The President and the Finger-Flipper

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, is making a fool of himself again. This time a teenager flipped off Correa's motorcade, Correa jumped out of his car, screamed at the kid and apparently had him arrested (I haven't seen anywhere what for). The kid was sentenced to do community service. You can't make this stuff up.

Ecuador’s notoriously thin-skinned president took his hypersensitivity to the next level last week when he abruptly ordered his motorcade to halt in the middle of the street to berate a teenager for mocking him from the sidewalk. 

Correa gets pissed and goes after a kid.

President Rafael Correa stopped his motorcade in downtown Quito on May 1 after spotting a 17-year-old teen flipping him the bird from the sidewalk. 

Bravely surrounded by his bodyguards, Ecuador’s most powerful man stepped from his bullet proof vehicle and aggressively huffed and puffed towards the teenager to confront him and his mother. 

The startled teenager, Luis Carrera, says President Correa poked him repeatedly in the chest and scolded him on the sidewalk. He said the president was so angry that tears were forming in his eyes. 

“He screamed ‘Show some respect, little kid! I am your president, you rude scoundrel!’” Carrera said.

Team Correa denied the part about poking the kid in the chest. Oh, well, that makes everything much more presidential, right?

Correa a couple months ago had a twitter snit about a comedian, John Oliver, who made fun of him on HBO for his hypersensitivity (thus, of course, proving Oliver right). Here's a link to the YouTube – it's really, really funny.

Correa also used his weekly TV show to attack a private citizen who had set up a Facebook page that had mocked him, as recounted here in The New York Times Magazine.

These examples are ludicrous, of course, and rather amusing, but it gets more serious when Correa sues newspapers for millions of dollars for criticizing him, in order to shut down dissent in the country.

This doesn't bode well for Ecuador's future.

Quito at Night

How I miss it.

Chevron-Ecuador: Just Start All Over?

I've mentioned the Chevron-Ecuador legal battle several times in the past – most recently here. Now it seems possible the latest court hearing the arguments (the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals) may feel that the whole thing is such a mess that it's best just to return to square one and start over.

On Monday, Circuit Judge Richard Wesley called the case "unmanageable." [...] 

Wesley asked if a solution might be to rewind the clock to have the case tried in New York as the Ecuadorians originally wanted. 

"Why not order a retrial?" he asked. "Why not cleanse the question of fraud?"

The Chevron-Ecuador Case

I've referred a few times to the legal battle between Chevron and Ecuador, which has been going on for a long time in many courts. The stakes are high ($9 billion), but the real fascination has been the maneuvering (some of which seems to have been fraudulent in nature).

I've been meaning to write a summary of it, but I've been scared off by its complexity. In lieu of that, here's a video summary.

Just bear in mind that this is Chevron's side of the story, so don't take it as gospel.

More Loans for Ecuador

This article from Bloomberg details several recent loans Ecuador has received from various sources – most prominently China and some major investment firms.

Ecuador got $924 million in previously undisclosed loans from Deutsche Bank AG and other lenders, showing the extent of President Rafael Correa’s effort to line up a record amount of financing as oil prices plunge. 

The country took $181 million in two separate loans from units of Deutsche Bank and obtained $125 million from the European Investment Bank, according to a prospectus prepared before the government sold bonds this month that was reviewed by Bloomberg News. Ecuador also got financing from Bank of China Ltd. and a Chinese state oil company, the document shows. 

The 50 percent drop in oil prices over the past 12 months has pushed the Andean nation’s financing needs to a record $10.5 billion this year, prompting Correa to court banks, international debt investors and foreign governments to make ends meet. Last week the country sold $750 million of bonds with a 10.5 percent interest rate, the highest for any major dollar-bond sale this year. [...] 

Included in the newly disclosed financing was a $218 million credit facility agreement with the Bank of China in November. The Deutsche Bank loans were in November and February. The European Investment Bank loan came in December. 

The government also said it received $2.4 billion in loans from Unipec Asia Co., a unit of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., in May 2014. Last year, Ecuador had put the size of the loans at $2 billion.

There's nothing wrong with getting loans of course. Governments do it all the time (as do we individuals). The concern in this case is that these loans are being sought to cover fiscal deficits the country is facing as a result of social programs which President Correa has expanded greatly, and which are unsustainable without the income Ecuador was receiving from Amazonian oil.

