A strong earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 15 people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams out into streets littered with debris and fallen power lines.

The Indigenous organization leading protests in Ecuador on Monday agreed to discuss with the government possible solutions that could lead to the end of a strike that has paralyzed parts of the country for two weeks.

“I loved her more and I said, even if we are nothing in life, she has to be my friend at least, because of the way she celebrated when I played Andean music,” Miguel says. “She clapped, shouted and everything. I said, I like that woman.”

Thousands of demonstrators marched in Ecuador on Tuesday and Wednesday to protest the increase in fuel prices and President Guillermo Lasso’s economic policies. At least 37 demonstrators were arrested and eight police officers injured in demonstrations that blocked roads and highways in five of Ecuador’s 24 provinces.

As undocumented immigrants from Ecuador, Madeline and Jorge had long lived with the risk that they could one day be arrested. On the day Jorge was taken by ICE outside their home in Queens, Madeline, fearing she and her daughters could be next, fled to New Jersey.

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Former banker Guillermo Lasso was sworn in as president of Ecuador on Monday, saying he will escalate efforts to vaccinate people to protect them from COVID-19 and work to revive an economy hit hard by the pandemic.

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday in favor of decriminalizing abortion in cases of rape, a decision that paves the way for laws imposing prison sentences in such cases to be changed.

Conservative businessman Guillermo Lasso beat out leftist Andrés Araúz in presidential elections on Sunday and will be the next president of Ecuador.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A surging coronavirus pandemic that has brought on new lockdown measures and exacerbated fatigue in Ecuador and Peru has left many voters generally indifferent to the names they will see on the ballots Sunday, when the neighboring South American nations are set to choose new presidents.

After weeks of uncertainty, the first-round Ecuadorian election results are in: Andrés Arauz will face Guillermo Lasso in the second round of Ecuador’s presidential election on April 11.

More than a dozen candidates have entered the presidential race, making a runoff election on April 11 virtually certain.

President Lenín Moreno had announced the accord on November 16, explaining that it was “an excellent step” to reach a final agreement with the United States in the future.

The legislative body ruled that the crimes the leaders were accused of were not eligible to be tried in a court of law.

At least 50 public hospitals in Ecuador are under investigation after allegations arose that provinces where National Assembly members live were allocated more supplies to combat COVID-19 than others.

Dead bodies are lying at home and in the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador, a city so hard-hit by coronavirus that overfilled hospitals are turning away even very ill patients and funeral homes are unavailable for burial.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases doubled in one day after delayed test results were taken into account. 

Public health experts say the death toll could be a result of frequent travel between Spain and Ecuador, exacerbated by a resource-strapped health system.

COVID-19 caught the city off guard, and the few treatment options available were squandered and wasted. Guayaquil was the region’s test case for what will happen when low government capacity meets political inertia, disbelief and ineptitude in the face of a pandemic that knows no mercy.

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno unveiled an emergency economic plan Friday aimed at rescuing the South American nation hard hit by the new coronavirus and then dealt a second blow when two large pipelines broke, halting critical crude exports.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Alfonso Cedeño died at a crowded hospital in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, where the only bed doctors could offer was an ambulance stretcher. Two weeks later, his family doesn’t know where his body is.

Correa and others faced accusations that between 2012 and 2016, they accepted $8 million in bribes from companies seeking government contracts.