Ecuador

Ecuador's April runoff election for president will test the lasting influence of former leftist President Rafael Correa when his protege, lawyer Luisa González, goes up against the conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa.

Ecuador will choose its next president in a April runoff election after conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González garnered enough votes Sunday to beat 14 other candidates.

As Christmas approaches and people decorate their homes with lights, Ecuadoreans are getting some relief from the severe power cuts that have hounded the country this year with President Daniel Noboa saying there will be no power rationing for residential areas - for the time being.

In the Indigenous community of Turucu, near the active Cotacachi volcano in northern Ecuador, soccer had always been a man’s thing. The only gleaming green field belongs to them, especially on weekends

Mexico is taking Ecuador to the top U.N. court Tuesday, accusing the nation of violating international law by storming the Mexican Embassy in Quito.

Ecuador's president got a resounding victory Sunday in a referendum that he touted as a way to crack down on criminal gangs behind a spiraling wave of violence.

The announcement came after Ecuadorian police officers forcibly broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito, detaining former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who was seeking political asylum there.

Police in Ecuador say gunmen have attacked a group of people in the coastal city of Guayaquil, killing nine and injuring 10 others. It was the latest in a string of violent incidents in the South American country.

A prosecutor in Ecuador who was investigating an attack on the set of a public television channel by a group of armed men last week has been slain.

To understand why Ecuador has become the epicenter of gang violence, you need to understand both the geography and history of Latin America’s drug trade, writes Florida International University's Eduardo Gamarra, an expert on Latin American politics.

Miami-Dade Councilman Christian Cevallos tells The South Florida Roundup the gang violence in Ecuador that suddenly grabbed headlines had been building up for several years. A lack of democratic institutions and the demand in the U.S. and Europe for cocaine are key factors.

COMMENTARY The gang poison plaguing Ecuador and Latin America is largely a result of what many say is its antidote: the trashing of democratic institutions by la mano dura.