The extra loans still aren’t enough to offset the decline in oil prices and a slowdown in Chinese lending, Edward Glossop, an emerging-market economist at Capital Economics in London, said in a telephone interview. The government will need more money in the second half of the year if it wants to maintain current spending levels, he said. 

A promised $1.5 billion loan from China that was expected to be disbursed in February has already been delayed twice and is now expected to be disbursed in April, Herrera said March 23. The loan amount has risen and is now expected to be $2 billion, he said. 

“These kind of piecemeal arrangements of financing from here and there are only going to take them so far,” Glossop said. “It’s not going to change the fact that they can’t sustain this level of spending.

If oil prices remain low for long, then the government will be faced with some very hard choices: either the social programs will need to be cut back (which will cause some political unrest, and cut into Correa's high popularity ratings), or the government will have to go deep into debt (possibly causing the sort of problems Venezuela is currently facing).

Of course, the parallel is far from exact – Venezuela has been on its current path longer than Ecuador has, and its problems have been visible for quite a while. Venezuela is also far more dependent on oil than Ecuador is, and thus has been hit harder by recent price drops. Most important, perhaps, is that Venezuela has its own currency, the value of which the government can manipulate. Ecuador uses the US dollar.

As the temptation to manipulate currency rises, the temptation to have a currency the government can play with to provide short-term relief from fiscal problems may become too great to resist. At that point, Correa may decide to de-dollarize Ecuador (he was opposed to the original dollarization decision, made prior to his presidency), or try to use Ecuador's new e-currency to fill any budget gaps.

Note that the above several paragraphs of speculation began with a big 'if': “If oil prices remain low for long ...”

The Good Old Days in Ecuador

It is easy, at times, to become discouraged and to feel that the human race is not progressing at all. At such moments, it's good to take a cold, hard look at what life was really like long ago.

Although I'm a believer in law and order, I'm glad things have eased up a bit since this sentence was passed in Cuenca, Ecuador.

On September 10, 1783, Cuenca resident Melchor del Valle was convicted by the Spanish Royal Court of murdering his brother Sylvester. The sentence: “Two hundred lashes in the public square, then hanging on the gallows until death.” 

The court further ordered that, when the body was removed from the gallows, it was to be stuffed into a leather bag, along with a dog, a rooster, a snake and a monkey. The bag was then to be sewn shut and thrown into the Rio Tomebamba.

Although capital punishment was outlawed in Ecuador in the early 1906 (and had fallen into disuse well before – the last execution there, Wikipedia says, took place in 1884), justice was still quite rough.

The humiliation cross at Iglesia San Sebastian.

Public spectacle continued to be a central element of Cuenca justice until the second decade of the 20th century. Petty criminals were often tied to humiliation crosses at the entrances to the city, where they were kept for as long as two days. Citizens with grudges against the offenders showed up to apply personal versions of justice, usually with fists, whips and sticks. 

One of the humiliation crosses, made of marble, still stands on the corner of Simon Bolivar and Coronel Talbot, in front of Iglesia San Sebastian.

And it wasn't just justice that was tough in the old days. Public entertainment in Cuenca in the 18th Century was not for the squeamish.

According to the Spanish chronicler Marquez Gonzalez Suarez, [Governor] Vallejo [introduced] the popular Spanish pastime of cat roasting to Cuenca. The governor encouraged families to come to the central plaza, now Parque Calderon, on Sunday nights to watch cats in wire mesh cages lowered into a bonfire. According to Gonzalez Suarez, “The caterwauling and writhing of the burning felines always delighted and amused the spectators.” 

Graffiti Grammar Nazis in Quito

A small group in Quito who call themselves Accion Ortografica Quito (rough translation: Spelling Action Quito) is on a quest to correct the grammar and spelling errors that are rampant in the city's graffiti.

Since last November [the group has] been working to correct the spelling and grammatical errors of Quito’s graffiti artists. All three are anonymous (charges of

A successful mission.

vandalism in Quito can result in a fine and up to five days in jail ...) and they take stealth very seriously. Each operation begins with a reconnaissance mission to the scene of the grammatical crime, where one team member will take a picture of the offending work. Then, typically while sharing of beer (so much for “write drunk, edit sober”), they gather to debate the graffiti’s many grammatical failings: Where should the comma go? Is this letter supposed to be an “O” or an “A”? This can take a while — the team once found 13 mistakes in a simple, two-line message. 

