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 voy-ages 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, Pa-nama, 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 or-dered 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, af-ter 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 na-tional 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 de-stroyed.
(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
coun-try 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 infor-mal but
effective communications link between whaling ships and the outside
world. The primi-tive post box, a barrel system of drop-off and
pick-up, had been established some 20 years ear-lier, 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, Co-lombia 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)
1922 May 29, Ecuador became
independent.
(HN, 5/29/98)
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 Is-lands, 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 Breth-ren. 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
na-tive 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 riv-ers 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,
re-moved, 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 co-ordinate the joint development of the Amazon Basin.
(http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Amazon+Pact)
1978 UNESCO named the Galapagos
Islands, Ecuador, a World Heritage Site.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
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 in-creased 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)
1991-1995 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 diver-sion.
(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 liveli-hood 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 Ameri-can 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. Bu-caram’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
presi-dential 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 Ecua-dor 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 erupt-ing 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. Ti-wintza 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
in-ternal 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 re-lated 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 liquid-ity problems.
(WSJ, 3/4/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 8, Ecuador’s government
declared a banking holiday to deal with the plunging cur-rency.
(WSJ, 3/9/99, p.A17)
1999 Mar 9, Ecuador declared a
60-day state of emergency prompted by the economic cri-ses.
(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 pro-tests 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 re-structuring 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 up-grade 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 dol-lars 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 cur-rency.
(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. Su-cres 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 sus-pected 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
re-leased. 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 Mis-souri, 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 in-creases.
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 bor-der with 92
people aboard. The wreckage was found on a glacier of the Nevado de
Cumbal vol-cano 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 bio-logically 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 Co-lombia 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 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 Is-lands."
(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 Gus-tavo 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, pro-testing 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 na-tional
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 pe-troleum 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 in-ternational 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 visi-tors 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 sen-tences 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 res-ignation 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 prov-ince is
reaching levels comparable to Africa and the Caribbean a decade ago and
could mush-room 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 pro-test
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 dis-missal of the
country's Supreme Court after the UN made a rare public appeal for an
investiga-tion.
(Reuters, 2/21/05)
2005 Mar 23, Police fired tear gas
into Ecuador's Congress before dawn to disperse opposi-tion lawmakers
who refused to leave after a legislative session that cut short a
debate on can-didates 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" mod-eled 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 dis-solved 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 demonstra-tors
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 presi-dent, 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 mili-tary
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 traf-fickers 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 agree-ment 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 de-structive, 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 Nicara-gua,
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 asy-lum in
Colombia and would return to his own country, where he faces arrest,
and attempt to re-gain 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 po-lice 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 ille-gally 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. Occiden-tal 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 Tungu-rahua
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 left-ist
pledging to lead a "citizens' revolution" against a political
establishment widely seen as cor-rupt 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 fa-vored 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 Cabi-net,
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 ex-pired, but was extended for six months.
(AP, 5/7/07)
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 refer-endum 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 support-ers 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 alleg-edly
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
es-corted into Congress under the cover of darkness and sworn in to
replace some of the legisla-tors 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 coun-try'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
dam-ages, alleging that Texaco dumped more than 18 billion gallons of
oily wastewater into the ver-dant rain forest, and failed to properly
clean it up. Their evidence includes studies showing ele-vated cancer
rates in the area.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 May 3, Ecuador's new leftist
government set up a truth commission to investigate al-leged 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 re-new 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 gov-ernment promised to
protect them from leftist rebels trying to sabotage a coca eradication
cam-paign.
(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 lead-ing
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 lap-top 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 Co-lombians, 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 explic-itly 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 min-ing
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
dip-lomatic 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 Co-lombians 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
col-lapsed.
(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.”
(AP, 9/28/08)(AP, 9/29/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.68)
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 Con-ception, 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 Co-lombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran
(1832-1869), a 19th century laywoman from Ec-uador 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 Co-lombian 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)
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 pi-lot’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 Colom-bian 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
ille-gitimate," 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 Ecua-dor'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)
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Subject = Ecuador
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