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    Ecuadorean President’s Opponent Contests His Re-Election Win

    In a divisive election season, Daniel Noboa pledged to bring law and order. His opponent immediately contested the results.Ecuador’s president, who unexpectedly surged in the polls to secure a shortened term in 2023, was declared the victor of the presidential election with a decisive lead on Sunday in a race that showed voters’ faith in his vows to tackle the security crisis with an iron fist.Daniel Noboa, 37, defeated Luisa González, 47, the handpicked successor of former President Rafael Correa.Both candidates accused the other of electoral violations throughout the election season, and Ms. González said she would not recognize the results of the election, in a speech from the headquarters of her party, Citizen Revolution.“I want to be very clear and emphatic: The Citizen Revolution has always recognized a defeat in the last elections when polls, tracking and statistics have shown it,” Ms. González said. “Today, we do not recognize these results.”Mr. Noboa celebrated his victory from the coastal town of Olón.“This day has been historic,” he said. “There is no doubt who the winner is.”The day before the election, Mr. Noboa declared a state of emergency in seven states, most of them González strongholds, raising fears that he was trying to suppress the vote among her supporters. The declaration restricts social activities and allows police and military to enter homes without permission.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘They tricked us’: migrants who braved the Darién Gap forced home by Trump deal

    Outside the Lajas Blancas migrant camp in southern Panama, wooden shops are boarded up. A bed of cold ash lies in an iron drum barbecue which once served meat skewers to hungry migrants.Six months ago, hundreds of people would pass through the camp every day, emerging from the jungles of the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama to receive humanitarian aid, before continuing their journey north towards the US.Now, however, migration through the gap has slowed to a trickle and the footfall is in the opposite direction, as many migrants from South America try to return home.Adriangela Contreras was one of 300,000 migrants to make the perilous crossing in 2024, carrying her two-year-old daughter, Arianna, as she stepped over dead bodies on the trail.She arrived at Lajas Blancas in November amid a crackdown by Panamanian authorities who rolled out barbed wire in the jungle and introduced biometric tests at the border.Under a $6m agreement with the US, hundreds of migrants from Colombia and Ecuador were returned to their home countries on deportation flights.Most Venezuelans were allowed to proceed, however, and Contreras’ group made it as far as southern Mexico, sleeping in the street and selling candies or washing windscreens to earn bus fares. But when on his first day in office Donald Trump shut down the CBP One app used by asylum seekers to request appointments, Contreras felt she had little option but to retrace her steps.“I’m so disappointed, I didn’t [decide to migrate] for myself but for my family,” she said. “Now I just want to go home, it’s been a long and difficult journey.”The shutdown of CBP One and the increased Panamanian controls have all but extinguished the Darién migrant route.In February, crossings were down 96% compared with the previous year. At the end of that month Lajas Blancas – which once regularly sheltered over 3,000 migrants in plywood buildings and tents – held just 485 migrants, 90% of whom had come from the north.So far this year, 4,091 migrants have returned to Panama and the government has struggled to deal with the logistics of this reverse flow.Oscar Ramírez, a 52-year-old Venezuelan, arrived at Lajas Blancas with barely $1 in his pocket. He had sold his truck to follow the “American dream”, but said he was robbed in Mexico City and then held prisoner by people smugglers in a hotel near Monterrey. “The only thing sure about Mexico is that you will be mugged,” he said.When he eventually made it into the US he was arrested by Ice that same morning and detained for three months before being deported to Villahermosa, Mexico, in January.“They tricked us,” he said, “they told us we would be able to get a repatriation flight from Panama.”Many of the migrants, including Contreras, say they were promised that, upon reaching Panama, they would be offered a place on a plane to Cúcuta, a Colombian city on the border with Venezuela.When the flight never materialized, some migrants who could afford it began taking small boats back to Colombia. On 22 February, a boat containing 19 migrants capsized and a nine-year-old Venezuelan girl drowned.Since then, the Panamanian government has introduced a new route, bussing migrants from Lajas Blancas to Miramar, a port on the Caribbean coast, and boarding them on to ferries to La Miel, an isolated village close to the Colombian border.“It was a horrible experience,” said Jessica Álvarez, who had never been on a boat before. “There were times when I thought we were going to turn over, it was really scary. I vomited and my son was really sick, everyone was so seasick.”From La Miel the migrants are sent on small boats to the villages of Capurganá and then Necoclí in Colombian territory. From there many, including Álvarez, have opted to stay with friends or family in Colombian cities.But Contreras and her daughter remain stuck in Necoclí.“When we first arrived they gave us nothing, not a bite to eat, not a mattress, nothing,” she said, speaking by phone from the Colombian port. With the help of some friends she managed to find a space on the floor of a guesthouse, but she is unsure how she will raise the money to return to Venezuela to see her son who recently underwent eye surgery.“I just want to be back with my family. I hope Venezuela has something better in store for me,” she said.The presidents of Panama and Colombia will meet in Panama City on 28 March with migration at the top of the agenda. Humanitarian aid agencies have started to depart Lajas Blancas, which is due to be closed in the coming weeks. Any further migrants arriving through the Darién Gap will be immediately deported to their home country or to Colombia, according to Panama’s ministry of public security.Ramírez had the funds to pay for a bus to Cúcuta and by Wednesday was back with his family in the state of Barinas. Over the phone he said he was happy to be home, even if he no longer had his truck.“Us migrants, we all had the same thing in our heads, the American dream,” he said. “But after the things we lived, I realized it’s just that: a dream.” More

