Communications: Telephones:
main lines in use: 1.8 million (2006); mobile cellular: 8.485 million
(2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 392, FM 35, shortwave 29
(2001). Television broadcast stations: 7 (plus 14 repeaters)
(2001). Televisions: 2.5 million (2001). Internet hosts:
28,420 (2007). Internet users: 1.549 million (2006).
Transportation: Railways: total: 966 km
(2006). Highways: total: 43,197 km; paved: 8,164 km; unpaved:
35,033 km (2002). Waterways: 1,500 km (most inaccessible)
(2003). Ports and harbors: Esmeraldas, Guayaquil, La Libertad,
Manta, Puerto Bolivar. Airports: 406 (2007).
International disputes: organized illegal
narcotics operations in Colombia penetrate across Ecuador's shared
border and caused over 20,000 refugees to flee into Ecuador in
2004.
Ecuador, about equal in area to Nevada, is in the northwest part of
South America fronting on the Pacific. To the north is Colombia and to the
east and south is Peru. Two high and parallel ranges of the Andes,
traversing the country from north to south, are topped by tall volcanic
peaks. The highest is Chimborazo at 20,577 ft (6,272 m). The Galápagos
Islands (or Colón Archipelago: 3,029 sq mi; 7,845 sq km), in the Pacific
Ocean about 600 mi (966 km) west of the South American mainland, became
part of Ecuador in 1832.
Government
Republic.
History
The tribes in the northern highlands of Ecuador formed the Kingdom of
Quito around 1000. It was absorbed, by conquest and marriage, into the
Inca Empire. Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro conquered the land in
1532, and through the 17th century a Spanish colony thrived by
exploitation of the Indians. The first revolt against Spain occurred in
1809. In 1819, Ecuador joined Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama in a
confederacy known as Greater Colombia.
When Greater Colombia collapsed in 1830, Ecuador became independent.
Revolts and dictatorships followed; it had 48 presidents during the first
131 years of the republic. Conservatives ruled until the revolution of
1895 ushered in nearly a half century of Radical Liberal rule, during
which the church was disestablished and freedom of worship, speech, and
press was introduced. Although it was under military rule in the 1970s,
the country did not experience the violence and repression characteristic
of other Latin American military regimes. Its last 30 years of democracy,
however, have been largely ineffectual because of a weak executive branch
and a strong, fractious Congress.
Peru invaded Ecuador in 1941 and seized a large tract of Ecuadoran
territory in the disputed Amazon region. In 1981 and 1995 war broke out
again. In May 1999, Ecuador and Peru signed a treaty ending the nearly
60-year border dispute.
In 1998, Ecuador experienced one of its worst economic crises. El Niño
caused $3 billion in damage; the price of its principal export, oil,
plunged; and its inflation rate, 43%, was the highest in Latin America. In
1999, the government was near bankruptcy, the currency lost 40% of its
value against the dollar, and the poverty rate soared to 70%, doubling in
five years. The president's economic austerity plan was protested with
massive strikes in March 1999.
President Jamil Mahuad was overthrown in Jan. 2000, in the first
military coup in Latin America in a decade. The junta gave power to the
vice president, Gustavo Noboa. Faced with the worst economic crisis in
Ecuador's history, Noboa restructured Ecuador's foreign debt, adopted the
U.S. dollar as the national currency, and continued privatization of
state-owned industries, generating enormous opposition. In Feb. 2001, the
government cut fuel prices after violent protests by Indians, who are
among Ecuador's most disadvantaged people. Within two years, Ecuador's
economy had rebounded from the brink of collapse. The economy grew by 5.4%
for 2001, the highest rate in Latin America. Inflation was 22%, down from
91% in 2000, and the budget was balanced. But chronic corruption among
senior government officials, as well as among the courts and the
judiciary, has continued.
Lucio Gutiérrez, a leftist colonel best known for orchestrating the
2000 coup against President Jamil Mahuad, was elected to the presidency in
2003 on an anticorruption platform. He became Ecuador's sixth president in
seven years. His attempts to introduce austere fiscal reforms, however,
quickly alienated his political base, and numerous national strikes took
place over 2003. In April 2005, Gutiérrez was ousted by the Ecuadoran
Congress, after replacing much of the supreme court with his allies. Polls
at the time indicated that just 5% of the people supported him. His
estranged deputy, Alfredo Palacio, took over as president. In 2006, huge
nationwide protests took place involving a potential free-trade agreement
with the U.S. In Nov. 2006 presidential run-off elections, Rafael Correa,
a left-wing economist, won with 56.7% of the vote, defeating conservative
businessman Alvaro Noboa. Correa took office in Jan. 2007.
Correa immediately set out to boost economic growth and root out
corruption in the country's political system. In an April referendum,
voters overwhelmingly approved his call to rewrite the Constitution. He
hoped the new Constitution would weaken Congress, which has been called
inept and corrupt. Correa's critics accused him of trying to consolidate
power, similar to recent moves by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
In March 2008, Colombian forces crossed into Ecuadorean territory and killed FARC rebel leader, Raúl Reyes, and 20 other rebels. In response, Venezuela and Ecuador broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia and sent troops to the Colombian borders, although both countries denied any ties to FARC. In an attempt to help cool the diplomatic tension between the three countries, the Organization of American States approved a resolution, which declared that the Colombian raid into Ecuador was a violation of sovereignty. On March 6, Nicaragua broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia to demonstrate unity with President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.
On March 7, 2008, during a summit meeting in the Dominican Republic, the leaders of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Nicaragua ended their diplomatic dispute over Colombia's raid into Ecaudor that occurred on March 1, 2008.
In April 2008, within hours of each other, the defense minister
resigned without explanation and four top military commanders left their
positions after President Rafael Correa accused the army of aiding the
United States against FARC.
In April 2008, President Rafael Correa expelled more than 100 American
military members from Manta air base, in anticipation of the 2009
expiration of the United States lease of the base.
