a vast maritime empire and traded with the Aztecs in Mexico and
made voyages of 3,000-4,000 miles. In 1998 a team led by John
Haslett (34) attempted to duplicate their maritime voyages with a
20-ton, 60-foot balsa raft.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A8)
1509-1520 The Spanish colonized the area of Nueva
Granada (modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela).
(http://homepage20.seed.net.tw/web@3/flags/wfh/pg-am-4.htm)
1533 Aug 29, Francisco Pizarro
captured Cuzco and completed his conquest of Peru. He ordered the
imprisonment and murder of Atahualpa, the last ruler of the Inca
Empire. Ruminahui (Rumanahui), a general of Atahualpa, led 15,000
soldiers into the mountains north of Quito, after Pizarro killed the
Inca emperor Atahualpa. His forces carried an estimated 70,000
man-loads of gold.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)(AP, 8/29/97)(SFEC, 7/5/98,
p.A10)(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.A15)
1534 Dec 6, Quito, Ecuador, was
founded by Spanish.
(http://worldfacts.us/Ecuador-Quito.htm)
1535 Mar 10, Bishop Tomas de
Berlanga discovered the Galapagos Islands.
(www.gct.org/history.html)
1599 In Ecuador Andres Sanchez
Gallque painted the New World’s first signed and dated portrait:
“Don Francisco de la Robe and His sons Pedro and Domingo” (The
Mulatto Gentlemen of Esmeraldas).
(WSJ, 9/21/06, p.D6)(http://tinyurl.com/zn644)
1735 A French expedition to
South America was led by Charles-Marie de la Condamine. It produced
the earliest maps of the northern part of the continent and led to
the introduction of platinum and rubber to Europe. In 2004 Robert
Whitaker authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder,
and Survival in the Amazon.” It was an account of Jean Godin
(d.1792), the expedition’s mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Grameson.
The couple married in Quito in 1741.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)(ON, 5/05, p.1)
1749 Mar, Jean Godin, French
geographer, left Quito, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru (later
Ecuador), in an attempt to reach France to settle his family estate.
He traveled by an eastern route across South America and became
stranded in French Guiana for over 20 years. In 2004 Robert Whitaker
authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and
Survival in the Amazon.” It was an account of Jean Godin (d.1792),
French mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Godin. They managed to reunite
in 1770.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)(ON, 5/05, p.4)
1769 Oct 1, Isabel Godin, the
wife of French surveyor Jean Godin, departed Riobamba, Ecuador, with
an escort of 31 Indians in an effort to reach her husband in French
Guiana.
(ON, 5/05, p.2)
1770 Jul 18, Isabel Godin,
having traveled from Ecuador the length of the Amazon, reunited with
her husband Jean Godin in French Guiana.
(ON, 5/05, p.4)
1783-1830 Simon Bolivar, called "the Liberator,"
was a leader in Venezuela for struggles of national
independence in South America. He formed a Gran Columbia that lasted
8 years but broke apart into Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.
(AHD, p.148)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.E3)
1797 Feb 4, Earthquake in
Quito, Ecuador, some killed 40,000 people. Riobamba was destroyed.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/13061c.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/btbdc)
1809 Aug 10, Ecuador struck its
first blow for independence from Spain.
(AP, 8/10/97)
1813 Apr, Captain David Porter
of the U.S. Navy sailed the USS Essex into the Galapagos Archipelago
after a six month journey around Cape Horn, eager to find a way to
help his country in their powder-keg relations with Great Britain.
Capt. Porter made his first landfall at a place called Post Office
Bay, on Charles Island, and raided the barrel there that served as
the informal but effective communications link between whaling ships
and the outside world. The primitive post box, a barrel system of
drop-off and pick-up, had been established some 20 years earlier,
but its efficiency had become well-known. Inside of half a year,
Capt. Porter and the Essex had captured 12 British whalers and
devastated the whale British industry in the Pacific, forcing a
reallocation of Royal Navy ships to far from the "home front" in
North America.
(www.terraquest.com/assignment/assignment.html)
1820 Nov 25, A truce was signed
at Trujillo. Gen. Antonio Jose de Sucre arranged the 6-month
armistice on behalf of Bolivar. It was not recognized by the Spanish
president of Quito.
(www.famousamericans.net/antoniojosedesucre/)
1822 May 24, At Battle of
Pichincha (Ecuador) General Sucre (1795-1830) won a decisive victory
against Spanish forces. Shortly after the battle, Sucre and Bolivar
entered the newly-liberated Quito and Sucre was named President of
the Province of Quito, which formed Gran Colombia with Venezuela and
Colombia.
(HN, 5/24/98)(AP,
11/24/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Jos%C3%A9_de_Sucre)
1826-1828 Gen. Antonio Jose de Sucre (1793-1830),
Venezuela-born national hero of Ecuador, served as president of
Bolivia.
(www.famousamericans.net/antoniojosedesucre/)
1828 The Republic of Gran
Colombia fell apart due to political rivalries between its
constituent provinces. Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela became
independent countries.
(ON, 3/05, p.2)
1830 Jun 4, Gen. Antonio Jose
de Sucre (b.1793), Venezuela-born national hero of Ecuador, was shot
to death near Pasto, Colombia. Ecuador’s national currency, the
sucre, was named after him.
(SFC, 9/8/00,
p.D2)(www.famousamericans.net/antoniojosedesucre/)
1830 Dec 17, Simon Bolivar
(b.1783), called "the Liberator," died of TB in Santa Marta, in
Colombia. He was a leader in Venezuela for struggles of
national independence in South America. He formed a Gran Colombia
that lasted 8 years, but broke apart into Venezuela, Colombia and
Ecuador. In 2006 John Lynch authored “Simon Bolivar: A Life.”
(AHD, p.148)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.E3)(AP,
12/17/97)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.77)
1832-1889 Juan Montalvo, Ecuadorian essayist and
political writer: "There is nothing harder than the softness of
indifference."
(AP, 7/23/99)
1835 Sep 15, HMS Beagle and
Charles Darwin reached the Galapagos Islands, a scattering of 19
small islands and scores of islets.
(SFC, 12/4/94, p.
T-5)(www.gct.org/darwinfact.html)
1835 Sep 17, Charles Darwin
landed on Chatham in the Galapagos archipelago.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1835 Sep 23, HMS Beagle sailed
to Charles Island in the Galapagos archipelago.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1835 Oct 8, HMS Beagle and
Charles Darwin reached James Island, Galapagos archipelago.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1835 Oct 20, HMS Beagle left
the Galapagos Archipelago and sailed to Tahiti.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1906 Jan 31, A magnitude 8.8
quake off the coast of Ecuador and Colombia. It generated a tsunami
that killed at least 500 people.
(AP, 2/27/10)
1922 May 29, Ecuador became
independent.
(HN, 5/29/98)
1934 Sep 1, Jose Maria Velasco
(1893-1979) began serving as president of Ecuador. He served 5
terms, but only one (1952-1956) without being ousted by the army.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_Velasco_Ibarra)
1941 Peru and Ecuador went to
war over a border conflict.
(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1942 A treaty set the
1,050-mile border between Peru and Ecuador, but a 49-mile stretch in
the Cordillera del Condor region was not demarcated.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A14)
1945 Feb 14, Peru, Paraguay,
Chile and Ecuador joined the United Nations.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1947 Feb 12, A record 100.5-kg
sailfish was caught by C.W. Stewart off the Galapagos Islands,
Ecuador.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1949 Feb 13, A mob burned a
radio station in Ecuador after the broadcast of H.G. Wells’ "War of
the Worlds."
(HN, 2/13/98)
1952 Feb 26, The U.S. signed a
military aid pact with Ecuador.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1956 In Ecuador members of the
Auca tribe killed 5 missionary men of the Plymouth Brethren. The
Auca are also known as Tagaeri or Jivaro.
(WSJ, 1/17/03, p.W13)(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W2)
1957 Rolf Blomberg published
"Buried Treasure and the Anacondas," an account of the search for
Inca treasure in the Llanganati Mountains, Ecuador.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A10)
1959 Ecuador turned 97% of the
Galapagos Islands into a national park.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
1959 Ecuador’s population
was estimated at 4.1 million.
(WUD, 1994, p. 453)
1960 Carlos Julio Arosemena
(d.2004), was elected vice president of Ecuador.
(AP, 3/5/04)
1961 Carlos Julio Arosemena
(d.2004) rose to the presidency of Ecuador following the ouster of
President Velasco Ibarra in a military coup.
(AP, 3/5/04)
1961 Nicole Hughes Maxwell
(d.1998 at 92) wrote "Witch Doctor’s Apprentice: Hunting for
Medicinal Plants in the Amazon," an account of her experiences in
the upper Amazon with native Indians and their medicines. She was a
founder of the Ecuadoran Institute of Geography and Ethnology.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, p.B6)
1963 Carlos Julio Arosemena,
president of Ecuador, was deposed in a military coup.
(AP, 3/5/04)
1964-1992 Texaco dumped some 18 billion gallons of
toxic waste into open pits, estuaries and rivers and allegedly
polluted some 2.5 million acres of pristine rain forest. Texaco
merged with Chevron in 2001 and a suit over the toxic waste went to
trial in Ecuador in 2003.
(SFC, 5/1/03, A8)(SFC, 10/21/03, p.A3)
1972 Feb 15, A left-leaning
military coup in Ecuador, led by Guillermo Rodríguez Lara,
removed, Pres. Velasco Ibarra from office for the fifth time.
Military rule continued to 1979.
(www.yachana.org/indmovs/chronology.php)(WSJ,
12/6/95, p.A-1)(USAT, 2/11/97, p.5A)
1978 Jul 3, The Amazon Pact was
established. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru,
Suriname, and Venezuela signed the Amazon Pact, a Brazilian
initiative designed to coordinate the joint development of the
Amazon Basin.
(http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Amazon+Pact)
1978 UNESCO named Ecuador’s 19
Galapagos Islands a World Heritage Site.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)(Econ, 8/28/10, p.49)
1979 Apr 29, Democracy was
restored in Ecuador. Jaime Roldos Aguilera was elected as president
in a 2nd round of voting. He was killed in plane crash in 1981.