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    Baltazar Ushca, Who Kept Andean Ice Harvesting Alive, Dies at 80

    He trekked up Ecuador’s tallest mountain twice a week for six decades to hack ice off a glacier with a pickax. He is believed to have been the last of his breed.For 60 years, Baltazar Ushca worked a rare but rigorous trade: ice merchant. Once or twice a week, he climbed snow-capped Mount Chimborazo, Ecuador’s highest peak, to hack ice from a glacier with a pickax, wrap the 60-pound blocks in hay and transport them on the backs of his donkeys. He would then sell them to villagers who did not have electricity and needed refrigeration to conserve their food.It started as a family business. Mr. Ushca’s father, Juan, was an ice merchant, as were his brothers, Juan and Gregorio, and they made their very modest livings off the Chimborazo ice.But Mr. Ushca, who was 4-foot-11, chipped at the ice decades after modern refrigeration came to his village, by which time his job was nearly obsolete. He gradually became known as the last of his breed, selling his blocks of ice for a few dollars each largely to vendors in a market in Riobamba, Ecuador, for use in fruit drinks and making ice cream.“The natural ice from Chimborazo is the best ice,” Mr. Ushca said in a short documentary, “El Último Hielero,” or “The Last Ice Merchant” (2012), directed by Sandy Patch. “The tastiest and the sweetest. Full of vitamins for your bones.”Once he reached the market, he delivered the blocks of ice by carrying them on his back.“My kids would say, ‘Why suffering so much?’” Gregorio Ushca said the documentary. “‘Being so cold, walking far, if you almost make no money?’”Since he was 15, Baltazar Ushca has harvested the glacial ice of Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo. His brothers have long since retired. “El Último Hielero” is a story of cultural change and adaption.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Ecuador Hit by Nationwide Blackout

    The public works minister said the power outage had been caused by the failure of a key transmission line. Within hours, power had begun to be restored to the nation of 18 million.Ecuador was plunged into a nationwide blackout on Wednesday afternoon, and the country’s public works minister blamed the emergency on the failure of a key transmission line.The minister, Roberto Luque, said in a statement on X that he had received a report from the national electricity operator, CENACE, about “a failure in the transmission line that caused a cascade disconnection, so there is no energy service nationwide.”He said the authorities were working to resolve the outage “as quickly as possible.” Within hours, power had begun to return to some parts of Quito, the capital.The South American country of 18 million people has been struggling with an energy crisis for several years. Failing infrastructure, a lack of maintenance and a dependence on imported energy have all contributed to rolling blackouts — though none have been as widespread as this one.Around 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, the majority of Ecuadoreans found themselves without power.Most of the country’s energy comes from neighboring Colombia, a nation that has struggled to generate enough power for its own domestic consumption.A $2.25 billion Chinese-built hydroelectric power plant, the Coca Codo Sinclair Dam, was supposed to help solve Ecuador’s problem. Located on the Coca River in the province of Napo, 62 miles east of Quito, it is the largest energy project in Ecuador.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Could Ecuador’s Diplomatic Spat With Mexico Be a Boon for Noboa?

