QUITO, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa
held his first Cabinet meetings more than 35 years before he was
elected.

As an 8-year-old boy in the bustling port city of Guayaquil,
according to his brother, he would play head of state with his
friends who gathered around him to serve as ersatz ministers
taking his orders.

QUITO, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael
Correa has maintained a huge lead over his nearest opposition
rival in the run-up to the Feb. 17 elections, recent polls show.

Correa’s popularity has remained above 50 percent throughout
his six years in office, buoyed by his personal charisma as well
as his government’s heavy spending on hospitals, roads and
schools.

QUITO (Reuters) – Two supporters of Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa were killed on Monday and four more suffered stab wounds during a campaign rally almost two weeks before a presidential election that the leftist leader is expected to win comfortably.

“Crazy person stabs seven AP people while they were waiting for the President. Two have been killed,” Correa said in his Twitter account, referring to supporters of the ruling Alianza Pais political movement, known as AP.

QUITO (Reuters) – Two supporters of Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa were killed on Monday and four more suffered stab wounds during a campaign rally almost two weeks before a presidential election that the leftist leader is expected to win comfortably.

“Crazy person stabs seven AP people while they were waiting for the President. Two have been killed,” Correa said in his Twitter account, referring to supporters of the ruling Alianza Pais political movement, known as AP.

ZUMBAHUA, Ecuador, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Once a forgotten
cluster of mud houses amid windswept peaks, the Ecuadorean
village of Zumbahua today boasts a state-of-the-art schoolhouse
with large projection touch screens, Internet access in every
classroom and lessons in three languages.

Indigenous Kichwa Indians who once stuffed savings under
their mattresses now have a bank in town and a free Internet
cafe – all paid for by the state.

QUITO, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Ecuador will launch a licensing
round on Wednesday for 13 oil blocks in unspoiled Amazon areas
despite opposition from indigenous groups that fear damage to
their ancestral lands.

Ecuador, OPEC’s smallest member, is upbeat that it will
attract investments worth at least $1 billion in oil exploration
projects for the 13 blocks, as well as three more that have been
assigned to state-run oil company Petroamazonas.

QUITO (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is suffering from a chronic lung ailment that could worsen at any time and is being checked regularly by doctors, the Andean country’s ambassador to Britain said on Wednesday.

Assange, 41, whose website angered the United States by releasing thousands of secret diplomatic cables, has been holed up inside Ecuador’s embassy in London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. Assange has denied any wrongdoing.

QUITO (Reuters) – A species of giant tortoises from the Galapagos Islands could be brought back from extinction despite the death earlier this year of the famed “Lonesome George,” a tourist magnet and conservation icon who was the last of his kind.

Genetic material from George’s species, which was largely killed off in the 1800s by pirates and whalers who hunted their meat, has survived in tortoises on the islands – and scientists think they may be able to bring the species back to life.

QUITO, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Ecuador lawmakers on Tuesday
approved hiking bank taxes to finance cash payments to the poor,
a move that could cement President Rafael Correa’s chances of
winning re-election, but which banks have described as a
confiscation.

Correa, the clear favorite to win the February vote, has
broad popular support thanks to anti-poverty initiatives and a
leftist platform of boosting state involvement in the economy.

QUITO, Nov 15 (Reuters) – Ecuador’s state-run oil firms
Petroecuador and Petroamazonas are close to merging their
upstream operations, which should let the OPEC-member country
increase output in the future, energy officials said on
Thursday.

The merger, announced in October 2011, will have
Petroamazonas in charge of all upstream operations, including
the six blocks (fields) it already runs as well as eight blocks
operated by Petroecuador, which will become the state’s
downstream oil company.