(AP, 4/21/05)(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.39)(www.binghamton.edu/cdp/era/elections/ecu79pres.html)
1981-1984 Osvaldo Hurtado, Jaime Roldos' vice
president, served as president of Ecuador.
(AP, 4/21/05)
1982 Ten goats were abandoned
on Ecuador’s Galapagos Isabella Island and by 2002 increased to over
100,000.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
1984-1988 Leon Febres Cordero as president of
Ecuador.
(AP, 4/21/05)
1984 Abdala Bucaram was elected
mayor of Guayaquil, the Ecuador’s largest city. He left the country
shortly thereafter when an arrest warrant was issued for him for
insulting the armed forces. He had said that the army was useless
and wasted half the nation’s budget on marching in the country’s
independence day parade.
(WSJ, 7/3/96, p.A8)
1987 Mar 13, The president of
Ecuador announced his country had suspended payments on its foreign
debt after earthquakes killed hundreds of people and ruptured the
country's main oil pipeline. The quake destroyed nearly 25 miles of
oil pipeline.
(AP, 3/13/97)(SFC, 5/1/03, A8)
1987 In Ecuador members of the
Tagaeri tribe killed Spanish Bishop Alejandro Lavaca and Colombian
nun Ines Arango with poison-tipped spears. The 2 had been dropped in
by an oil company helicopter to bring the word of god and discuss
the arrival of oil workers.
(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W2)
1988 Febres Cordero's four-year
presidential term ended, but as the combative leader of the rightist
Social Christians, Ecuador's largest and best organized party, he
continued to dominate Congress and the courts for the next 15 years.
(AP, 10/9/06)
1988-1992 Rodrigo Borja served as president of
Ecuador.
(AP, 4/21/05)
1991-1993 Ecuador’s government overestimated
domestic crude oil demand and to boost its share of production from
Texaco operated wells. It then sold the oil on int’l. markets
depriving Texaco of profits. In 2011 Chevron, which acquired Texaco
in 2001, won a $96 million judgement against Ecuador.
(SFC, 9/1/11, p.D3)
1991-1995 Argentina shipped weapons to Ecuador and
Croatia. The guns were initially shipped to Panama and Bolivia and
the Argentine government later blamed arms dealers for their
diversion.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A24)
1992 Aug 10, Sixto Duran Ballen
(b.1921), US-born architect, began serving as president of Ecuador.
His term lasted to 1996.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixto_Dur%C3%A1n_Ball%C3%A9n)
1992 Ecuador left OPEC, after
nearly two decades of membership, with an outstanding debt of $5.7
million. In 2007 it planned to rejoin OPEC.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.A11)
1992 Texaco quit drilling in
Ecuador after nearly 30 years. It left behind a toxic dump of some
1.8 million gallons of spilled crude oil.
(SFC, 5/1/03, A8)
1994 Luis Noboa died at the age
of 78. The Noboas family dominated the banana business in Ecuador.
(WSJ, 12/6/95, p.A-1)
1995 Ecuador’s population was
11 million people of which about 3 million earned their livelihood
from the banana business.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-10)
1995 Ecuador engaged in a
border war with Peru. Ecuador defended the Tiwintza Hill against a
Peruvian assault. Argentine arms were transported to Ecuador by the
US Fine Air airline owned by Barry and Lary Fine. The Fine brothers
were tried in absentia in Lima in 1997.
(SFC,10/22/97, p.A10)(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A12)
1996 Mar 29, An earthquake in
central Ecuador killed 29 people.
(SFC, 4/6/96, p.A-13)
1996 May 20, In Ecuador
elections were held to replace Pres. Sixto Duran Ballen, Christian
Democrat Jaime Nebot led but a runoff was possible.
(WSJ, 5/20/96, P.A1)(SFC, 2/8/97, p.A11)
1996 Jul 7, In Ecuador lawyer
Abdala Bucaram, aka El Loco, was elected president with 54% of the
vote. He led the center-left Roldosista party
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug, Ecuador’s Pres.
Bucaram invited Lorena Bobbit, famous for slashing off her American
husband’s penis, to lunch at the national palace.
(SFC, 2/7/97, p.A1,19)
1996 Oct 12, Ecuador’s Pres.
Abdala Bucaram released his debut Rock ‘n’ Roll CD this week: "A
Madman in Love."
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 22, In Quito, Ecuador,
a Boeing 707 cargo plane crashed after takeoff when it struck the
bell tower of the La Dolorosa Church and burst into flames. At least
10 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.A10)
1996 The Argentine oil firm
Compania General de Combustibles (CGC) received a contract to drill
for oil in Sarayaca, Ecuador, home to some 2,000 Quichua Indians.
Natives fended off oil drilling well into 2004.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.W1)
1996 Fishermen in the Galapagos
islands slit the throats of 9 giant tortoises on Santa Cruz Island
to protest government quotas on sea cucumbers.
(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.A34)
1997 Feb 5, Hundreds of
thousands began a 48-hour general strike against Ecuador’s Pres.
Abdala Bucaram to protests economic austerity, nepotism and
corruption.
(SFC, 2/6/97, p.C2)
1997 Feb 6, Ecuador’s Congress
voted to remove Pres. Abdala Bucaram from office on the grounds of
"mental incapacity." Fabian Alarcon was chosen by Congress to
replace him. Bucaram’s vice-president, Rosalia Arteaga, said she was
assuming the presidency.
(SFC, 2/7/97, p.A1,19)
1997 Feb 9, An agreement was
reached to have Rosalia Arteaga serve as interim president of
Ecuador until the passing of a constitutional amendment to elect a
successor.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 7, Ecuador’s Supreme
Court charged Bucaram with corruption, embezzlement, nepotism and
influence peddling. When ousted Pres. Abdala Bucaram abandoned the
presidential palace in Feb., he walked out with 11 burlap bags
allegedly stuffed with $3 million.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A9)
1997 Apr 9, Ecuador’s Supreme
Court ordered the arrest of former president Abdala Bucaram and his
aide Marco Albuja on charges of misusing presidential funds.
(SFC, 4/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Nov 22, It was reported
that flooding and mudslides in Ecuador had killed 27 people over the
last 3 weeks.
(SFC,11/22/97, p.C2)
1997-1998 Fabian Alarcon, president of Congress,
replaced Bacaram as president of Ecuador.
(AP, 4/21/05)
1998 Jan 19, Peru and Ecuador
signed an accord pledging to settle their longtime 49-mile border
conflict by May.
(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1998 May 28, In Ecuador Simon
Bolivar Chanalata, a hotel clerk, engaged in a fight with 2 US
sailors who were visiting while on a naval exercise. Chanalata died
6 days later and his family filed a $1.5 million suit against the US
Navy. The 2 Navy men faced charges of involuntary manslaughter.
(SFC, 4/16/99, p.D5)
1998 May 31, Alvaro Noboa,
scion of the Ecuador’s wealthiest family, made a run for the
presidency in the first round of elections. Jamil Mahuad led the
elections with 36.7%, but failed to get a majority. Alvaro Noboa had
29.8%. A runoff was scheduled for Jul 12.
(SFC, 5/28/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 12, In Ecuador Jamil
Mahuad, the mayor of Quito, won the election according to exit
polls. His margin was 51.3% to 48.7 and he promised to fight
poverty.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A7)(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A9)
1998 Aug 5, In Ecuador 2
earthquakes struck the coast at Bahia de Caraquez and killed 3
people.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A14)
1998 Aug 21, It was reported
that a comprehensive treaty between Ecuador and Peru had been
drafted and only required political will to end the 57-year-old
conflict. The military in Ecuador held 23 large companies in areas
such as auto assembly, shrimping, mining, oil and hotels.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A15)
1998 Aug 29, In Quito, Ecuador,
a Cuban plane with 90 people onboard crashed. 80 people were killed
including 5 children playing on the ground. At least 8 people
survived the crash of the Russian-made Tupelov-154.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.A15)(SFC, 8/31/98, p.A10)(AP,
8/29/08)
1998 Sep 14, Ecuador allowed
its currency, the sucre, to drop by almost 10%. Pres. Jamil Mahuad
outlined a new emergency economic package. The currency devaluation
went to 15% and a new austerity eliminated power subsidies.
Welfare coupons for $17 were to be issued to the poor beginning Nov
1.
(WSJ, 9/15/98, p.A17)(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A17)
1998 Sep 15, In the Galapagos
Islands the Cerro Azul volcano on Isabela Island began erupting and
threatened turtle colonies.
(SFC, 9/18/98, p.D8)
1998 Sep 23, Demonstrations in
Quito, Ecuador, erupted over the devaluation of the sucre. Unions
called for a national strike for Oct 1.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.T11)
1998 Oct 16, Lawmakers in
Ecuador and Peru agreed to let their border dispute be resolved by
the US, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 23, Peru and Ecuador
settled their border dispute with a line along the Cordellera de
Condor mountain range. Contiguous national parks were to be created
in the disputed area. Tiwintza Hill, allocated to Peru, was to be
granted as private property to Ecuador.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 26, Ecuador and Peru
signed a peace treaty in Brazil and settled their land dispute. The
agreement defined a 49-mile border left undrawn in a 1942 treaty.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B5)(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1998 Dec 2, Filanbanco,
Ecuador’s largest bank, was turned over to the federal government
with net losses of $661 million US dollars. Owners Roberto and
William Isaias fled to the US owing $661 million to the state
Deposit Guarantee Agency.
(www.ecuador-investing.com/rafael-correa/filanbanco/)(Econ, 7/12/08,
p.48)
1998 Ecuador adopted a
constitution that gave indigenous communities the right to settle
internal conflicts according to their traditions.
(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W2)
1998 Ecuador passed the Special
Law to enhance protection for the Galapagos Islands.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
1998 Ecuador’s sucre fell
54.13% this year.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1998 Texaco completed a $40
million oil cleanup in Ecuador. The Ecuadoran government,
PetroEcuador and 5 municipalities released the company from all
liabilities and obligations related to its oil operations. A
class-action suit against ChevronTexaco opened in 2003.
(SFC, 10/21/03, p.A3)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.42)
1998-2000 Jamil Mahuad served as president of
Ecuador. He driven from office after 16 months.