The final edit always happens after dark. Clad in hoodies and ski masks, they sneak out in pairs — one to act as lookout, one editor — to complete their operation. Because the three agentes are grammar nerds and not actual secret agents, these missions don’t always go according to plan. 

“The first time we went out and corrected something, I was on lookout and I was supposed to whistle if I saw something,” Ponto Final recalled in a phone interview with The Washington Post. “But the very first car that went by was a cop car, and all of a sudden I couldn’t whistle, so I yelled ‘caw caw’ instead.”

Read it all – it's fun.

Why Won't Those Guys Compromise and Do as I Say?

I always enjoy the tactic, used almost universally by both parties to any political impasse (e.g., Obama and the US House), of saying that everything could be resolved quite simply if only the people on the other side would do the reasonable thing, which is of course whatever I'm telling them to do).

Ecuador a couple years ago gave asylum to the head guy of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, in their London embassy (he's under court order to be extradited to Sweden where there are sexual assault charges possibly awaiting him; he claims he might be extradited from there to the US for Wikileaks' activities in releasing US documents, and therefore he is entitled to political asylum).

Yesterday Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, said the solution was simple.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Tuesday that Britain had the power to resolve the Julian Assange standoff "tomorrow," after the WikiLeaks founder voiced hope he would soon leave Ecuador's embassy in London. 

"This could be resolved tomorrow if the United Kingdom gave him the safe-conduct," said Correa, referring to the pass Assange would need to leave the embassy without being arrested to face extradition.

Translation: “Hey, what's the big problem here? Just do things my way and we'll all get along fine.”

Earthquakes and Volcanoes

I started thinking about these dangers because of chatter among Ecuadorian expats following yesterday's earthquake in Quito.

People get really worked up over the danger of volcanoes, but most seem to take earthquakes at least somewhat more in stride. I think this might be because we (meaning Americans and Europeans) see volcanoes as an 'exotic' thing; we have few volcanoes, but earthquakes, while frightening, are at least somewhat familiar.

Since Ecuador and my previous place of residence, the Philippines, are both part of the 'Ring of Fire', I have lived in some proximity to volcanoes (thankfully, peaceful ones); and any place that has volcanoes also is prone to earthquakes.

I find earthquakes much more frightening, since volcanoes are reasonably predictable and give plenty of warning before major eruptions.

A Few Thoughts on Ecuador as a Retirement Locale

Ecuador, where I intermittently live, is a wonderful country. Like all places, however, it is not perfect and it is not for everyone.

Ecuador is often touted as one of the best places in the world for Americans (and Canadians and Europeans) to retire. Although some of the touting is mere puffery by a much-quoted magazine/website called International Living (I'll tell you what I think of IL in another post – but the short version is this: don't trust them), there's still a great deal of truth to it. Ecuador is beautiful, with a wide variety of delightful environments – the Andes, beaches, the Amazon, Galapagos – as places to live and/or explore; it also has a relatively low cost of living (though not as low as IL might lead you to believe), and decent infrastructure (quite good, in fact, by third-world standards).

Anyone considering Ecuador as a retirement site, though, should give thought to the country's long-term prospects for stability. Much of Ecuador's current attractiveness is because it is enjoying the fruits of an oil boom. However, Ecuador had two major booms in the twentieth century – cacao in the early part of the century and bananas in mid-century. Both, as booms usually do, brought about periods of stability, but both also ended (again, as booms generally do) and when they ended, they were followed by considerable social/political turmoil and military coups.

Now we see Ecuador, having spent the proceeds of the oil boom, turning to currency manipulation. Having imposed (relative) fiscal restraint on itself by adopting the US dollar as its currency fifteen or so years ago, the country is now going to adopt a parallel digital currency.

Any currency (unless fully backed by something) is of course only as good as the faith it inspires in the international community (currency values fluctuate in large part because the amount of faith fluctuates based on each country's situation). Anything issued by Ecuador is likely to be greeted with some degree of skepticism, because of:

1. Ecuador's past history of multiple defaults (the most recent default was in 2008);
2. The history of defaults and/or runaway inflation of other Latin American countries (it may not be fair, but the reality is that we all take into account similar cases when making judgments about individual cases);
3. The similarity of Ecuador's spending and fiscal policies to those of Venezuela and Argentina, and the current shaky conditions of those countries' economies (see #2 for whether this is fair or realistic);
4. The unwillingness of the congress to back the new currency with dollars.

Point #4 bears further comment. The congress specifically rejected the idea of using dollars to back the new currency and said it would be backed by the assets of the country's Central Bank.

