UN report on Ecuador links crime with poverty, faults government for not ending bonded labor

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A U.N. envoy urged Ecuador's leaders Friday to boost enforcement of labor laws and end popular fuel subsidies as part of key policy changes needed alongside their continuing efforts to combat the drug-related crime that has undermined the country's peaceful image. ...

Security in Ecuador has come undone as drug cartels exploit the banana industry to ship cocaine

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Men walk through a lush plantation between Ecuador ’s balmy Pacific coast and its majestic Andes, lopping hundreds of bunches of green bananas from groaning plants twice their height. Workers haul the bunches to an assembly line, where the bananas are...

Messi has 2 assists in front of star-studded crowd in Los Angeles as Inter Miami beats LAFC 3-1

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Inter Miami is unbeaten since Lionel Messi arrived at the club in mid-July. On Sunday night, it played its best game of the season on the road against the defending MLS Cup champions. Messi had two assists in front of a star-studded crowd in Inter...

Ecuador says 57 guards and police officers are released after being held hostage in several prisons

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuadorian authorities announced Friday the release of 50 guards and seven police officers who were taken hostage for more than a day, in what the government described as a response by criminal groups to its efforts to regain control of several large correctional facilities...

Car bomb explosions and hostage-taking inside prisons underscore Ecuador's fragile security

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador's fragile security situation was underscored Thursday by a series of car bombings and the hostage-taking of more than 50 law enforcement officers inside various prisons, just weeks after the country was shaken by the assassination of a presidential candidate. ...

Spain busts record 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment from Ecuador

MADRID (AP) — Spanish customs agents and National Police said Friday they confiscated the country’s biggest cocaine haul to date of 9.5 tons hidden in a banana freight container originating from Ecuador. The drug was found Wednesday in the southwestern port of Algeciras in a...

Ecuadorians reject oil drilling in the Amazon, ending operations in a protected area

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Ecuadorians voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon, an important decision that will require the state oil company to end its operations in a region that’s home to isolated tribes and is a hotspot of biodiversity. With over 90% of...

Son of banana tycoon pulls off upset in Ecuador and advances to presidential runoff

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — An heir to a fortune built on Ecuador's main crop of bananas has pulled off an upset by advancing to the country's presidential runoff election in which he will face an ally of a convicted former president who remains an influential figure in the South American country....

Vote count in Ecuador points to likely runoff between ally of ex-president and banana tycoon’s son

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuadorians put aside fears of leaving their homes amid unprecedented violence and voted for a new president Sunday in a special election that was heavily guarded by police and soldiers in part due to the assassination of a presidential candidate this month. ...

Early results in Ecuador show possible presidential runoff between ex-president’s ally and banana tycoon’s son