(AP, 4/21/05)
1999 Jan 29, Ecuador’s Pres.
Jamil Mahuad declared a large area of the Amazon jungle off limits
to oil drilling, lumbering, mining and colonization. The decree
strengthened legislation controlling the exploitation of the 2.7
million acres of Cuyabeno-Imuya and Yasuni national parks.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 17, In Ecuador
legislator Jaime Hurtado was shot dead along with 2 aides in Quito.
(WSJ, 2/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb, In Ecuador Ana Lucia
Armijos (50) took office as the Minister of Finance.
(WSJ, 5/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 3, In Ecuador the
sucre fell 14% and the Banco del Occidente closed due to liquidity
problems.
(WSJ, 3/4/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 8, Ecuador’s
government declared a banking holiday to deal with the plunging
currency.
(WSJ, 3/9/99, p.A17)
1999 Mar 9, Ecuador declared a
60-day state of emergency prompted by the economic crises.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 10, Two days of
general strikes were scheduled in Ecuador.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 11, In Ecuador Pres.
Mahuad announced tax increases and other harsh measures to fight the
economic crises.
(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 15, In Ecuador the
banks reopened as taxi drivers protested the doubling of gas prices.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 16, In Ecuador former
Pres. Fabian Alarcon was arrested on charges that he loaded the
state payroll with phantom employees while serving as the head of
Congress.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C3)
1999 Mar 18, In Ecuador Pres.
Mahuad revoked the decree doubling gas prices under protests from
taxi drivers.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A14)
1999 Apr 30, Ecuador reached an
agreement with the IMF for a $900 million loan package.
(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A1,16)
1999 May 13, Ecuador and Peru
signed a treaty settling their 50-year border dispute over a 50 mile
stretch in the Amazon jungle.
(WSJ, 5/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 26, In Ecuador Pres.
Jamil Mahuad announced that only interest on bonds not guaranteed by
the US Treasury would be paid. A $98 million payment interest
payment on its Brady bonds was due the next day.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.C16)
1999 Sep 30, Ecuador defaulted
on a $44.5 million Brady bond interest payment. Debt restructuring
plans were underway.
(WSJ, 10/1/99, p.A13)
1999 Oct 6, One person died as
the Pichincha volcano dumped 5,000 tons of ash over the city of
Quito, Ecuador.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.C2)
1999 Oct 16, In Ecuador some
25,000 people were evacuated from the area of Tungurahua volcano.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A24)
1999 Nov 25, Ecuador’s
15,728-foot-high Guagua Pichincha volcano had a major eruption.
(SFC, 4/15/00, p.A26)
1999 Nov, Ecuador’s Pres.
Mahuad agreed to a 10-year deal with the US for a $62 million
upgrade of the Air Force base at Manta as an advance post for
combating narco traffic. In 2006 president-elect Rafael Correa said
he would not renew the lease.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B2)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.52)
1999-2000 In Ecuador some 750,000 people migrated
after bank collapses triggered a slump.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.42)
2000 Jan 6, In Ecuador police
broke up a march in Quito where people demanded the ouster of Pres.
Mahuad following a state of emergency and currency plunge.
(WSJ, 1/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 10, Ecuador announced
that its currency, the sucre, would be replaced with the US dollar.
The sucre recently plunged to 29,000 to the dollar.
(SFC, 1/11/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 17, In Ecuador police
broke up a march by oil workers in Quito as some 30,000 troops were
deployed in fears of unrest.
(WSJ, 1/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 21, In Ecuador the
military demanded the resignation of Pres. Jamil Mahuad and declared
itself in charge through a 3-man junta that included Gen. Carlos
Mendoza, indigenous leader Antonio Vargas and former Supreme Court
Chief Carlos Solorzano.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 22, In Ecuador Vice
President Gustavo Noboa took over as president under int'l. pressure
against the civilian-military junta.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.A21)
2000 Jan 27, Hundreds of
military officers were arrested or detained for their role in
toppling Ecuador’s Pres. Mahuad. Gustavo Noboa named a finance chief
who would press to make dollars the country's currency.
(WSJ, 1/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 1, In Ecuador the
Congress passed legislation to replace the sucre with US dollars in
a bid to end a recession.
(WSJ, 3/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 9, In Ecuador Pres.
Noboa signed a bill that made the US dollar the official currency.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D6)
2000 Apr 1, Ecuador’s
transition to the dollar began.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 13, The dollar was
scheduled for use in all banking operations in Ecuador.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 13, Ecuador’s Supreme
Court ordered the arrest of ousted president Jamil Mahuad on charges
of illegally freezing bank accounts in Mar, 1999. The court also
called for the arrest of former finance minister Ana Lucia Armijos.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A13)
2000 Sep 8, In Ecuador the
dollar became the official currency for business transactions.
Sucres would still be exchangeable at banks for 6 months. Inflation
for the year was projected to be at least 85.4%.
(SFC, 9/8/00, p.D2)
2000 Sep 13, All Ecuadoran
sucre bills were scheduled for withdrawal from circulation.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 12, In Ecuador
suspected Columbian FARC guerrillas kidnapped 5 Americans and 5
other foreign oil workers, hijacked a helicopter, and crossed back
to Columbia. It was later suspected that the kidnappers were
Ecuadoran criminals rather than Colombian guerrillas. One American
was later killed and 2 Frenchmen escaped. 7 were released Mar 1,
2000.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A17)(SFC, 10/20/00, p.D8)(WSJ,
2/2/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/2/01, p.A16)
2000 Oct 21, Ecuador reported
that a melting glacier on El Altar volcano caused a lagoon to burst
its banks and a mudslide that killed at least 10 people.
(SFC, 10/21/00, p.D8)
2000 Nov, Fishermen in the
Galapagos islands turned a 4-day strike on lobster quotas and
rampaged on the islands of Santa Cruz, San Cristobal and Isabela.
(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.A27)
2000 Dec 13, In Ecuador an oil
pipeline bombing killed 8 bus passengers near the Colombian border.
(WSJ, 12/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec, Ecuador was burdened
with $13 billion in foreign debt.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B2)
2000-2002 Gustavo Noboa, Mahuad's vice president,
served as president of Ecuador.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2001 Jan 16, The Ecuadoran
tanker Jessica with 243,000 gallons of fuel, ran aground on San
Cristobal island in the Galapagos.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, The tanker
Jessica, aground on Ecuador’s San Cristobal island, cracked its
cargo hold and began leaking fuel. Some 150,000 gallons of diesel
and bunker fuel were released. It was later learned that the oil
caused the deaths of thousands of marine iguanas.
(SFC, 1/22/01, p.A10)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A2)
2001 Feb 1, In Sucumbios,
Ecuador, Ronald Clay Sander (54), an oil technician from Missouri,
was found shot to death. He had been kidnapped in October and 7 more
hostages were still held.
(SFC, 2/2/01, p.D2)
2001 Feb 5, Soldiers in Ecuador
battled Indians opposed to fuel and public transportation increases.
The Red Cross said 4 Indians died.
(WSJ, 2/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 1, In Ecuador 7
foreign oil workers (a Chilean, an Argentine, a New Zealander and
four Americans), kidnapped last October, were released following a
$13 million ransom.
(SFC, 3/2/01, p.A16)(AP, 3/1/02)
2001 Jun 12, A mudslide killed
36 stranded motorists in the Ecuador Andes. The deaths raised to 41
the total dead from recent heavy storms.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.D4)
2002 Jan 17, An Ecuadoran
oil-company plane crashed in Colombia and all 26 aboard were feared
dead. The plane was found Jan 24 with no survivors.
(WSJ, 1/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A15)
2002 Jan 28, An Ecuadoran TAME
Airlines Boeing 727-100 crashed along the Colombia border with 92
people aboard. The wreckage was found on a glacier of the Nevado de
Cumbal volcano and there were no survivors.
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A8)(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 31, Ecuador designated
a 557 sq-km (215 sq-mi) area in the Amazon rainforest the Cofan
Ecological Reserve. Field Museum scientists from Chicago assisted
Cofan Indians and Ecuadoran scientists by cataloging the species in
the area and declaring it to be the most biologically diverse
mountain range in the world.
(EB, 2002, p.11)
2002 Feb, Millennium Hotels
fully-opened its luxurious 17-suite Royal Palm Resort on 400 acres
of the Galapagos Islands.
(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.C12)
2002 May 18, It was reported
that the US-funded Plan Colombia had caused widespread crop damage
in Ecuador. The coca leaf fumigation affected some 10,000
Ecuadorians along the Colombia border where the RoundupUltra
herbicide was spread by Colombian airplanes.
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A11)
2002 Jun 24, In Ecuador Finance
Minister Carlos Julio Emanuel resigned amid allegations of
corruption within the ministry.
(AP, 6/24/02)
2002 Jul 16, In Ecuador Julia
Butterfly Hill was arrested with 7 other demonstrators in Quito for
protesting a proposed oil pipeline from the Amazon Basin to the port
of Esmeraldas that would run through the Mindo-Nambillo Reserve.
Hill was deported July 18.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A12)(SFC, 7/19/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 16, In Ecuador rains
caused a landslide that buried 11 vehicles including a bus with 40
people.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A15)
2002 Jul 26, In Guayaquil,
Ecuador, South American presidents gathered for a 2nd region-wide
summit in the face of political instability and economic turmoil.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Oct 20, In Ecuador at
least five candidates had a shot at qualifying for a runoff spot in
presidential elections. With 53 percent of the votes counted, Lucio
Gutierrez (45) a dismissed army colonel, led with 19% of the vote.
Banana magnate Alvaro Noboa (51) Ecuador's richest businessman, was
close behind with 17.6%.
(AP, 10/20/02)(AP, 10/21/02)
2002 Oct 31, The US enacted the
Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) as a
replacement for the similar Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). It
granted duty-free access to a wide range of exports from Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_Trade_Promotion_and_Drug_Eradication_Act)
2002 Nov 20, In Riobamba,
Ecuador, a series of explosions at an ammunition depot left at least
7 people dead and 140 injured.
(WSJ, 11/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Nov 24, In Ecuador Lucio
Gutierrez (45), who led a Jan 2000 coup against Pres. Jamil Mahuad,
was elected over billionaire Alvaro Noboa (52) in a runoff election.