Oswaldo Larriva, a member of Correa’s political party and president of the congressional commission that studied the proposal, questioned attempts by lobbyists to require backing the new electronic money with hard currency. He said the government had expressed its commitment to using the central bank to guarantee any issuance. 

“To keep repeating the same thing, that dollarization is at risk, isn’t an issue that goes against the president, it’s against the nation,” Larriva said to reporters July 15 in Quito. “Don’t repeat those things.”

(By the way, the second paragraph is not an empty threat – in Ecuador, criticizing the president can lead to jail).

As the Bloomberg article notes, it's unclear what assets the Central Bank might use to back the new currency. Ecuador's oil is pledged for the foreseeable future to pay off debts to China, and most of the country's gold was recently turned over to Goldman Sachs in return for a temporary boost in liquidity.

“It does raise a red flag,” Bianca Taylor, a sovereign analyst who helps oversee $210 billion at Loomis Sayles, said yesterday in a phone interview from Boston. “Whenever a country needs to sell or monetize its gold reserves, it’s definitely a signal that the sovereign is strapped for cash.” 

President Rafael Correa is stepping up his search for financing at home and abroad after borrowing more than $11 billion from China since defaulting on $3.2 billion of foreign debt five years ago. Ecuador’s use of the dollar means it can’t finance deficits by printing money like other countries.

Adopting the 'digital currency' is a twenty-first century way to allow the country to effectively print money to cover its deficits. Bloomberg (the first link) also suggests that it might be easy to coerce some people, meaning those without the ability to say no, to accept the digital currency in lieu of dollars:

While the government says it won’t force anyone to accept electronic money as payment, public employees and contractors who want work may have little choice, Aguilar said.

Government contractors will just factor the discounted value of the new currency into their bids (e.g., if the new currency's street price is 91c on the dollar, they'll just add 10% to their bids). Government employees and pension recipients will just have to take the hit.

I make no claim to expertise in such matters, and even if I am right about the direction I think things are going, it could be a long time before the stuff hits the fan; but I think people should take these developments and their possible ramifications into account if planning on Ecuador as a long-term home.

On the bright side, even if my suspicions are right and Ecuador's economy is heading for the toilet, a prudent expat would be unlikely to be hurt (the people of Ecuador would be another matter, of course), because collapses of the sort I expect to see generally have many warning flags, allowing for a timely exit, if needed. A few of those flags, as noted, are already waving, but there will be more as the end nears. My advice – go to Ecuador if you want (I moved to Quito at the first of this year and plan to return as soon as I deal with some matters in the States), but keep your eyes open for further flags, and rent rather than buy.

ADDENDUM: The point of this post is about the effects I expect from this new currency, and what it likely means in light of the government's current policies. It's worth noting, though that the law also gives the government "the power to decide who gets loans and how lenders invest their reserves." Gee , what could possibly go wrong with that?

Random Thoughts on Ecuador's Oil Boom

Commodity-driven economies, history tells us, can be counted on to go through boom and bust cycles. The politicians who are lucky enough to ride the boom are, not surprisingly, very popular. The bust, of course, is less fun.

Ecuador had two such cycles in the twentieth century -- the cacao boom in the early 1900s, and the banana boom in the middle of the century. In both cases, the bust brought on periods of instability (there were military coups in the twenties and seventies).

Currently, the country is enjoying the oil boom, but there are signs that it may be nearing an end. Will that mean a bust sometime soon, and what consequences might a bust have? We'll just have to see, but Ecuador should prepare for problems if oil prices drop, and I doubt if Rafael Correa's favorability ratings will stay where they are.

Soccer in Ecuador

Next time I'm sitting on the
other side.

I attended my first Ecuadorian soccer game yesterday. It was an interesting experience. Do I have to begin calling it football now – or futbol?

The game was Universidad Catolica versus Deportivo Quito (Catolica won, 1-0). It was a good game, though not of the highest quality – about as good as an MLS game (the best Ecuadorian players, of course, go to other countries, where they can make more money).

I certainly can't argue with the price, though – general admission was five bucks. Still, next time I'll pay a little more to get a seat on the other side – the cheap seats are looking right into the afternoon sun. The other side is covered and faces away from the sun. The shade doesn't mean that much -- it wasn't hot -- but it was very difficult to see well, even wearing sunglasses.

Put down that
#$%@ umbrella!

