Country information: Ecuador

The population of Ecuador consists of Mestizos (40 %), Indios (40 %), Afro-Ecuadorians (10 %) and Whites (10 %). Of these, about 85% are Roman Catholic, with smaller numbers of protestants, Jews and followers of natural religions. Freedom of belief is included in the constitution.

Tourism represents the most promising source of currency earnings for the future and it is already the third most important sector of the Ecuadorian economy. Since the 1960s there has been a rapid growth in visitors to the country but this growth has stagnated in the last few years.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children in tourism

As in other Latin American countries, there are numerous street children in Ecuador, who as a consequence of their poverty can slide into prostitution. In addition, there is also evidence of trafficking in children in Ecuador, in parallel with the increase in sex tourism.

Investigations show that in 2008 every second child came from a family that was not able to pay for food, housing, education, and medical care. As a consequence, these children do not go to school, and 40.5% are forced to start work at ages between 5 and 9 years and 63% between 10 and 14 years. In a country that is struggling against underemployment and employment, often the only opportunity to offer itself is prostitution. They then become victims of exploitation by traffickers and sex tourists.

Corruption and the loose interpretation of existing laws favour a rapid growth of demand and supply in the field of commercial sex. No official notice is yet taken of this problem, so that no reliable statistics are available.

HIV/ Aids

According to estimates from UNAIDS and the World Health Organization, at the end of 2007 approximately 76.000 people in Ecuador were infected with HIV, including 47.100 women. How many children were infected, could not be estimated. In the same year 21.200 Ecuadorians died following infection with HIV.

Nos otros the mestizos

Any person of mixed blood. In Central and South America it denotes a person of combined Indian and European extraction. In some countries—e.g., Ecuador—it has acquired social and cultural connotations; a pure-blooded Indian who has adopted European dress and customs is called a mestizo (or cholo). In Mexico the description has been found so variable in meaning that it has been abandoned in census reports. In the Philippines “mestizo” denotes a person of mixed foreign (e.g., Chinese) and native ancestry.

Mestizo children, the issue of Spanish and Indian parents, were often abandoned; thus, special institutions appeared to collect and educate them—for example, the Girls’ School and the School of San Juan de Letrán, founded by Viceroy Mendoza in New Spain, and the Bethlehemite schools of Guatemala and Mexico...

Groups of Ecuador include a number of Indian-language-speaking populations (often referred to as indigenous peoples or Amerindians) and highland and lowland Spanish-speaking mestizos (people of mixed Indian and European descent). Ethnicity in Ecuador is often a matter of self-identification. Most Ecuadorans consider themselves mestizo and tend to identify with their...

...Quito was a colonial centre of wood carving and painting, and artisans still produce replicas of the masterpieces of the Quito school. Certain mestizo and indigenous communities have specialized in particular crafts, such as agave-fibre bags near Riobamba and Salcedo; wood carving at Ibarra; leatherwork at Cotacachi; woolen tapestries at...

Visit Mestizos web site

Americans brutally attacked in Ecuador, officials say

WASHINGTON (CNN) Oct 26, 2008 -- An extended trip to Ecuador by two Americans changed from a dream to a nightmare after a brutal attack last week, according the couple's blog and U.S. officials. State Department spokesman Robert Wood confirmed Tuesday that the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador had been told that two Americans from Bend, Oregon, were attacked in the city of Esmeraldas, on Ecuador's northern coast. But he said he could provide no further information because of privacy laws. Two State Department officials, however, said that the man was stabbed more than 24 times and that his fiancée was beaten and raped. CNN does not name the victims of sexual assault and has removed publication of the man's name to help protect the identity of the woman. The couple was evacuated to the United States on Tuesday for treatment, the officials said. The couple wrote a blog throughout their trip. In the most recent post on Monday, the woman wrote that her fiance was in intensive care after three surgeries. Don't Miss Ecuador's Correa heads toward charter win "I was informed by the head surgeon there is no certainty he will survive," she wrote. The earlier postings were happier reflections on their visit to Ecuador, a year-long trip they planned after getting engaged and selling all their belongings. In the blog, the couple seems unconcerned about safety, posting that they occasionally hitchhiked, visited the homes of strangers and posed for pictures with new friends they made on their travels. One senior official told CNN that the victims' parents complained to U.S. consular officers in Ecuador that the Embassy did not do enough to warn Americans that many people have been attacked in Esmeraldas. The State Department's Web site advises caution when traveling to the northern border region of Ecuador, including Esmeraldas. The travel advisory section notes that "U.S. government personnel are under limitations with respect to traveling alone and over-nighting in these areas due to the spread of organized crime, drug trafficking, small arms trafficking, and incursions by various Colombian terrorist organizations." The Web site says that since 1998, at least 10 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped and one killed near Ecuador's border with Colombia. Wood on Tuesday expressed the State Department's "deep sympathy" for the victims and said the department worked with the victims' families to provide assistance. "It's a horrible and shocking incident" he said.

Dog beaten to death by Thomas Fong

A 24-year-old Manhattan stock trader was charged Thursday with beating his girlfriend's 14-year-old Shetland collie to death. Thomas Fong, of 360 West 34th Street, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on burglary and aggravated cruelty to animal charges for the death of the dog.

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Savage Lupita ...