He was driven from office after 27 months
(SSFC, 11/24/02, p.F1)(AP, 11/25/02)(SFC,
11/25/02, p.A3)
2002 Michael D’Orso authored
"Plundering Paradise: The Hand of Man on the Galapagos Islands."
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
2002 About 60% of Ecuador's 12
million people lived in cities. 60% of Ecuadorians were mixed-race,
30% Indian, 3% black and 7% of European or other descent. More than
60% of the population lived in poverty. 95% were Roman Catholic.
2003 Mar 8, The
presidents of Peru and Ecuador inaugurated a bridge connecting the
two nations. The $1.8-million bridge spans the Canchis River near
the Peruvian town of Namballe, 500 miles northeast of Lima.
(AP, 3/9/03)
2003 May 18, Ecuadorian
anti-drug agents seized three tons of cocaine in one of the nation's
largest drug seizures ever. In Oct 2001 police seized 3.2 tons in
Guayaquil.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 26, In Ecuador 9
renegade Huaorani killed 26 members of the Tagaeri tribe. They
justified the massacre as payback for a 1993 murder. Huaorani elders
pardoned all attackers. Loggers were suspected as influencing the
Huaorani.
(AP, 5/29/03)(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W1)
2003 Aug 11, The Dominican
Republic granted asylum to former Ecuadorian President Gustavo
Noboa, who has been under investigation for allegedly mishandling
his country's foreign debt negotiations and costing the country $9
billion.
(AP, 8/12/03)
2003 Aug 21, In Ecuador some
1000 Indians and union workers marched through Quito, protesting the
economic policies of President Lucio Gutierrez.
(AP, 8/21/03)
2003 Sep 8, In Ecuador
spokesman Marcelo Cevallos said Pres. Lucio Gutierrez will set a
national example and start showing up on time for meetings and
appointments in an effort to combat a national lack of punctuality.
Cevallos apologized to the audience for showing up late for the
interview.
(AP, 9/9/03)
2003 Oct 21, In Ecuador, a
decade after Texaco pulled out of the Amazon jungle, the US
petroleum giant went on trial in a lawsuit filed on behalf of 30,000
poor Ecuadorians.
(AP, 10/21/03)
2003 Oct, In Ecuador Cesar
Fernandez, former governor of a coastal province, was arrested for
exporting almost half a ton of cocaine to Mexico. Allegation later
arose that Fernandez had contributed to the election campaign of
Pres. Lucio Gutierrez.
(Econ, 11/29/03, p.35)
2003 Oct, Transparency
International ranked Ecuador as the 2nd most corrupt country in
Latin America.
(Econ, 11/1/03, p.36)
2003 Dec 11, In Ecuador
teachers striking for raises and parents demanding better schools
clashed with police in protests that sought symbolically to take
over the capital's downtown.
(AP, 12/11/03)
2004 Jan 2, Ecuadorian
authorities captured Ricardo Ovidio Palmera Pineda, aka Simon
Trinidad, one of the 7 members who make up the ruling secretariat of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. He was arrested
at dawn in a medical clinic in Ecuador.
(AP, 1/3/04)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.30)
2004 Jan 9, In Ecuador about 20
women inmates stripped off clothing and protested from their
Guayaquil Prison roof, claiming they've been held for more than a
year without trial and should be freed.
(AP, 1/9/04)
2004 Feb 2, The US ambassador
to Ecuador said the US will withhold $15 million in military aid to
Ecuador for not signing an agreement granting US military members
immunity from an international court.
(AP, 2/2/04)
2004 Jan 15, Ecuador's
government declared a state of emergency in the prison system after
a series of protests.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2004 Feb 17, In Ecuador riot
police firing tear gas clashed with hundreds of Indian protesters,
leaving at least 17 people injured in the second day of
demonstrations demanding more roads and better education for
isolated Andean communities. Separately prison inmates held 360
visitors hostage to protest overcrowding, long sentences and poor
conditions including a lack of running water.
(AP, 2/17/04)
2004 Mar 5, Carlos Julio
Arosemena (84), one-time president of Ecuador whose term ended in a
1963 military coup, died. Elected vice president in 1960, Arosemena
rose to the presidency following the ouster of President Velasco
Ibarra a year later in a military coup.
(AP, 3/5/04)
2004 Apr 6, In Ecuador in the
midst of a national strike by prison guards, inmates in Quito's
women's prison took two television news crews hostage to press their
demands for shorter sentences and better living conditions.
(AP, 4/6/04)
2004 May 18, Colombia, Ecuador
and Peru opened negotiations in Cartagena for a free trade accord
with the United States as anti-riot police clashed with protesters
who say the pact would lead to job losses in the South American
nations.
(AP, 5/18/04)
2004 Jun 1, Ecuador's Finance
Minister Mauricio Pozo resigned, leaving struggling President Lucio
Gutierrez to find a replacement to lead an economic policy approved
by international lenders but unpopular at home.
(AP, 6/1/04)
2004 Jun 1, Ecuador hosted the
Miss Universe pageant. Jennifer Hawkins, a 20-year-old, blue-eyed
Australian, was named Miss Universe 2004.
(AP, 6/2/04)
2004 Jun 7, In Ecuador Indians
blocked the Pan American Highway. They demanded the resignation of
Pres. Gutierrez as he hosted an OAS meeting.
(WSJ, 6/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 8, In Ecuador foreign
ministers from around the Americas declared war on the deeply
ingrained corruption in the region at the end of a two-day meeting
in Quito.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 29, In Ecuador 33
prisoners, some armed with assault rifles and knives, battled their
way out the front door of Quito's main prison in an escape that left
4 inmates and a guard dead.
(AP, 6/29/04)
2004 Sep 27, Galapagos park
rangers ended a 17-day protest after Ecuador's government fired a
new park director the rangers claimed favored commercial fishing
over the islands' unique environment.
(AP, 9/27/04)
2004 Oct 19, UN officials
warned that the spread of AIDS in Ecuador's most populated province
is reaching levels comparable to Africa and the Caribbean a decade
ago and could mushroom into a national epidemic if left unchecked.
(AP, 10/20/04)
2004 Nov, In Ecuador former
government allies failed in an attempt to impeach Pres. Gutierrez.
An ad hoc alliance between the populist Roldosista Party and banana
magnate Alvaro Noboa sacked most of the Supreme Court.
(Econ, 4/9/05, p.30)
2004 Dec 8, In Quito, Ecuador,
inmates in the largest prison took 180 visitors hostage to protest
what they called overcrowding, poor conditions and long sentences.
(AP, 12/9/04)
2005 Feb 16, In Ecuador tens of
thousands of protesters gathered near Quito's presidential palace to
demand President Lucio Gutierrez's resignation, accusing him of
authoritarian rule and with packing the supreme court with his own
judges.
(AP, 2/17/05)
2005 Feb 21, Ecuador opened the
door to a U.N. probe into President Lucio Gutierrez's dismissal of
the country's Supreme Court after the UN made a rare public appeal
for an investigation.
(Reuters, 2/21/05)
2005 Mar 23, Police fired tear
gas into Ecuador's Congress before dawn to disperse opposition
lawmakers who refused to leave after a legislative session that cut
short a debate on candidates for attorney general.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 31, The president of
Ecuador's Supreme Court annulled corruption charges against former
President Abdala Bucaram, paving the way for his possible return
from political asylum in Panama.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 2, Ecuador's former
president Abdala Bucaram returned home after spending eight years in
exile in Panama, telling thousands that he plans to lead a
"revolution of the poor" modeled after President Hugo Chavez'
Venezuela.
(AP, 4/3/05)
2005 Apr 15, Ecuador’s Pres.
Lucio Gutierrez declared a state of emergency in Quito and dissolved
the Supreme Court, saying the unpopular judges were the cause of
three days of pot-banging street protests.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 16, Ecuador’s Pres.
Lucio Gutierrez revoked the one-day-old state of emergency as
thousands of people took to Quito's streets in defiance of the ban
on demonstrations.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 18, In Ecuador
anti-government protests spread from Quito as a river of
demonstrators poured into the streets of Guayaquil to demand that
President Lucio Gutierrez step down.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 19, Hours after
Ecuador's embattled President Lucio Gutierrez said he would not
resign, at least 30,000 people tried to march to the presidential
palace in the capital's largest demonstration yet against the
country's leadership, demanding that Gutierrez resign.
(AP, 4/20/05)
2005 Apr 20, Ecuador’s
100-member Congress voted 60 to 0 to remove President Lucio
Gutierrez from office amid street protests calling for his ouster
for abuse of power and misrule. Brazil granted asylum to Gutierrez.
Alfredo Palacio, a heart surgeon and Ecuador's vice president,
assumed the presidency.
(SFC, 4/21/05, p.A3)(Econ, 4/23/05, p.37)
2005 May 9, In Ecuador former
President Gustavo Noboa was placed under house arrest on charges he
mishandled Ecuador's foreign debt negotiations during his three-year
term.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 Jun 21, In Ecuador police
reported the break up an international cocaine ring led by a
Lebanese restaurant owner suspected of raising money for Hezbollah,
the Shiite Muslim group the U.S. classifies as a terrorist
organization.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 23, Ecuador’s foreign
minister said his country will not sign a pact to grant US military
personnel special immunity from the International Criminal Court,
even if that means more aid cuts from Washington.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 24, Ecuador inmates
stepped up a protest for improved conditions. Some prisoners were
voluntarily hung from crosses and others using their blood to scrawl
out demands.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Aug 12, A small boat
overloaded with 113 illegal immigrants capsized and sank in rough
waters off Colombia's Pacific coast. An Ecuadoran fishing boat found
9 survivors 2 days later. In Nov. Ecuadoran police arrested a
married couple for being part of a gang of 11 human traffickers who
charged as much as $12,000 per person for passage to the US.
(AP, 8/18/05)(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Aug 18, Ecuador’s
president said protests have completely halted national oil
production despite imposition of emergency rule in 2 Amazon
provinces.
(WSJ, 8/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 19, Ecuador’s defense
minister quit.