Lots of people had umbrellas. I was sitting in the Deportivo Quito boosters section, and lots of them had blue or red (the team colors) umbrellas. Very colorful, but I'd hate to be sitting behind somebody holding one.

This was a Deportivo Quito home game, though Catolica uses the same stadium -- three Quito teams share the stadium. Another Quito team (the rich kids, I guess) has its own stadium. Can you imagine US teams sharing a stadium? Perish the thought -- much better that the taxpayers spend several hundred million to build us our own stadium (and, of course, lease it to us for a dollar a year). US sports is rife with crony capitalism.

Lots of security. There were
another bunch of cops right
behind me on the concourse. 

Universidad Catolica, despite the name, is a professional team. In fact, three of the twelve teams at the top level (Primera A) have 'Universidad' in their name (the others are from Universidad de Quito and Universidad de Loja). Apparently Ecuador has done what the US should do – acknowledge that top-level college teams are actually professionals.

We've all heard stories, of course, about Latin American soccer fans rioting. They apparently take that possibility pretty seriously here. There were a solid line of cops protecting the field, and all fans are thoroughly frisked – twice – before entering the stadium. In any case, the game was quite peaceful, and a good time was had by all. Or at least by me (I probably shouldn't speak for the Deportivo Quito fans).

Car Alarms

One downside of living in Ecuador is the @#$% car alarms.

I probably had not heard as many car alarms in the preceding ten years or so as I've heard in the month I've been here. I have come to the conclusion that either I live in the most crime-ridden neighborhood on the planet, with a car stolen every three minutes or so, or the local car alarm installers are incredibly inept -- they must set the alarms to be so sensitive that the alarms go off if someone sneezes within twenty yards.

There were two alarms in the time it took me to type the preceding paragraphs (admittedly, I'm a slow typist).

Unlikely Words

Every once in a while, I read alleged 'quotes' that sound considerably more like something written -- they generally make me laugh and/or cringe. Here's an example -- it appeared in a newsletter that I get about life in Ecuador, which presented it as genuine.

The item consisted of a supposed slice of life incident about a new expat trying the buses in Cuenca for the first time, guided by a friend. Upon boarding and not finding a seat, a couple schoolgirls get up and offer their seats. A nice gesture, right? The expat gushed a bit much, in my opinion, over how nice it was (c'mon, it's a couple kids offering a seat on a bus) to which the friend supposedly replied:

"Kindness crosses cultures. Like the bus, it unites us on a common journey, if only for a few minutes at a time."

Sure she did. Do you know of anyone who talks like that?

Looking Forward to Some World Cup Fun

It looks like Ecuador will almost certainly be in next year’s World Cup.

It will be exciting to be in a soccer-mad country during the Cup – something I’ve never experienced. Naturally, I will be spending most of my time shouting ‘USA! USA!’ but it will be fun to have a second team to root for, and to join in the festivities, which should be pretty interesting.

I’ll have to be hoping USA and Ecuador don’t get put in the same group during the group stage – things will be much simpler if they don’t face each other. If both make it through the group stage and meet in the quarters or semis -- well, that's a problem I'll have to deal with at the time. But that would be a nice problem to have.

On Taxes and Subsidies and Smuggling

An interesting item appeared in Cuenca HighLife, an expat publication in Cuenca, Ecuador. Apparently unconsciously, it makes a valuable point about one of the almost inevitable results of both subsidies and taxes – smuggling.

The article is actually about liquor retailers who have seen a terrible plunge in their sales since the government began raising liquor taxes a few years ago. The taxes are so high now that the price of a bottle of booze is more than double what it is in neighboring countries.

Cordovez said that a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label whiskey that can be purchased for $37 in Peru, costs about $80 in Ecuadorian stores.

What would you do in such circumstances (assuming you had both entrepreneurial and criminal tendencies)? You’d buy booze in Peru and smuggle it into Ecuador, that’s what. And if your such tendencies were a bit less pronounced, but you needed to save a few bucks, you’d probably buy your booze from the neighborhood bootlegger. And apparently, there’s a lot of that going on.

Quito customs officer Luis Cortez says that as much as 60% of foreign liquor purchased in Ecuador is smuggled in. “We do not have the personnel to keep all of it out. We can control it in stores and bars but it is difficult with prívate sales.”

That’s what happens when the governments distort markets. Another way the Ecuadorian government distorts markets is by subsidizing natural gas (which most people there use for cooking). This subsidy gives the smugglers the opportunity to make money on both ends of the trips between Peru and Ecuador – why send empty trucks down to Peru to bring back liquor?