Lupita is a black Hispanic from Ecuador, so dark, she knows it, that makes her feel hysterical, she use bleach trying to lighten up her skin (it looks exactly like dark poops color) it don't work, people make fun of her, she's enraged, she starts screaming and running like a fool, she keeps telling people that her vagina even very dark is shaved …Nobody wants her, shes upset, she hates whites and Asian, cause she looks like a monkey if she is compared to another female, all she wants is that people look at her as a human being, unfortunately she is a subhuman, she act exactly like an ape, shes so funny, she hates to see bleach in the bathroom, cause of the envy she feels to lighten up her skin, shes aware of the side effects, she don't care, she wants to be seen as a normal female, she hates females with natural strait hair, that's makes her feel so down, shes deeply injured inside, she cant change what she is …

She keeps saying bad things about normal females, the jealousy kills her she knows people look down on her, maybe they don't tell her, but she knows, she is a second class female, shes only good for sugar cane plantation, and house keeping, and to get fucked by some men who has animals fetish.

Anti-gay, anti-Hispanic beating...again..lol

Jose Sucuzhanay was beaten to death in Brooklyn when a group of males in car mistook Jose and his brother for gay lovers because they were walking arm in arm. which ignited outrage from New York to Ecuador. Police and prosecutors said he was beaten with a bat and kicked by men shouting anti-Hispanic (quito...!putos land!!!!) and anti-gay slurs as he walked arm-in-arm with his brother to keep warm.

Four attackers may have mistaken two brothers walking arm in arm as gay before using an aluminum baseball bat, a bottle and their feet to beat one of them into critical condition, New York City police said Monday.

One of the attackers used an anti-gay slur when first confronting the brothers, Ecuadorean immigrants who were walking down a Brooklyn street early Sunday after a night of drinking. The assailants also used anti-Hispanic insults, city officials said at a news conference.

“We believe all of this happened simply because of who these individuals are and who these perpetrators perceived them to be,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “For some reason (they) didn’t like the two men they believed were gay ... and felt so emboldened in their hatred that they acted it out in violence.”

The four attackers were described as riding in a burgundy sport utility vehicle. No one has been arrested.

Police said the attack occurred around 3:30 a.m. Sunday as the brothers neared their home on foot. One attacker jumped out of the SUV, used the anti-gay slur (Quito......!! putos land !!!!!)and smashed one of the brothers over the head with a bottle.

As the other brother ran away, three men exited the vehicle and joined the assault, police said. One hit the victim in the head with the bat while the others kicked him.

At some point, the other brother returned holding a cell phone and told the men he had called police. They then drove off together.

The 31-year-old victim remained hospitalized Monday in critical condition, said police, who did not release his name or that of his brother.

Equador Considers allowing Gays in the Military

The web site Blabbeanado is reporting that Ecuadorian Defense Minister, Lorena Escudero has announced her resignation from office in the wake of her efforts to allow gays and lesbians to serve in the Ecudorian armed forces. Ms. Escudero's troubles began last week when El Universo reported that the Ecuadorian Defense Ministry intended to revise its regulations and allow gays and lesbians to serve in that country's military. Such a move would have placed Ecuador on a growing list of 24 nations that allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in their armed forces (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland & South Africa). According to the report, Ms. Escudero's efforts were part of a larger reform package that would have brought the country's military in line with the Ecuadorian constitution, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. In a carefully crafted statement to media, Ms. Escudero explained that her efforts were aimed specifically at retaining gay and lesbian soldiers who were already in service, and should not be seen as an effort to recruit gays and lesbians into the armed forces. However, by Friday, August 31st Ms. Escudero announced her resignation. That same day, media outlets reported that Dr. Wellington Sandoval would become the next head of the Ecuadorian Defence Ministry. All is not lost for Ecuadorians who beleive that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve in their military. Before her departure, Ms. Escudero told reporters that Ecuadorian President, Rafael Correra told her, "It is the role of government to advocate for equal rights."

Evangelicals attack Ecuador's protection of sexual minorities

A member of Ecuador's National Assembly has caused outrage throughout the gay community by comparing homosexuality to paedophilia and bestiality. Rosanna Queirolo, a former model, television news anchor and triathlon athlete, won election on a manifesto of environmental protection and maintaining links with the country's large expatriate community, most of whom are in the US. However, since joining the Assembly she has caused controversy by embracing the country's ultra-conservative Christian Evangelical movement and campaigning against constitutional protection for homosexuals.

In 1998 Ecuador became the first country in the Americas to adopt constitutional language granting protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation. On 22nd March Querilo stunned legislators, including some members from own party, when she stood up at a public hearing and asked the Constitutional Assembly to consider changing parts of the constitution referring to "sexual orientation". She claimed the word "orientation" should be changed to "preference" as in her interpretation, orientation could also be applied to "paedophiles and other degenerates."

Despite unanimous outrage from the gay community, as well as a barrage of emails criticising her attack on a vulnerable community, Querilo expanded on her comments in the press. On March 25th, she commented to the El Universo newspaper: "The best thing would be to remove the words 'sexual orientation' and to include 'sexual preference'. The word 'orientation' leaves the door open to paedophiles, to bestiality.

"Sexual orientation can include not only homosexual, bisexual and transsexual groups but also paedophile organisations. God created us to procreate and the only way to procreate is through the union between a man and a woman. Any human invention cannot fit within a constitution." She also added that God should be named in the Constitution as the "ruler of mankind."

Evangelical groups have rallied in support of Querilo's comments, announcing that they were on their way to gathering two million signatures demanding that God's name be included in the constitution, that abortion should be penalised and that same-sex marriages should be banned. However, members of her own party are disturbed by Queirolo's views and internal calls have been made for an official condemnation of her statements.

Members of the PAIS party are said to be drafting a statement unequivocally stating that same sex marriage, abortion and the invocation of the name of God are not constitutional matters and will not be considered in the new constitution. Assembly member Tania Hermidia, also from PAIS told El Universo that the proposals for a change in constitution "reveal a profound ignorance in what concerns human rights". Fernando Cordero, Vice President of the Assembly added: "Those who promote this debate seek to tarnish the name of the Assembly, to divide Assembly members and the Ecuadorian people"