(WSJ, 8/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 21, Protests in
Ecuador's northeast Amazon region that brought oil production to a
halt were suspended after demonstrators and the government agreed to
a truce.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 24, Government
officials from Ecuador and Venezuela singed a preliminary agreement
by which Venezuela would lend Ecuador a million barrels of crude oil
between September and October. A loan of naphtha and diesel was also
part of the deal.
(WSJ, 8/25/05, p.A7)
2005 Sep 30, South American
presidents committed themselves to establishing a continental free
trade zone. The South American summit was attended by the presidents
of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and
Argentina.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Oct 5, Hurricane Stan
knocked down trees, ripped roofs off homes and washed out bridges in
southeastern Mexico, but it was the storms it helped spawn that were
far more destructive, killing more than 65 people in Central
America. Officials in El Salvador said 49 people had been killed,
mostly due to two days of mudslides sparked by rains. 9 people died
in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadorians
killed in a boat accident. Four deaths were reported in Honduras,
three in Guatemala and one in Costa Rica.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 4, Colombia granted
political asylum to former Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez, who
has said he faces treason charges in his homeland.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 13, Lucio Gutierrez,
ousted Ecuadorian President said he was renouncing his asylum in
Colombia and would return to his own country, where he faces arrest,
and attempt to regain power.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 14, Lucio Gutierrez,
former Ecuador president who was ousted from office, returned to
Ecuador in a bid to regain power, but he was arrested moments after
his plane landed.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 26, In Ecuador Jose
Cabrera, a 71-year-old provincial notary, died in a luxury hotel
room and left behind a teenage girlfriend, who later said he'd been
on cocaine and Viagra, and a crumbling $800 million pyramid scheme
that soon blossomed into a nationwide scandal.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Nov 30, Ecuador swore in a
new Supreme Court, seven months after former President Lucio
Gutierrez dismissed the entire bench, a move that led to his ouster.
(AP, 11/30/05)
2006 Jan 12, In Ecuador police
used tear gas to disperse about 2,000 demonstrators after they
burned an American flag in front of the government palace to protest
a free trade pact with the United States.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Feb 8, A deputy minister
said Ecuador is not likely to extend a deal that allows the
United States to use an anti-narcotics air base on its territory due
to a surge in sentiment against the American military presence.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Ecuador 2 dozen
pipeline workers held hostage by protesters escaped as soldiers and
police battled to end violent demonstrations that have interrupted
the flow of crude through the country's two main pipelines.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Mar 3, In Ecuador a judge
released former President Lucio Gutierrez from prison, ruling he
broke no law by accusing his successor of conspiring to oust him
from power.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 8, In Ecuador soldiers
fired tear gas to disperse rock-throwing oil workers, hours after
President Alfredo Palacio declared a state of emergency in three
jungle provinces to quell a strike and regain control of oil
installations.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 15, Alfredo Castillo,
Ecuador's interior minister, resigned as protests over a US free
trade plan spread from the Andean highlands to the oil-producing
southeast jungle, where police clashed with demonstrators. His
comments appeared to support the protesters and showed disloyalty to
Pres. Palacio.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 16, Ecuador's Supreme
Court released former President Gustavo Noboa from house arrest
after reducing charges against him for allegedly mishandling the
country's foreign debt negotiations during his three-year term.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Ecuador police
fired tear gas at dozens of Indian demonstrators trying to reach the
government palace in Quito to protest free-trade talks with
Washington.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 21, The Ecuadorian
government declared a state of emergency in four provinces to curb
nine days of Indian protests against a proposed free-trade deal with
the US.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 24, In southern
Ecuador a plane crashed into the side of a tire factory in Cuenca,
killing five of the 14 people aboard.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Apr 12, Ecuador's
Environment Minister Ana Alban said some 5,000 Ecuadorians illegally
residing in the ecologically fragile Galapagos Islands will face
deportation to the mainland.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 19, Ecuador approved
revisions to its Hydrocarbons Law to increase state revenue from
private crude-oil producers. The changes became effective on April
25.
(WSJ, 4/21/06, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A8)
2006 May 15, Ecuador expelled
Occidental Petroleum following a dispute over the sale of
oil-drilling rights by Occidental to Canada’s EnCana Corp. without
government approval. Occidental filed for international arbitration.
(WSJ, 5/16/06, p.A12)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.41)
2006 Jun 14, Four Andean
nations (Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru) agreed to chart new
trade plans with the United States without Venezuela.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jul 15, Thousands of
Ecuadorian villagers fled their homes on the slopes of the
Tungurahua volcano since it began erupting lava and toxic gases.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Aug 17, An overnight
volcanic eruption in Ecuador's Andes mountains killed at least one
person and left more than 60 others missing. It was the first
fatality reported from a Tungurahua eruption since the volcano
rumbled back to life in 1999 after staying dormant for eight
decades.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 27, Maria Esther de
Capovilla (116), considered the world oldest person, died in her
native Ecuador. Elizabeth Bolden (116) of Memphis, Tenn., became the
oldest known person alive according to Guinness World Records.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Sep 24, In Ecuador a
speeding bus overturned on a curving mountain road near Quito,
killing 47 people and injuring five children.
(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Oct 15, Ecuador held
presidential elections. The favorite was Rafael Correa (43), a
leftist pledging to lead a "citizens' revolution" against a
political establishment widely seen as corrupt and incompetent. He
faced a strong challenge from Alvaro Noboa, a banana billionaire who
also pushed a populist line. The elections headed to a 2nd round
after Alvaro Noboa, who favored strong relations with the US,
narrowly defeated Rafael Correa in the first round. A Nov 26 runoff
had been expected as none of the 13 candidates appeared likely to
win outright.
(AP, 10/14/06)(AP, 10/16/06)(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.39)
2006 Oct 17, In Ecuador with
60% of the vote counted, Rafael Correa was all-but tied with Alvaro
Noboa, each with about 25%.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Nov 26, Ecuador held
presidential elections. Rafael Correa (43), a US-trained economist
who has pledged radical reforms to clean up corruption, faced Alvaro
Noboa (56), a billionaire and Ecuador's wealthiest man. Ecuador is
an oil-exporting country, but three-quarters of its 13.4 million
inhabitants live in poverty.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 27, In Ecuador partial
returns showed Rafael Correa with as many as twice the votes
recorded as for his banana tycoon rival, who claimed the polls were
rigged.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Dec 15, Ecuador recalled
its ambassador to Colombia, protesting Bogota's decision to resume
aerial coca fumigation along the shared border.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 28, Ecuador’s
President-elect Rafael Correa appointed seven women to his Cabinet,
including the country’s first female defense minister, saying he
wanted to promote gender equality.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 30, A car bomb
exploded in a parking lot at Madrid's glittery new airport terminal,
and the government blamed the Basque separatist group ETA. 26 were
slightly injured. The bodies of two people from Ecuador were later
recovered. This signaled the apparent end of a nine-month ceasefire.
(AP, 12/31/06)(AP, 1/6/07)
2006 Dec 31, In Ecuador the
Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, a package of trade
benefits with the US offered in exchange for cooperation in
counter-drug activities expired, but was extended for six months.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2006 In Ecuador Fabricio
Correa, the older brother of Pres. Rafael Correa, acted as a
fund-raiser for his brother’s election campaign. Following the
election Fabricio gained government contracts for road building and
oil services worth some $167 million. In 2009 Fabricio the president
demanded that the contracts be rescinded. Fabricio in turn alleged
corruption by aides of the Pres. Correa.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.52)
2006 The population of Ecuador
was about 13 million. Its $10 billion economy was saddled with $10
billion in foreign debt.
(Econ, 10/14/06, p.39)
2007 Jan 5, Leon Febres
Cordero, Former President of Ecuador (1984-1988), resigned from
Congress and political life, citing unspecified medical problems.
His center-right Social Christian Party long dominated Ecuadorian
politics.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 15, In Ecuador
nationalist Rafael Correa was sworn in as president. He pledged to
fight a political establishment widely discredited as corrupt. He
signed a decree calling a referendum for a Constituent Assembly and
doubled a monthly welfare payment to $30 for some 1.3 million of the
poorest people.
(AP, 1/15/07)(Econ, 1/20/07, p.48)(Econ, 4/21/07,
p.39)
2007 Jan 24, Ecuador's first
female defense minister died in a collision of two helicopters that
also killed her daughter and five members of the military.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 30, Supporters of
Ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa armed with sticks and
stones fought their way into the Congress building, demanding
lawmakers call a referendum on whether the country's constitution
should be rewritten.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 1, Ecuador’s
government named Lorena Escudero (41) to be defense minister, to
take over after the first female to hold the office was killed in a
helicopter accident.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 2, Ecuador’s President
Rafael Correa dismissed the country's army commander, just over a
week after a military helicopter crash killed Ecuador's first female
defense minister.
(AP, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 13, Ecuador's Congress
approved holding a referendum on whether to create an assembly to
rewrite the constitution, bowing to demands by the new leftist
president who is seeking to weaken traditional political parties.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 17, Ecuador’s new
leftist President Rafael Correa said he will resign if his
supporters do not win control of an assembly to rewrite Ecuador's
constitution.
(AP, 2/17/07)
2007 Mar 7, Ecuador’s highest
electoral court voted to dismiss 57 congressmen for allegedly
interfering with a referendum on whether to rewrite the
constitution, in an escalating fight over Ecuador's charter.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 13, Some 20 lawmakers
fired last week by Ecuador's top electoral court for allegedly
interfering with plans for a constitutional referendum forced their
way past dozens of police guarding Congress and took up their seats.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ecuador's
constitutional crisis took a new twist as alternate lawmakers were
escorted into Congress under the cover of darkness and sworn in to
replace some of the legislators fired by the country's highest
electoral court.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 28, Ecuador's highest
electoral court fired a judge who tried to return half the country's
legislators to their posts as a political crisis over the rewriting
of the country's constitution deepened.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 4, Ecuador's
constitutional court upheld a decision by the country's electoral
tribunal to fire more than half of the politically unstable nation's
legislature.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 11, Officials said
Ecuador’s former President Gustavo Noboa will face charges for
allegedly mishandling foreign debt negotiations during his
three-year term (2000-2003).