The government admits that there is a growing black market for foreign liquor brands, almost all of it coming over the borders with Peru and Colombia. According to Cordovez, much of it crosses the borders in gas trucks smuggling low-price LP gas out of the country.

So the Ecuadorian government is losing money twice (and Peru doubling up their wins) – Ecuador is subsidizing Peruvians’ use of gas and Peru is collecting taxes on the liquor Ecuadorians drink.

The funny thing is that Ecuador could probably make a lot more money by charging reasonable taxes. If they charged the same tax as Peru, or even just a little more, there would be no reason to smuggle booze (they are planning to cut out the gas subsidies soon). If 60% of the liquor is smuggled, then Ecuador is collecting $0.00 tax on most of the country’s liquor sales. It shouldn’t take an economics PhD to figure out that such high taxes actually reduce tax revenue rather than increasing it.

I mention the PhD, because the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, under whom the taxes have been raised so much, is an economist; his degree is from the University of Illinois. He is not reflecting much credit on the ol’ alma mater.

The Ecuadorian Media Crackdown Reaches the Internet

The Ecuadorian government is seeking to extend its media crackdown to the internet.

A senior Ecuadorian government official proposed a bill Wednesday that would criminalize insults posted on social networks, opening them up to receive similar treatment to those in the media. 

The head of the office of the legal secretary of the presidency, Alexis Mera, said he introduced the proposal to the Justice Committee of the National Assembly, which is discussing the new penal code. 

"There is injury in this media, as well as in a social network," Mr. Mera said in a television interview. "I think there are more people reading a person with 100,000 followers [on Twitter] than people following local media." 

The current criminal code provides penalties of between 15 days and three years in prison and fines for the crime of libel. The legislation doesn't state anything about new technologies, or social networks like Twitter or Facebook.

I absolutely agree that if I falsely state that “Jose Gomez is a drug dealer”, that I should be held accountable for it, regardless of whether the statement was printed in a newspaper, posted on a blog, tweeted, or said in conversation.

What concerns me is that I doubt that this is about stopping people from falsely calling Jose a drug dealer; it is much more likely to be about stopping people from calling Rafael Correa a bad president; whatever the truth or falsity of such a statement, we know for certain that the government will consider it false.

Ecuador's Media Fights Back

I’m pleased to see that Ecuadorian media is suing over the country’s repressive new media laws.

Journalists, commentators and others in the media industry in Ecuador filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in the Constitutional Court, the country's highest court, aiming to declare unconstitutional a recently passed law to regulate communications. [ … ] 

In June, Ecuador's legislature approved the law tightening media regulations, which raised concerns about an erosion of press freedoms and which gave an important victory to President Rafael Correa, who has clashed repeatedly with independent journalists. [ … ] 

Among other things, the law orders that a third of radio and television frequencies be in the hands of the state, another 33% in the private sector and the rest for community media, which would be run by communities or NGOs across the country. 

The law creates a government communications superintendent position that will audit, intervene and control the media and be able to impose sanctions.

That last paragraph pretty much summarizes the problem, since I fail to see any difference between a “government communications superintendent”, as defined, and what I would call a “censor”.

I’m not terribly hopeful, unfortunately, since Correa has control of the courts, and I doubt they will have the courage to defy him.

They Take Soccer Pretty Seriously in Ecuador

A woman who was about to be elected as the president of a second-division (think of it as Triple-A) club in Quito was murdered just before the election.

The only candidate for the presidency of a 2nd-division team in Ecuador was shot to death just minutes before the beginning of club elections. 

Police officer Juan Vinueza said Aucas club director Monica Gordon was killed on Thursday. 

Ramiro Gordon, Monica's father, told radio La Red that somebody entered his daugther's office and opened fire after saying that she shouldn't have become involved with Aucas. Ramiro Gordon is also a club official and one of the team's top investors.

The article goes on to say that she had been vowing to thoroughly audit the club's books, so perhaps she was killed by someone who didn't want that to happen. If so, one would think killing her would merely make such an audit more likely, but perhaps that's just the gringo in me manifesting itself.

UFO in Ecuador

Here's a video of a supposed UFO sighting somewhere in Ecuador. I found it on a site that takes UFOs a bit more seriously than I do.

It looks to me like a balloon, as videoed by the world's worst cameraman.