    Analysts believe that President Daniel Noboa’s re-election hopes are what motivated the arrest of an Ecuadorean politician taking refuge at the Mexican Embassy.Ecuador’s decision to send police officers into the Mexican Embassy to arrest a politician who had taken refuge there inflamed tensions between two countries that were already at odds, but it may prove a political boon for the Ecuadorean president.President Daniel Noboa has been faced with flagging approval ratings amid rising violence weeks before a referendum that could affect his prospects for re-election next year. The spat with Mexico, which suspended diplomatic relations, may be just what he needed.The politician who was arrested, Jorge Glas, a former vice president of Ecuador, had been sentenced to prison for corruption and living at the Mexican Embassy in Quito since December. Then on Friday, Mexico granted him asylum, and the Ecuadorean police moved in.Mr. Noboa’s office said that the arrest had gone forward because Mexico had abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission, but the message it sent was also in keeping line with Mr. Noboa’s hardhanded approach to tackling violence and graft in Ecuador.The 36-year-old center-right leader came to power in November after President Guillermo Lasso, facing impeachment proceedings over accusations of embezzlement, called for early elections. Mr. Noboa is in office until May 2025, the remainder of Mr. Lasso’s term.Mr. Noboa’s ability to show that he can restore law and order to the nation of nearly 18 million may prove critical to his re-election, and that means tackling the country’s gangs, as well as corruption within the government that has enabled criminal groups, analysts say.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Who Is Jorge Glas, an Ecuadorean Politician Arrested at Mexico’s Embassy?

    A former vice president of Ecuador, Jorge Glas had been convicted of bribery in two separate cases. He had fled to the Mexican Embassy in Quito after facing more embezzlement charges.Mexico has severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador after Ecuadorean police officers on Friday arrested Jorge Glas, an Ecuadorean politician who had been granted refuge in Mexico’s Embassy in Quito.That arrest, which Mexico described as a “violation” of its sovereignty, capped days of growing tensions between the two Latin American countries. Ecuador has considered Mr. Glas a fugitive and said its police force was acting on an arrest warrant for Mr. Glas.Here’s what to know about the politician at the center of the dispute.Jorge Glas is a former vice president of Ecuador.Mr. Glas served in several ministerial roles under the longtime left-wing government of a former Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa. Mr. Glas’s most notable role was as Mr. Correa’s vice president, a position he held from 2013 to 2017.His term as vice president in the subsequent government, led by Lenín Moreno, lasted only a few months. In 2017, he was forced from office and sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of receiving over $13.5 million dollars in bribes.The bribes had involved Odebrecht, an international construction giant that admitted to paying bribes in more than a dozen countries. The corruption scandal implicated current and former officials in Latin America and has rocked its political establishment.He became mired in other bribery charges.In 2020, a separate bribery case led to Mr. Glas being found guilty of accepting money in exchange for issuing public contracts between 2012 and 2016.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Medio planeta a las urnas