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 15, Ecuadoreans voted
on whether to create a special assembly to rewrite their
constitution. Exit polls said voters overwhelmingly supported Pres.
Correa's plan to remake the nation's system of government and weaken
its discredited Congress.
(AP, 4/15/07)(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 20, Final results from
a nationwide referendum showed an overwhelming majority of
Ecuadoreans supported President Rafael Correa's push for a special
assembly to rewrite the constitution.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 23, Ecuador's highest
court reinstated 51 lawmakers ousted last month for allegedly
interfering with a referendum on the South American nation's need
for a new constitution, the 19th over the last 180 years.
(AP, 4/23/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.30)
2007 Apr 24, Ecuador's popular
President Rafael Correa tightened his hold over all branches of
government, sending police to prevent the return of opposition
lawmakers as his tentative majority in Congress dismissed all nine
members of the nation's highest court.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2007 Apr 26, Ecuador’s
President Rafael Correa went deep into the Amazon jungle to show his
disdain for Chevron Corp., which is on trial here for allegedly
failing to clean up billions of gallons of toxic wastewater. He is
the nation’s first president to support the estimated 30,000
settlers and Amazon Indians who are suing the US oil giant.
Plaintiffs sought $6 billion in damages, alleging that Texaco dumped
more than 18 billion gallons of oily wastewater into the verdant
rain forest, and failed to properly clean it up. Their evidence
includes studies showing elevated cancer rates in the area.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 May 3, Ecuador's new
leftist government set up a truth commission to investigate alleged
human rights abuses committed over the last 27 years, particularly
during the right-wing administration of former President Leon Febres
Cordero.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 7, Ecuador's foreign
minister said President Rafael Correa has decided not to renew a
1993 bilateral investment treaty with the United States, which
expires this week.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 Jul 20, Ecuador's Pres.
Rafael Correa overturned a ban on the sale of shark fins, which are
popular in Asia, but stipulated they can only be sold if the sharks
are caught by fishermen accidentally.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Ecuador
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to help Ecuador build a $5
billion oil refinery, as the socialist leader pledged to spread his
government's oil wealth to another South American ally.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 23, More than 800
Colombian refugees crossed over the border to Ecuador from the
violence-ravaged department of Narino. The UN estimated that about 3
million Colombians have been driven from their homes by violence
without leaving the country, making it the largest internal refugee
population in the world after Sudan.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 30, Hundreds of
Colombian peasants returned home from Ecuador after the government
promised to protect them from leftist rebels trying to sabotage a
coca eradication campaign.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Sep 30, The people of
Ecuador voted on electing a constitutional assembly to rewrite the
constitution. Supporters of Pres. Correa won some 70 of the 130
assembly seats.
(WSJ, 10/2/07, p.A8)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.40)
2007 Oct 1, Ecuador’s Pres.
Rafael Correa announced a plan to wipe out the party system and
tighten government control of the economy after appearing to win a
free hand to overhaul the constitution.
(WSJ, 10/2/07, p.A8)
2007 Nov 26, In Ecuador about
60 miners were trapped after the blast in the village of Ponce
Enriquez, 230 miles southwest of Quito.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2008 Feb 6, Ecuador's
Tungurahua volcano shot columns of ash miles into the air, as
officials ordered the evacuation of 3,000 villagers living near its
slopes.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Ecuador a
landslide caused some 4,000 barrels of oil to spill from its main
pipeline contaminating Coca River.
(www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/02/america/LA-FIN-Ecuador-Pipeline.php)
2008 Mar 1, Colombia's defense
minister said security forces killed Raul Reyes (59), a leading
commander of the FARC rebel group, in combat and air strikes in
neighboring Ecuador. Reyes was the nom de guerre of Luis Edgar
Devia. 23 other rebels were also killed and a laptop computer was
seized with documents indicating a close relationship between the
rebels and Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez. Colombia later acknowledged
that an Ecuadorean was killed during the raid. It was later reported
that a computer memory stick was acquired in the raid that held the
names, aliases and identity numbers of 9,387 rebels, including some
photos.
(AP, 3/1/08)(AP, 3/5/08)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.43)(AP,
3/24/08)(AP, 9/25/08)
2008 Mar 2, Venezuela and
Ecuador ordered troops to their borders with Colombia, sharply
raising tensions after Colombia killed a top rebel leader on
Ecuadorean soil. Ecuadorean troops recovered the seminude bodies of
15 rebels in their jungle camp. Soldiers also found three wounded
women at the camp, a Mexican philosophy student injured by shrapnel
and two Colombians, who were evacuated by helicopter to be treated.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 3, Ecuador's president
said that his government was in "very advanced" talks with Colombian
rebels to free 12 hostages, including former presidential candidate
Ingrid Betancourt and three US contractors, but was thwarted by
Colombia’s military raid. Venezuela and Ecuador expelled Colombia’s
diplomats and cracked down on trade across the border.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 5, The
Washington-based OAS declared Colombia’s attack on rebels in Ecuador
a violation of Ecuador's sovereignty and called for OAS
Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza to lead a delegation to both
countries to ease tensions. But the resolution stopped short of
explicitly condemning the assault. Pres. Chavez said Venezuela will
search for other countries like Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina to
replace products imported from Colombia.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 7, At a summit in the
Dominican Republic the presidents of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador
agreed to end a bitter dispute triggered by a Colombian cross-border
raid with testy handshakes and an apology.
(AP, 3/8/08)
2008 Apr 12, In Ecuador 5 young
British women were killed in a bus crash while the 15 other people
on board were injured.
(AFP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, The winners of
this year’s Goldman Awards were reported to be: Feliciano dos Santos
(43) of Mozambique, the director of Estamos, an environmental group
promoting sanitation, sustainable development and reforestation;
Marina Rikhvanova (46), founder of Baikal Environmental Wave, which
forced the rerouting of an oil pipeline in the Baikal basin; Pablo
Fajardo (35) and Luis Yanza (48) of Ecuador, co-founders of the
Amazon Defense Front, which accused Texaco (now Chevron) of dumping
oil and wastewater into local streams; Rosa Hilda Ramos (63) of
Puerto Rico, head of a movement to protect the Las Cicharillas
Marsh; Ignace Schops (43) of Belgium, head of a movement to
establish Belgium’s 1st and only national park; Jesus Leon (42) of
Mexico, co-founder of the Center for Integral Small Farmer
Development of the Mixtec (CEDICAM).
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 18, Ecuador's
constitutional assembly approved a decree revoking most of the
mining concessions in the country, following up on the leftist
government's pledge to take greater control over natural resources.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 19, In Ecuador flames
started by fireworks swept through a nightclub in Quito, killing at
least 14 people who were unable to escape through the club's
padlocked doors.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 May 14, US federal
prosecutors said Willbros Group Inc., a Houston-based oil services
company, agreed to pay $32.3 million in criminal and civil penalties
to settle charges that it bribed officials in Nigeria and Ecuador to
get contracts between 2003-2005.
(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.B2)
2008 Jun 6, Colombia's
presidential spokesman said Colombia and Ecuador are restoring
diplomatic ties at the charge d'affaires level following mediation
by former US Pres. Carter.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 12, Ecuadorean police
arrested four men, including at least three Colombians, who were
allegedly plotting to kill President Rafael Correa (45). The next
day police said 2 of the Colombians purportedly acknowledge having
links to Colombia's right-wing paramilitaries and said they were
offered US$1.5 million to kill Correa.
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jul 4, Ecuador's
constitutional assembly pardoned hundreds of jailed convicts,
low-level drug couriers known as "mules." An estimated 1,200
prisoners may be eligible for pardon.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 8, Ecuador's
government seized 3 television stations and 195 businesses, owned by
the Isaias family, to collect debts stemming from the 1998 failure
of Filanbanco, owned by Roberto and William Isaias. The economy
minister resigned just hours before the takeover.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.48)
2008 Jul 24, In Ecuador a
special assembly approved a new 444-article draft constitution
granting its leftist president broad powers, including the ability
to dissolve Congress and set monetary policy, and freeing him to run
for office through 2017.
(AP, 7/25/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.40)
2008 Jul 29, Ecuador’s Foreign
Ministry said the US military must stop using its only outpost in
South America for anti-drug flights when Washington's 10-year lease
on the base in Ecuador expires in 2009.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Aug 4, Ecuador's
government said it would seize a family business group's stock
shares in 58 companies to help recover debts generated by the
collapse of the family's former bank. The action came a little less
than a month after authorities seized 200 businesses linked to the
family of William and Roberto Isaias, who fled to the US in 2000
shortly after their bank collapsed.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Sep 23, Ecuador expelled a
leading Brazilian construction firm sending in troops to seize
projects worth $800 million. Pres. Correa was battling with the
Odebrecht firm over a dam which the government said was badly built.
(WSJ, 9/24/08, p.A24)
2008 Sep 28, Ecuadoreans voted
on a new constitution that would significantly broaden leftist
President Rafael Correa's powers and let him run for two more
consecutive terms. Correa's avowed quest for an "equitable, just"
Ecuador won a major boost as voters approved a new constitution that
will help the leftist president consolidate power and enable him to
run for two more consecutive terms. The new constitution conferred
on ecosystems “the inalienable right to exist, flourish and evolve.”
The new constitution also imposed a 12-month deadline for approving
new regulatory measures.
(AP, 9/28/08)(AP, 9/29/08)(Econ, 10/18/08,
p.68)(Econ, 10/3/09, p.44)
2008 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI
gave the Roman Catholic church four new saints, including an Indian
woman whose canonization is seen as a morale boost to Christians in
India who have suffered Hindu violence. They included Sister
Alphonsa (1910-1946) of the Immaculate Conception, a nun from
southern India and India’s first woman saint; Gaetano Errico
(1791-1860), a Neapolitan priest who founded a missionary order in
the 19th century; Sister Maria Bernarda, born as Verena Buetler
(1848-1924) in Switzerland, who worked as a nun in Ecuador and
Colombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran (1832-1869), a 19th
century laywoman from Ecuador who helped the sick and the poor.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Ecuador a new
temporary Supreme Court was picked by lottery. Judges said they will
boycott it. The temporary 21-member court, chosen at random from the
ranks of the 31 former justices, is supposed to operate until a
permanent body takes over in 2009.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 30, An Ecuadorean
presidential commission concluded that US intelligence services
infiltrated the Andean nation's military and police and supported a
cross-border incursion by Colombian troops that killed a top rebel
commander.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Nov 15, The government of
Ecuador delayed a $30.6 million interest payment on part of its debt
of $10 billion, which amounted to 21% of GDP. A committee soon
reported evidence of malfeasance on debt contracts issued between
1976 and 2006.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.44)
2008 Dec 12, Ecuador’s Pres.
Rafael Correa said his nation will skip a $30.6 million payment to
bondholders due on Dec 15. The was Ecuador’s 3rd default in 3
decades.
