NEWS - ARCHIVEPlease find here the weeky news of the last months. Latest News - Archive
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News from January, 16th: News from January, 23th:
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After two difficult economic years, the Ecuadorian tourism board
can publish good news again. The endeavours of last year have been
succeeded and the number of tourists increased. In 2004, about 819.000
tourists have been in Ecuador and in 2005 the number increased to
858.000. The result is mainly based on the enormous marketing. Altogether,
there were 56 different campaigns like TV commercials and ferries
abroad. Especially for the commercials in the foreign countries,
money has been used for disposal. For example, there have been spots
at CNN. In addition to that, 10 tourist information centres in foreign
countries like South -, North America and Europe were opened to
promote Ecuador and to make it more popular. In the year 2006, the
tourism board has a budget of USD 9.7 millions. The aim for 2006
is to gain 900.000 tourists. They would bring gains of USD 500 millions.
Since tourism is one of the most important means of income, it is
always important that the state will advance the commercial measures.
Last week, a million dollar has been assigned to be transferred
by the government to the region of Tungurahua. The money should
help to remove the worst destructions after the recent (small) activities
of the volcano Tungurahua and to declare the emergency to be ended.
The 14th of December, the most active volcano of the country, once
again, spew tons of ash and rocks. Both, the areas directly around
the mountain as well as the region of Chimborazo were affected;
emergency situation was called out partly. The transfer of the capital
was confirmed during a meeting between the mayors of the capitals
of the cantons and responsible persons of the state, last week.
Furthermore, it was decided to use a major part of the money for
the construction of the road between Baños and Penipe. Mauro
Rodríguez, supervisor of civil defense, told as well that
the resources will be spent for the improvement of housing and the
medical supply. The last heavy outbreak of the 16.460 feet high
Tungurahua took place in 1999 and asked for the evacuation of 22,000
people. Its name most probably derives from the Quechua and means
something like „burning” or „fire spitting gorge”.
The conflict about the historical archaeological site Ingapirca
reaches another climax. The two parties still could not agree on
a compromise. The conflict between the municipal community of Ingapirca
and the institute of the city Cañarí now takes about
4 months. The representatives of the community Incapirca do not
accept the leadership of the institution Cañar and want to
lead the archaeological site on their own. Both require the management
of the only Inca museum in Ecuador. Since December 27th, the conflict
between both parties has been escalated. Representatives of the
community occupied the complex. The consequences of this sit-in
were that the director of the institute Cañarí closed
the museum since two weeks. The ones who suffer are the tourists.
Since 14 days the museums is closed and nobody can visit it. Everybody
hopes that a solution will be found between both parties on the
next assembly on 18th this month. 
The last week, once again since a long time, intense manifestations
happened in the Ecuadorian capital. The commuter travel was partly
out of order and some parts in the south could not be reached with
public transportation completely. Students and pupils met at the
main roads to demonstrate against the rise of costs of transport
for buses. The confrontations with the „Robo-Cops“,
how the police is called (robar=steal), were dramatic: hummed youngsters
that threw stones and also were not afraid of using little bombs.
The actual record: 185 detentions, 150 injured and damages with
the amount of more than USD 9.000. The rise of the transportation
cost is to be seen necessary in the eyes of the transportation companies
– otherwise a good maintenance of the vehicles would not be
possible. Even if it sounds weird, the rise of the costs from 25
to 35 cents is not bearable for some of the students (and their
parents). The concentration of the manifestations took place in
the south of the city which is known to be less prosperous. The
government now announced that – for the time being –
prices would not be raised. Nevertheless, there will be a commission
investigating on the necessity of the rise – this analysis
could take some months!
The news in Ecuador spoke about one theme the whole week: leftist
Colombian rebels of the guerilla organization Revolutionary Forces
of Colombia (FARC) intensified their assaults in the rural area
of the border between Colombia and Ecuador. Officials do see a connection
to the planned election of the president and parliament this year.
“El Kaiser” – that’s how the Ecuadorians
affectionately call Franz Beckenbauer – took his first stop
on his promotion trip for the FIFA World Championship 2006 in the
city of Quito. When he got awarded with the golden keys by Mayor
Paco Moncayo he asked giggly if it was possible, now as being an
honorary citizen, to use the public transport system for free. Further
honours to the head of the organization commission for the World
Championship 2006 were given by president Palacio and other members
of the congress. When having a walk through the center of Quito,
Franz Beckenbauer got surrounded by various surprised pedestrians
who recognized the ex-footballer. The committee carried on with
its trip on the same day to Guayaquil, where another official reception
of the notables took place. The visit of the German delegation is
of particular importance to Ecuador since the two nations are going
to be opponents in the preliminary round of the World Championship.
The purpose of the Committee’s eleven day trip to all participating
nations from the Americas is to inform governments and executives
about the organizational structure of the championship and, more
importantly, to create spirit and passion among the public for the
upcoming mega-event. In Ecuador, however, there is definitively
no need for further promotion. The whole nation is already impatiently
waiting for seeing their team participating in the world’s
most importan ports event.
