News stories by Gonzalo Ortiz, page 2

The four young Haitians told legal authorities that they were offered complete scholarships to the university, but that once they reached Ecuador they were locked up in a house and made to pay 150 dollars a month for rent and board, while given the run around about the promised education.

The Ecuadorean government declared U.S. Ambassador Heather Hodges 'persona non grata' and expelled her from the country in response to a cable released by the Wikileaks whistleblower web site.

The appointment of an ultra-conservative priest as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Sucumbíos, in northeastern Ecuador, triggered open rebellion among a large proportion of the area's Catholics, with the support of civil society organisations and even of President Rafael Correa himself.

The plaintiffs in the case against Chevron tried in Ecuador, who won a historic 9.5 billion dollar verdict after a nearly 18-year struggle over environmental and health damages caused in a quarter-century of oil operations in the Amazon jungle, are not disheartened by the road still ahead.

Major progress has been made in Ecuador over the last few years in reducing child malnutrition and expanding educational coverage.

'Good morning. I've come to see a friend,' says a young man in a brown cap carrying a small plastic bag of apples. The receptionist opens the iron-barred door and lets him in to the aged, third-rate hotel in Quito's historic centre, rented in its entirety by the Ecuadorian state to house undocumented immigrants.

Seven of the 16 foreign oil companies operating in Ecuador have decided to pull out of the country in disagreement with a reformed oil law that turned the firms into providers of services to which the government will pay a fixed tariff for operating the fields.

Ecuadorean immigrants have been put in an even more vulnerable position by the lingering economic crisis in the industrialised world, especially in Spain and the United States, the main destinations for migrants from Latin America.

Outside the modest two-story adobe house, a flag of Ecuador flutters alongside a large sign that reads 'Ikat: weaving demonstrations and sales.' Hanks of yarn and colourful fabrics hang from the handrail running around the edge of the courtyard and balcony, and weaving looms can be seen inside.

'This year there haven't been many 'dorados', but they're beginning to appear now,' Ramón Díaz says hopefully as he disembarks with his fellow fishermen after spending the entire night out on the water.