    Medio planeta a las urnasDesafíos democráticos, operativo Metástasis en Ecuador y más para estar al día.Millones de votantes acudieron a las urnas a inicios de este mes. A la izquierda, en Bangladés; a la derecha, en Bután.Monirul Alam/EPA, vía Shutterstock; Money Sharma/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEste 2024 se perfila como el año de mayor actividad electoral en el mundo: están previstos más de 80 comicios importantes, la mayor cantidad en, al menos, las siguientes dos décadas.Esto significa que, en el transcurso del año, unos 4000 millones de votantes tendrán en sus manos algún tipo de decisión para incidir en el futuro de su país, según algunos cálculos. Es casi la mitad de los habitantes del planeta.Solo en América, se prevé que electores en El Salvador, Estados Unidos, México, Panamá, República Dominicana, Uruguay y Venezuela acudan a las urnas para elegir a sus mandatarios.A pesar de que este intenso ejercicio electoral podría parecer un indicio positivo para la democracia, algunos expertos aseguran que hay motivos para preocuparse. Por todo el mundo han surgido desafíos a este sistema político: grandes migraciones, conflictos internacionales, crecientes brechas económicas, polarización.“Casi todas las democracias están bajo estrés, sin tomar en cuenta la tecnología”, dijo en un artículo reciente Darrell West, investigador del Instituto Brookings. “Cuando a eso le sumas la desinformación, simplemente se crean muchas oportunidades para causar problemas”.Entre esos problemas se encuentran los esfuerzos para “desacreditar la democracia como modelo global de gobernanza”, escribieron los reporteros Tiffany Hsu, Stuart A. Thompson y Steven Lee Myers. Además observaron que cada vez hay más actores que impulsan narrativas de fraude electoral con este fin.México es uno de los países que va a tener elecciones presidenciales este año.Las divisiones sociales, las guerras culturales y la polarización también sirven como terreno fértil para la propagación de discursos extremistas y de odio en distintas plataformas, lo que, a largo plazo, socava la capacidad de superar las diferencias y formar gobiernos de unidad.Más allá del plano de las votaciones, la institucionalidad es crucial para el buen funcionamiento democrático. En una columna reciente de The Interpreter, Amanda Taub reflexiona sobre sus virtudes y retos.Las instituciones, escribió Amanda, “existen para que los procesos complejos puedan automatizarse, para que grandes grupos de personas puedan colaborar sin tener que crear nuevos sistemas para hacerlo y para que personas como yo podamos confiar en su pericia sin poseer ni un ápice de esa experiencia”.Sin embargo, continúa, en los últimos años se ha registrado un deterioro institucional que pone en riesgo la gobernabilidad en numerosos países.Apenas este fin de semana, Guatemala vivió horas de zozobra ante la incertidumbre de si Bernardo Arévalo podría asumir la presidencia. Arévalo ganó la segunda vuelta de las elecciones con 20 puntos porcentuales de ventaja y, no obstante, enfrentó diversos esfuerzos para impedir que tomara posesión del cargo. En la madrugada del lunes, después de un retraso, Arévalo fue juramentado.El presidente de Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, y su vicepresidenta, Karin Herrera, saludan a los asistentes desde el balcón del Palacio Nacional para celebrar su toma de posesión el lunes.Daniele Volpe para The New York TimesSin embargo, los obstáculos que enfrentó por parte de sus opositores se generaron mayormente por la vía institucional. “En el siglo XX eran golpes de fuerza con tanques, bayonetas, con militares y duraban dos o tres días”, comentó Arévalo el año pasado en un reportaje del Times. “Los golpes del siglo XXI son dados con diputados, con abogados, en las cortes, se hacen así”, dijo. “Es más sofisticado, tarda mucho más tiempo, se hace con la pretensión de que se continúa con las instituciones”.En todo el mundo hay indicios de este tipo de erosión. En Estados Unidos, Francia e Israel, por ejemplo, se ha observado una tendencia de los distintos poderes de gobierno a desafiar los límites constitucionales. En Hungría, Viktor Orbán ha reconfigurado la Constitución a fin de concentrar el poder. En Ecuador, una investigación reciente mostró que el crimen organizado se había infiltrado en el sistema penitenciario.A pesar de las teorías conspirativas y la desinformación, es relativamente fácil seguir el hilo de las carreras