Latest QUITO Stories

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - 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, its deputy minister of foreign relations said on Wednesday. Deputy minister Diego Ribadeneira said in a television interview that the Andean country's major parties would probably block the ratification of a deal on U.S. use of the Manta military base beyond 2009. "I think...

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuador's jailed former president, Lucio Gutierrez, was moved to another facility by police on Wednesday after officials uncovered a plan by inmates to take him hostage, the interior minister said. Jail officials suspected a group of inmates planned to take Gutierrez hostage in an uprising attempt, Interior Minister Alfredo Castillo told local television. Gutierrez, who was toppled after popular and congressional unrest in April, has been in jail for more...

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - The United States on Friday deported a Roman Catholic priest to Ecuador where he is wanted on charges of stealing $10 million from the government, Ecuadorean officials said. The Rev. Carlos Flores, who was appointed as the head of Quito's customs office in an anti-corruption drive in 2000, fled to the United States in 2003 and was later arrested by U.S. authorities in Miami for violating immigration law. The United States agreed to deport him earlier this...

By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Peru was pushing on Tuesday to finish a free trade agreement with the United States, while neighbors Colombia and Ecuador said they would need at least one more round of talks to wrap up negotiations that began 18 months ago. Colombia's chief negotiator, Hernando Jose Gomez, told reporters that Bogota had made substantial progress in the 13th round of talks on the proposed U.S.-Andean free trade agreement, but not enough to close the deal. "There...

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Former Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez, who was fired by Congress in April and is wanted by the law in Ecuador, said he would return home on Friday to try to retake power. Speaking from neighboring Colombia, where he was granted asylum earlier this month, Gutierrez told reporters on Thursday he would fly to Ecuador "to take the legal and constitutional actions needed to retake the power that is illegally being held by the usurper." He will be arrested...

By Hugh Bronstein QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Alfredo Palacio will likely survive violent demonstrations that throttled oil exports this month, but only by continuing to give major concessions to emboldened protesters. Political analysts said attacks on oil wells in Ecuador's Amazon region, which tentatively ended after the government and energy firms said they would make concessions to demonstrators, could just be the start of more disturbances in a country where...

By Hugh Bronstein QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuador protesters, whose attacks shut down oil exports vital to the country's economy, struck a deal with energy companies on Thursday in which the firms agreed to invest more in the poor communities where they operate. The protesters agreed to call a permanent end to attacks they launched last week on oil wells in eastern Ecuador in return for the increased support, said mediator Ramiro Gonzalez, prefect of Pichincha province....

By Hugh Bronstein QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Protesters whose attacks have choked off Ecuadorean oil exports threatened on Wednesday to launch a hunger strike to pressure the government to grant them immunity, marking a setback in settlement talks. The activists, who want private energy companies to invest more in the poor Amazon communities where they operate, crippled Ecuador's oil industry last week and helped push up global petroleum prices by dynamiting pipelines and vandalizing...

By Hugh Bronstein QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Protesters whose attacks have choked off Ecuadorean oil exports said on Wednesday they will not sign a settlement unless it guarantees them immunity from prosecution, a condition the government has turned down. The activists, who want private energy companies to invest more in the poor Amazon communities where they operate, crippled Ecuador's oil industry last week and helped push up global petroleum prices by dynamiting pipelines and...

By Hugh Bronstein QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuador's government opened talks with protest leaders who choked off the country's oil exports but officials said that even though production climbed on Monday, a full recovery for the industry could be a long way off. A delegation of about 60 protesters arrived in Quito on Sunday from the Amazon region, where they had blown up pipelines and vandalized pumping machinery last week, demanding infrastructure investment and environmental...