QUITO, March 5 (Reuters) – Ecuador’s President Rafael
Correa on Tuesday signed the country’s first ever large-scale
mining contract, which calls for Chinese-owned Ecuacorriente to
invest $1.4 billion in the El Mirador copper project.

Ecuador has no mining industry to speak of and Correa, a
U.S. trained economist, is eager to attract investment to tap
the country’s big copper, gold and silver deposits and diversify
the economy from its dependency on oil exports.

QUITO, March 2 (Reuters) – The legal team representing
Ecuadorean plaintiffs who won an $18 billion landmark case
against oil giant Chevron for polluting the Amazon
jungle will target the company’s assets in Panama and Venezuela
in a bid to collect the award.

Pablo Fajardo, the plaintiffs lead lawyer, told Reuters
on Friday that they would first need countries
outside Ecuador to recognize the validity of the sentence, and
then could try to enforce the ruling there.

Feb 28 (Reuters) – An international tribunal has found
that it has jurisdiction to decide if Ecuador violated a treaty
with the United States requiring it to guarantee a fair trial to
Chevron Corp in an environmental lawsuit that ended in
an $18 billion judgment against the oil company.

A Tuesday posting on Chevron’s website that was attributed
to the tribunal read: “The tribunal declares that it has
jurisdiction to proceed to the merits phase of these arbitration
proceedings.”

QUITO, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Ecuador’s leftist President
Rafael Correa on Monday pardoned three newspaper publishers and
a former columnist who had been sentenced to jail and ordered to
pay $40 million damages in a libel case that angered media
freedom advocates.

Since taking office in 2007, Correa has been sparring with
journalists whom he accuses of trying to undermine his rule of
the South American OPEC member. Media critics accuse him of
muzzling them and behaving like an autocrat.

QUITO (Reuters) – A court in Ecuador has rejected an order by arbitrators that an $18 billion pollution ruling against Chevron should be frozen, but the judges referred an appeal by the U.S. oil company to the country’s Supreme Court.

A year after the landmark decision against Chevron, a panel working for The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration told Ecuador last week to take all necessary measures to suspend enforcement of the award at home and abroad.

QUITO, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Ecuador’s top court on
Thursday upheld a jail sentence against three newspaper
publishers who were also ordered to pay hefty damages for
libelling leftist President Rafael Correa, in a ruling described
by media advocates as a blow to democracy.

The combative Correa has been sparring with local media ever
since he took office in 2007 promising a strong government to
better redistribute wealth in the South American OPEC member.

SAN FRANCISCO/QUITO (Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has filed an appeal with Ecuador’s National Court of Justice to review a judgment that the U.S. oil company pay $18 billion in damages for polluting the Amazon jungle.

Chevron was ordered by an Ecuadorian judge to pay the damages after a fraught legal battle that has lasted nearly two decades and looks like it will run longer.

QUITO, Dec 2 (Reuters) – The signing of contracts with two
mining companies, tensions between the central government and
lawmakers and an ongoing row between the media and President
Rafael Correa are issues to watch in Ecuador.

CORREA AND THE MINING SECTOR

Ecuador is set to sign contracts with two Canadian miners
planning to invest some $3 billion for gold and copper mines in
the mineral-rich Andean country. Negotiations for the contracts
have taken much longer than expected because Ecuador is trying
to reap high benefits from the nascent mining industry, which
would allow Correa to boost social spending.

QUITO, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Ecuador’s President Rafael
Correa said on Thursday his government is “within days” of
signing contracts with mining companies set to develop large
copper and gold projects in the mineral-rich Andean nation.

Deputy Mining Minister Federico Auquilla told Reuters
earlier this week that Canadian-listed Kinross Gold Corp and Ecuacorriente would soon sign contracts
for two projects worth $3 billion in total.

QUITO, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Rafael
Correa appointed two long-term allies as political economy
minister and head of the Andean country’s central bank as part
of a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle on Thursday.

Jeannette Sanchez was appointed as political economy
minister, the government’s top economic job. Until now she was
social development minister, and therefore in charge of
coordinating government efforts to fight poverty and improve
living standards.