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Vote buying in Latin America
By John Paul Rathbone and Keith Fray Why did Hugo Chávez win last October’s presidential election so resoundingly? One simple answer is that he spent his way to re-election. In the run-up to the vote,...
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Correa: spending his way to 3rd term?
Having coffee on the fifth floor of a building in the northern part of Quito can be quite an experience. Your mug (and your chair) will tremble every twenty minutes or so. The reason is not...
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Ecuador to US: no more investment protection for you!
After winning re-election last month, Ecuador’s firebrand president, Rafael Correa, vowed to deepen his socialist revolution and make it irreversible. He is already taking steps: this week he presented...
View Article[snap]: Ecuador eyes bond issue
To the list of unusual names that have been tapping the international bond market, investors could soon add this: Ecuador. The Andean country’s finance minister, Fausto Herrera, said on Friday he plans...
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Going cuckoo for LatAm cocoa
“Chocolate” and “shortage” should never appear in the same sentence. But as the Chinese say, in every crisis, there is opportunity. And as Chinese taste buds are one of the biggest new drivers of...
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Corporate watch: República del Cacao on the origin of taste
Looking much like the sketches from Charles Darwin’s “Voyage of the Beagle”, the wrapper illustrations on the chocolate bars made by Ecuador’s República del Cacao make much of the traditions and...
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Ecuador punts its oil bidding round but China may be only taker
Ecuador is licensing a chunk of the Amazon. After touring Asia, Europe and North America, the Andean country’s government has extended from late May to mid-July a deadline by which bid for oil blocks...
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Spain’s economic crisis: as seen through remittance flows
Spain’s economic crisis is writ large in the Inter-American Development Bank’s latest statistics on remittance flows to Latin America. For years, thousands of Bolivians, Ecuadoreans and Colombians have...
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Ecuador: we want more mining
Ecuador, the smallest of the OPEC members, is working hard to diversify away from a dependence on oil exports. So now the country’s leftwing president, Rafael Correa, is pushing for a new law to fast...
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Ecuador mining: goodbye Kinross, hello China Inc?
It looked like a great idea on paper: change the law in order to attract more investments into the mining industry and diversify the economy away from a dependence on oil exports. But that ambition was...
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Ecuador: saying goodbye to US trade preferences?
Ricardo Patiño, Ecuador’s foreign minister, said on Monday from a hotel in Hanoi that his country was “considering” an asylum request from Edward Snowden, the former US intelligence analyst and...
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Chevron’s Ecuador lawsuit: moving Chevron’s way?
Will Ecuador’s long-running dispute with Chevron sour its relations with Argentina? After all, Argentina’s state-run YPF signed a $1.24bn deal with the US oil giant to develop vast shale reserves...
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Ecuador approves oil drilling in the Amazon
Some say it took millions of years, others say it took seven days, for the Amazon rainforest to be shaped. But it took just ten hours for Ecuador’s government-dominated assembly to authorise on...
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Ecuador gets Fitch upgrade – but does it deserve it?
Like Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder that it is sheltering in its London embassy, Ecuador and the state of its finances can be polarising subjects. The debate is likely to be renewed again after...
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Ecuador: plenty to offer the high-end traveller
Casa Gangotena in Quito: The view from your suite With snowy Christmas and New Year holidays at hand, has the luxury traveller ever thought of escaping to Ecuador for some well-deserved indulgence?...
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Ecuador to bond market: we’re back!
Calling all courageous bond-buyers out there! Ecuador says it is trying to re-enter the bond market, taking advantage of rising demand for emerging market debt. Patricio Rivera, the minister for...
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Electoral blow sparks changes in Ecuador but Correa still firmly in charge
A year ago Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s leftwing president, was riding high after winning a third term in a landslide election. Some say his party, Alianza País, got too used to winning. This week, Correa...
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Ecuador bonds: saying adios to China?
Wasn’t it the case, about five years ago, that Ecuador’s foreign debt was “illegitimate” and its bondholders “real monsters”? Well, it seems time cures everything. Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s leftwing...
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Ecuador and bond markets: defaulter is back with a $2bn vengeance
Ignore Argentina’s spiralling debt vortex,global investors’ appetite for higher-risk assets remains hot. On Tuesday, another “debt defaulter”, Ecuador, finally took the plunge into the global credit...
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Ecuador: paving the way to indefinite re-election?
Groundhog day? In February 2013, still aglow after being elected for a third term in a landslide victory, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador told the FT this would be his final term and that, in this...
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