electorales: hay candidatos, conteo de votos y ganadores y perdedores. Pero, como observa Amanda, también vale la pena prestar tanta atención a la salud institucional como al desempeño de las contiendas electorales.P. D.: Hablando de votaciones, Taiwán eligió presidente el fin de semana. Esto es lo que hay que saber.Si alguien te reenvió este correo, puedes hacer clic aquí para recibirlo tres veces por semana.Rincón de los lectoresGrisy Oropeza y su esposo, Dyluis Rojas. Solicitaron asilo poco después de llegar a Nueva York.José A. Alvarado Jr. para The New York TimesA continuación, una selección de diversos puntos de vista y experiencias que nuestros lectores enviaron a la sección de comentarios y a nuestro buzón de correo, editadas por extensión y claridad.“Emigrar es una opción válida para cualquier persona que crea que lo quiere o lo deba hacer, lo irregular es la actitud que desde hace mucho tiempo viene ejerciendo Estados Unidos contra infinidad de países a los que considera enemigos o contrarios a sus políticas”. —Octavio Cruz González, Cali, Colombia, respecto al reportaje sobre una familia venezolana en un limbo burocrático en Nueva York.“Me gustaría compartir con ustedes algunas recomendaciones para quienes realizan senderismo, a propósito de su artículo sobre esta actividad: 1) A menos que se trate de un parque urbano no invites a tus mascotas, se pueden extraviar o dañar la fauna y flora salvajes. Si insistes en llevarlos, usa correa y hazte cargo de sus excrementos llevándolos hasta un contenedor. 2) Hazte responsable de tu basura. No tires nada al suelo, ni siquiera lo orgánico: ese corazón de manzana que crees que se descompondrá pronto lo puede terminar comiendo un animal salvaje. 3) La gente que te rodea va a disfrutar de la naturaleza y el paisaje, queremos oír el ruido del agua y del viento, ¡no lo que sale de tus parlantes! 4) Si vas a una zona afectada por la sequía, lleva un litro adicional de agua para regar algún arbusto. Y si ya vas a terminar, usa el agua que te sobra también para regar o dejar en los bebederos de aves”. —Javiera Osorio, Santiago, Chile, respecto al senderismo y sus beneficios.“Viví una experiencia similar el pasado verano cuando cayó mi iPhone al mar. Decidí no reponer el teléfono móvil inmediatamente. Estaba cansado de tanto mensaje de WhatsApp, de Instagram y otras apps. Gané libertad, recuperé la vida próxima (la realidad que me rodeaba). También observé que me involucraba más en lo que hacía. Así aguanté hasta el iPhone 15, vuelta a la normalidad. Estoy pensando cómo reducir las horas de pantalla. Es difícil compaginar, por un lado, la vida ‘normal’, la del trabajo y las conexiones con familiares y amigos, y por otro la vida ‘desconectado’”. —Enrique López-Amor, Barcelona, España, respecto a la adicción a los teléfonos inteligentes.“La humanidad es testigo de cómo una tecnología puede ser utilizada para el bienestar o para la destrucción del otro. Leo y escucho que debe controlarse, la ética, la moral deben ser los cinturones de ajuste. La pregunta, entre otras interrogantes, es: ¿quiénes serán los ‘jueces’ que determinen cómo, dónde, con quién, para qué se hace un correcto uso de esta tecnología? El tema es que las grandes corporaciones se están arrogando el título de jueces, inclusive por encima de los gobiernos”. —Roberto Gómez Sánchez, Lima, Perú, respecto a un ensayo sobre la inteligencia artificial.— More

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    Severe Weather in U.S., and Crisis in Ecuador

    The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.The Headlines brings you the biggest stories of the day from the Times journalists who are covering them, all in about five minutes.Heavy rain in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Tuesday.Dave Sanders for The New York TimesOn Today’s Episode:Tornadoes, Blizzards, Floods: Severe Storms Hit Vast Sections of U.S., by Victoria Kim, John Yoon and Mike Ives5 Takeaways From the Appeals Court Hearing on Trump’s Immunity Claim, by Charlie Savage and Alan FeuerEcuador Plunges Into Crisis Amid Prison Riots and Gang Leader’s Disappearance, by Annie Correal, Genevieve Glatsky and José María León CabreraSurprised by New Details About Austin’s Health, White House Orders Review, by Peter BakerFood Assistance for Mothers and Children Faces Funding Shortfall, by Madeleine NgoIn Newark, 16-Year-Olds ‘With Skin in the Game’ Are Set to Get the Vote, by Tracey TullyIan Stewart and More