(WSJ, 12/12/08, p.A8)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.34)
2008 Dec 15, In Ecuador former
President Leon Febres Cordero (77) died. The colorful, right-wing
leader served as president from 1984-1988 and had dominated
Ecuadorean politics for almost two decades. He was dubbed the
"owner" of the nation by his opponents.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec, Ecuador’s Central
Bank signed an agreement under which Iran’s Central Bank would set
up a credit line of $40 million, extendable by $80 million, for the
use of Ecuadorean importers.
(Econ, 4/17/10, p.44)
2009 Jan 29, Mexican police
detained an Ecuadorean man for carrying about $2.5 million in cash
in a suitcase at Mexico City's international airport.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Ecuador
President Rafael Correa ordered the expulsion of a top US diplomat
he accused of suspending $340,000 in annual aid because Ecuador
would not allow the US to veto appointments to the anti-smuggling
police.
(AP, 2/7/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Ecuador US
diplomat Mark Sullivan was declared a “persona non grata” and told
to leave. Pres. Correa later said Sullivan had directed CIA
operations in Ecuador.
(SFC, 2/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 10, Spanish police
said they have arrested an Ecuadorian woman who tried to smuggle
into Barcelona liquid cocaine hidden in spray cans of products to
starch clothes or clean glass.
(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 19, In Quito, Ecuador,
a small army plane crashed into an apartment building, killing seven
people and sending a fireball into the evening sky. The dead
included 3 soldiers, the pilot’s wife and son and 2 people on the
ground.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 25, An Ecuadorean air
force training jet crashed in a jungle area near the Colombian
border. The pilot and a member of the air force rescue team were
killed when a cable snapped as they were being lifted to a
helicopter.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Apr 20, Ecuador’s finance
minister Maria Elsa Viteri said the government will buy back about
$3.2 billion in Global 2012 and 2030 bonds, worth about 32% of
Ecuador's total foreign debt at a 70% discount, ending months of
speculation about a default. A government audit last year determined
that conditions surrounding the debt sale had left the bonds
"illegal and illegitimate," prompting President Rafael Correa to
order the refinancing.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 26, Ecuador held
elections. President Rafael Correa, a feisty leftist popular for his
social programs, was widely favored to win re-election. Correa won
51.2 percent of the vote in an eight-candidate field, making the
leftist economist the first Ecuadorean president in 30 years to be
chosen without a runoff vote.
(AP, 4/26/09)(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 May 8, In Ecuador an angry
mob dragged two suspected robbers from a police station in Valencia
and burned them to death.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 30, In Colombia 3
computers were seized in the Bogota home of a Adela Perez (36), a
suspected FARC operative. One computer, finally decrypted in July,
contained an hour-long video that appeared to confirm that
Colombia's largest rebel army gave money to the 2006 election
campaign of President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 10, Millions of
Argentines stayed home from work, churches in Bolivia canceled Mass
and Ecuador announced its first fatalities from swine flu, as the
virus continued its spread during the South American winter season.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Ecuador a US
anti-narcotics force flew its last surveillance mission from
Ecuador's Pacific Coast. The force had begun dismantling its
operation and would be out of the country by September, two months
before the end of its lease.
(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Aug 3, Ecuadorean
President Rafael Correa, announced that "many" radio and TV
frequencies will revert to the state over what he called
irregularities in their licenses. He gave no specifics.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 10, Leaders of the
Union of South American Nations (UNASUL), a 12-member group inspired
by Brazil, met in Quito, Ecuador, in an attempt to further
integration. Colombia’s Pres. Uribe did not attend, in part because
Ecuador broke of ties with Colombia last year.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.31)
2009 Aug 13, Ecuador’s Citizen
Participation Minister Doris Soliz called for the creation of local
citizen committees to defend the government and its "revolution,"
sparking criticism that the president aims to control opponents in a
system reminiscent of Cuba or Venezuela.
(AP, 8/13/09)
2009 Aug, Aliaksandr
Barankov (27) arrived in Ecuador after fleeing fraud and extortion
charges in Belarus. He called the charges bogus, retribution for his
having exposed a petroleum-smuggling ring involving senior officials
of President Lukashenko's government, including relatives of the
leader.
(AP, 8/20/12)
2009 Sep 6, In Ecuador Lt. Col.
John Merino, President Rafael Correa's chief of security, died of
swine flu. Ecuador has reported 36 confirmed deaths from swine flu
as of last week, along with 1,382 infected.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 6, The El Salvador
navy said it has found 76 migrants aboard a boat in the Pacific.
They included 25 Bangladeshis, 25 Nepalese, 21 Eritreans and five
Ecuadoreans. The boat had set sail a week ago from the Ecuadorean
port of Manta.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 18, In Ecuador the
last 15 US troops left the Pacific Manta air base, officially
closing the US military post in what Ecuador's government calls a
recovery of sovereignty.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Ecuador
hundreds of Indians blocked the Pan American highway in several
provinces with rocks, tree trunks and burning tires to protest new
water, mining and oil laws.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 30, In Ecuador a
battle in the southeastern jungle killed at least one Indian and
wounded 40 police and nine Indians on the Upano River in the
province of Morona Santiago. The Amazon Indian federation said 500
police provoked the violence by attacking Shuar Indians who were
blocking roads to protest resources legislation.
(AP, 10/1/09)
2009 Sep 9, In Ecuador Gloria
Daniela Lopez, a Los Angeles college student, was stabbed to death
in Ambato. Her body was found the next day with her throat slit. A
family friend later said she had been decapitated and possibly
raped. A local police investigation was said to be stalled because
she was American.
(SFC, 10/9/09, p.D5)
2009 Dec 15, Ecuador said that
it had reached a deal with the EU aimed at ending a long-running
dispute between Latin American nations and the EU over tariffs on
bananas.
(AFP, 12/15/09)
2009 Ecuador’s authorities
seized over 73 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine, this year.
(Econ, 3/27/10, p.42)
2010 Jan 11, In Ecuador Quito
Mayor Augusto Barrera said his government will impose new driving
restrictions to keep 80,000 private cars off the capital’s congested
streets during rush hour. tens of thousands of protesters crowded
into downtown Guayaquil, answering a call from the mayor of
Ecuador's biggest city to demonstrate against the national
government. Mayor Jaime Nebot, a conservative, accused President
Rafael Correa of trying to build a system that Nebot called a copy
of Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Ecuador tens of
thousands of protesters crowded into downtown Guayaquil, answering a
call from the mayor of Ecuador's biggest city to demonstrate against
the national government. Mayor Jaime Nebot, a conservative, accused
President Rafael Correa of trying to build a system that Nebot
called a copy of Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Ecuador a
district court judge convicted Emilio Palacio, a newspaper editorial
writer for the newspaper El Universo, of insulting the head of the
government's National Financial Corp. and sentenced him to three
years in prison.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 30, In Ecuador
journalist Emilio Palacio, facing a 3-year prison sentence for
defamation, accused President Rafael Correa of orchestrating his
prosecution as a warning that critics of the government will be
severely punished.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Chevron said the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ruled in favor of
its claim against Ecuador related to past operations of its Texaco
unit. The tribunal ruled that Ecuador’s courts delayed rulings on a
contract dispute and awarded Chevron about $700 million as of Dec
22, 2006. A separate case over a $27 billion pollution claim
remained pending.
(SFC, 3/31/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 6, In Ecuador 20
columnists and contributors to the state newspaper El Telegrafo said
they will no longer write for the paper because of alleged
censorship.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 10, Bolivian delegate
Pablo Solon confirmed that the US reduced aid after Bolivia opposed
the adoption of the Copenhagen Accord brokered at the UN climate
summit last December in the Danish capital. The Washington Post
reported on April 9 that the US is cutting $3 million to Bolivia and
$2.5 million to Ecuador from its Global Climate Change initiative.
(AP, 4/10/10)
2010 Apr 17, Ecuador’s
President Rafael Correa said Ecuador will move to take over the
operations of foreign oil companies in the country unless they sign
new contracts agreeing to increased state control over the sector.
(Reuters, 4/17/10)
2010 May 28, In Ecuador strong
explosions rocked the Tungurahua volcano, prompting evacuations of
hundreds of people from nearby villages.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 Jun 7, A commission named
by Ecuador's left-leaning government to investigate human rights
violations in the previous quarter century blamed late right-wing
President Leon Febres Cordero for two-thirds of such cases. Elsie
Monge, president of the so-called truth commission, said that the
1984-88 Cordero administration was marked by "a climate of fear and
anxiety."
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jul 3, The US Drug
Enforcement Administration said it has helped seize a submarine
capable of transporting tons of cocaine. DEA officials said that the
diesel electric-powered submarine was constructed in a remote jungle
and captured near a tributary close to the Ecuador-Colombia border.
Ecuadorean authorities seized the sub before it could make its
maiden voyage. The sophisticated camouflaged vessel has a conning
tower, periscope and air-conditioning system. It measured about
nine-feet-high from the deck plates to the ceiling and stretched
nearly a 100 feet long. The DEA says it was built for trans-oceanic
drug trafficking.
(AP, 7/3/10)
2010 Jul 28, The Galapagos
Islands, 620 miles (1,000 kms) off Ecuador's coast, were removed
from the UNESCO list of sites endangered by environmental threats or
overuse.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Aug 2, In Colombia Orlando
Sigifredo Ibarra Sarmiento, an Ecuadoran businessman (37), was
seized in the border city of Ipiales. In 2012 a deserter from a
guerrilla army led the hostage to freedom.
