Unbeknownst to many, there is now a high stakes legal battle taking place between the Chevron Oil Company and the residents of Ecuador’s Amazonian area called Lago Agrio. The contention is that Chevron was responsible for environmental contamination actually caused by another oil company, Texaco, which operated in the area between 1964 and 1990. Chevron […]

As many polls had predicted, President Rafael Correa was re-elected for a second term in the Ecuadorian general elections, which were held last Sunday, April 26 2009. He was running against banana magnate, Alvaro Noboa and former president Lucio Gutierrez. Ecuador has had a turbulent political past, having elected ten Presidents since 1997, three of […]

In this chapter of analyzing the Latin American grassroots, we will take the opportunity to clarify some of our views. We do not view the mobilization of previously marginalized groups in Latin America such as indigenous groups and others as a criminal problem or a moral problem or even as a source of regional and […]

As Luis Fleischman, writing for The Americas Report, predicted last November, the Ecuadorian President, Rafael Correa, is creating a constituent assembly aimed at increasing a more authoritarian system of government. Such a system would include the further deterioration of political representative institutions in favor of a stronger executive power. Furthermore, Fleischman pointed out that “Mr. […]