In Ecuador the carnival is being celebrated annually during the
week before Lent – this year on 27 and 28 February. And this
means in this country primarily one thing: water! So all those who
take a walk around the streets have to be careful, as behind every
corner an Ecuadorian could be lurking trying to achieve one thing:
to throw a water-filled balloon at other people. Next to water the
balloons are also filled with flour or all other material that guarantees
to cause a big mess. The single exception from this tradition can
be found in the town of Ambato where dropping water-bombs is forbidden
and flour has been replaced by flowers. The famous “Fiesta
de las Frutas y las Flores” has already been the top topic
of our February Newsletter. The bank holidays around the carnival
are often used by the local people to take a short break on the
beaches of the Costa. So we can observe each year a kind of a migration
towards the sunny places of the country where the carnival is being
celebrated particularly intensive. And given the warm temperatures
there, nobody seems to be bothered by refreshing water bombs any
more.
On the occasion of its 33rd anniversary, the Ecuadorian province
of Galapagos signed a contract that sets the seal on building urgently
needed facilities for water treatment. While a tourist primarily
thinks of a fascinating world with unique flora and fauna when hearing
the word Galapagos, the residents of the island suffer from a serious
problem: the lack of clean drinking water! This causes considerable
health problems among the population, whereas especially skin diseases
can be observed quite often in connection to the bad water quality.
The project - which aims at establishing a permanent supply of clear
drinking water for the main settlements San Cristóbal, Santa
Cruz, Isabela and Floreana - will cost around 13 million US dollar.
For its implementation, an interlocking system of water extraction
installations, treatment plants, reservoirs and distribution facilities
have to be constructed and to be adapted to the diverse eco-system
of the Islands. In San Cristóbal, for instance, a natural
freshwater spring already exists and only facilities for water extraction
have to be built. If the project will go according to plan, the
inhabitants of the main islands can be provided with fresh drinking
water on a permanent basis already in 17 months.
The negotiations about free-trade between South America and the
USA are going into last orders. An agreement between Colombia and
the States could only be found under the condition that Colombia
made great confessions to the USA: It assured increased volumes
of its most important agricultural products such as rice, corn and
chicken - much higher cessions as originally intended. In return,
Colombia will obtain special prices for its tobacco, liquor, sugar
and dairy products. Now it seems that Ecuador will have to follow
the Colombian way: According to the Ecuadorian commerce secretary
Manuel Chiriboga, only the most sensitive agricultural products
can be protected – similar as in the case of Colombia these
are rice, corn, chicken, pork, beef and dairy products. Pablo Rizzo,
the Ecuadorian Secretary of Agriculture, stressed the importance
of including projects to promote the agricultural sector in the
negotiations. While Colombia already holds 167 of those projects,
there are only twelve in Ecuador. As an example, Ecuador offers
the possibility to increase the agreed export volume of 240 barrels
milk powder – under the condition, that the state-run plans
of nourishment will not open for foreign competition.
While last week in Washington the final negotiations about free
trade between Ecuador and the USA began, fierce protests arose in
Ecuador. The most powerful association of indigenous people, the
Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas has appealed
for protests that shut down the traffic in 11 of the 22 provinces
of Ecuador by blockades. The foreign trade minister Jorge Illingworth
admitted that too little information about the free trade agreements
had been spread. Accordant to Illingworth, the cause of the protests
has to be seen partly in the ignorance about the benefits of the
planned agreements. While Illingworth was worrying about the disadvantages
that might occur to Ecuador in case that the contracts will not
be signed and the State Secretary was claiming that the negotiations
have to be brought to a termination at all costs, Alfredo Castillo,
minister of the interior was seeking a dialogue with the opponents
of the TLC. Although he justified the demands of the Indian population
who is in fear of loosing its independence, no dialogue with the
opponents could be accomplished because he resigned of his post
last Wednesday - only shortly before Oswaldo Jarrin, minister of
defence, arranged the dissolution of the blockades.
In connection with the protests around the TLC (we reported last
week) an interesting paradox can be observed: While the opponents
of the free trade negotiations with the USA are mainly protesting
due to concerns for the national agricultural sector, the very same
suffered heavily from the street blockades caused by the insurgents.
The market hall of Ambato was considerably less busy than usual
in the last week. A great number of grocers from the surrounding
regions were not able to bring their products to the consumers as
all significant transport routes where blocked. The few of them,
who still managed to get through to the market places, were not
able to offer the food in adequate quality. “Normally it takes
me seven hours to get here. This time I had to take an alternative
route via Esmeraldas which lasted 19 hours. When I arrived here,
I could not sell the food any more as it has gone off!” reports
a merchant. The situation is especially precarious in the town of
Tulcán, where the prices for staple foods have increased
drastically in the last week. For example, a bunch of banana normally
costs 40 cents at the local market, since the blockades its price
has risen up to one dollar.
After two years of trial, the Congress yesterday adopted the bill
which is supposed to strengthen the rights of the Afro-American
villages as it was anticipated by the legislator of Esmeraldas,
Rafael Erazo.
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