(AP, 9/10/12)
2010 Aug 29, In Ecuador a bus
ran off a highway and overturned, killing at least 36 people. At
least 12 others were badly hurt. The bus from the Turismo Oriental
line had left the city of Cuenca with about 30 passengers and had
picked up others along the way to Quito.
(AP, 8/29/10)
2010 Sep 5, In Ecuador 15
people were killed and at least seven injured when a drunken Luis
Alberto Hessmer Vargas drove an SUV into a crowded bus stop in the
coastal city of Guayaquil.
(AP, 9/6/10)
2010 Sep 17, Chevron Corp.
rejected new estimates of damages in the jungles of Ecuador that
rose to a range of $40 to $90 billion. The suit stemmed from
operations by Texaco from 1972-1990 when it managed a drilling
consortium. Chevron bought Texaco in 2001.
(SFC, 9/18/10, p.D3)
2010 Sep 30, In Ecuador
rebellious police threw the country into chaos. 8 people were killed
including at least two police officers and a soldier. 247 were
injured in the mayhem. Insurgents also paralyzed the nation with
airport shutdowns and highway blockades. Pres. Correa (47) was
trapped inside the hospital for hours before troops rescued him amid
a blaze of gunfire. Police chief Freddy Martinez was not involved in
the protests but failed to stop them, so he was the first senior
officer to lose his job. Correa’s efforts to cut back spending had
made him enemies, including some of the rank and file in the
security forces.
(AP, 10/1/10)(Reuters, 10/1/10)(Econ, 10/9/10,
p.54)
2010 Oct 1, Ecuador was under a
state of siege, the streets quiet with the military in charge of
public order. Three police colonels were arrested for failing to
prevent a massive protest by their subordinates that left 5 people
dead.
(AP, 10/1/10)(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 2, Ecuador agreed to
raise wages in the armed forces by up to $35 million annually, days
after soldiers battled rebel police to rescue President Rafael
Correa from what he called a coup bid. Defense Minister Javier Ponce
said it was chance the wage were agreed two days after the assault
on Correa. He said the increases will cost $30 million to $35
million a year.
(Reuters, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 6, Ecuador's interior
minister said 46 police officers have been detained for alleged
participation in the Sep 30 police revolt against President Rafael
Correa that claimed 5 lives.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Ecuador a court
was issued authorizing the jailing of 12 police officers and a
police colonel while prosecutors investigate the Sep 30 police
uprising that resulted in 5 deaths.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Ecuador a
tunnel collapsed in a gold mine in the south, trapping four miners
490 feet (150 meters) underground. Authorities said rescue efforts
were under way. The bodies of 2 miners were found the next day as
rescue efforts continued for 2 others. Their bodies were found on
Oct 20.
(AP, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/17/10)(Reuters, 10/20/10)
2010 Dec 24, The Ecuadorean
government recognized Palestine as a sovereign state.
(AP, 12/25/10)
2010 Dec 24, In Ecuador an
overcrowded bus plunged into a 1,100-foot (350m) ravine leaving 38
people dead and 46 injured.
(AP, 12/25/10)
2011 Feb 13, In Brockton,
Massachusetts, the bodies of Maria Palaguachi-Cela (25) and her
2-year-old son, Brian Caguana, were found stuffed into a dumpster.
They had been bludgeoned to death. Suspect Luis Guaman (42) soon
fled to Ecuador. On April 30, 2012, Guaman was convicted in Ecuador
of premeditated murder and faced 16-25 years in prison. On May 8,
2012 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined $10,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/6n7clej)(AP, 4/30/12)(AP,
5/8/12)
2011 Feb 14, An Ecuadorean
judge ruled that Chevron Corp. was responsible for oil contamination
in a wide swath of Ecuador's northern jungle. The plaintiffs'
attorney says the company was fined $8 billion. The company said
that it would appeal, and called the judge's decision "illegitimate
and unenforceable."
(AP, 2/14/11)
2011 Feb 25, Panama customs
director Gloria Moreno de Lopez said that nearly a half ton (421
kilos) shark fins were found at Panama's international airport in a
shipment labeled as dried fish. She says the container originated in
Ecuador and was bound for New York City.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Mar 7, A US federal judge
extended his temporary order banning collection of an $18 billion
judgment by the courts in Ecuador against Chevron, saying the oil
company could face irreparable harm because it appeared that lawyers
for Ecuadoreans who sued over rainforest contamination were going to
try to quickly collect the award.
(AP, 3/7/11)
2011 Mar 23, Mexican
authorities said they have detained Victor Manuel Felix, an in-law
of top drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who allegedly ran a
transnational drug operation that reached as far as Ecuador. 8 other
people were detained along with Felix in raids in three Mexican
states that began last week. Raids in Ecuador resulted in the
detention of 9 suspects. The navy announced it had detained 7 local
police officers, most from the Monterrey suburb of San Nicolas de
los Garza, on suspicion of working for drug cartels. A daylight
shooting in Monterey, thought to involve rival drug gangs, killed a
teenage boy and 2 adult males.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Apr 5, Ecuador said it is
expelling US Ambassador Heather Hodges over a diplomatic cable
divulged by WikiLeaks that accused Jaime Hurtado Vaca, a newly
retired police chief, of a long history of corruption and speculates
that President Rafael Correa was aware of it.
(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 May 7, Ecuadoreans voted
on 10 ballot questions proposed by leftist President Rafael Correa
that could affect press freedom and the judiciary's independence.
Five of the questions mandated constitutional change. The other five
required congressional action. Two controversial questions from the
referendum appeared to be headed for defeat.
(AP, 5/7/11)(AP, 5/8/11)(Econ, 5/14/11, p.46)
2011 May, Ecuador banned
bullfighting in which bull dies after five centuries of tradition.
(SSFC, 7/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 16, Authorities in
Ecuador banned the sale of alcohol in the coastal municipality of
Urdaneta in Los Rios province after at least 19 people died after
drinking adulterated alcohol. The victims began drinking the alcohol
on July 7. Adulterated liquor was later traced to a factory near
Guayaquil, where methanol was being added to fruity wines. By
September some 51 were dead and 771 poisoned.
(AP, 7/15/11)(AP, 7/17/11)(Econ, 9/24/11, p.49)
2011 Jul 20, In Ecuador a judge
ordered Emilio Palacio, a former columnist for El Universo, and 3 of
the paper’s directors, to pay Pres. Rafael Correa $40 million in
damages for an article published in February, 2010, regarding a
mutiny by police. Correa had asked for $80m. In September an appeals
courts upheld 3-year prison sentences for the columnist and
directors as well as $42 million in fines. On Feb 16, 2012,
Ecuador's highest court upheld the criminal libel verdict.
(Econ, 7/30/11, p.34)(SFC, 9/21/11, p.A2)(AP,
2/16/12)
2011 Jul 21, Ecuadoran
authorities said they have seized 357 dead sharks from a boat
fishing illegally in the protected waters off the Galapagos Islands.
(SFC, 7/22/11, p.A2)
2012 Jan 4, An Ecuadoran
appeals court upheld last year’s landmark $9.5 billion judgement
against Chevron Corp. over oil contamination in the Amazon rain
forest.
(SFC, 1/5/12, p.D1)
2012 Jan 26, Ecuador’s health
ministry said it will investigate and act forcefully against any
clinics found to be trying to force homosexuals to change their
sexual orientation.
(SFC, 1/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Feb 6, An Ecuadorean judge
ordered two journalists, Juan Carlos Calderon and Cristian Zurita,
to pay $1 million each to President Rafael Correa, finding them
guilty of defamation for reporting that he knew about contracts his
older brother had with the state in a case brought by Correa over
their 2010 book "The Big Brother."
(AP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 9, Ecuador's foreign
minister said police in Italy found nearly 90 pounds (40 kilos) of
cocaine last month in diplomatic mail sent to the Mediterranean
country and two suspects have been arrested. The crates had been
inspected by police dogs before leaving Ecuador, but had traveled to
Italy through a third country.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 16, Ecuador's highest
court upheld a July 20, 2011, criminal libel verdict favoring
President Rafael Correa, sentencing three newspaper executives and a
columnist to three years in prison each and ordering them to pay a
total of $42 million in damages. Three of the four defendants left
Ecuador before the verdict, saying they feared for their safety, and
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli announced he was granting
political asylum to El Universo's director, Carlos
Perez.
(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 19, In northern
Ecuador a bus toppled over a cliff killing 27 adults and 2 children
near the town of Quajara.
(SFC, 2/20/12, p.A2)
2012 Feb 27, Ecuador’s
President Rafael Correa said he would drop two controversial
lawsuits against El Universo newspaper and the authors of the 2010
book "The Big Brother."
(SFC, 2/28/12, p.A2)
2012 May 8, Ecuador’s
legislature passed legislation that would require banks to forgive
any outstanding debt on mortgages for first-time home buyers of
properties worth up to $146,000 if they default and forfeit a home.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)
2012 May 30, Ecuadorans sued
Chevron in Canada in an attempt to seize $18 billion in assets after
the company refused to pay a verdict against it in Ecuador.
(SFC, 5/31/12, p.A13)
2012 Jun 5, Bolivia, Ecuador,
Nicaragua and Venezuela said they were pulling out of the
Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance during an annual
meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Bolivia.
(SFC, 6/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 24, In Ecuador’s
Galapagos National Park the only remaining Pinta Island tortoise and
celebrated conservation icon, passed away. Lonesome George,
estimated to be more than 100 years old, was discovered in 1972 at a
time when tortoises of his type were already believed to be extinct.
(AFP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jun 26, Ecuador’s coast
guard said marines have seized a semisubmersible capable of
transporting 10-15 tons of cocaine. The 50-foot vessel was under
construction on a small island in the gulf of Guayaquil.
(SFC, 6/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 27, Lawyers
representing Amazon rain forest residents in Ecuador filed a 2nd
lawsuit in Brazil to seize assets of Chevron Corp. as part of their
effort to collect an $18.2 billion judgement they won in Ecuador in
2011.
(SFC, 6/28/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 16, Ecuador granted
political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, setting up a
diplomatic confrontation with Britain, which angrily insisted it
would extradite him to Sweden.
(AFP, 8/16/12)
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End of file