QUITO, Ecuador—A 76-year-old woman who had been declared dead and surprised her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake earlier this month has died after seven days in intensive care, her family said Saturday. Gilberto Barbera Montoya, the woman’s son, told The Associated Press that doctors at the state hospital where she was…

Ecuadorean security forces have confiscated pigs, fighting cocks, and more than two dozen bladed weapons, among other items, from a high-security wing of Bellavista prison in the city of Santo Domingo, the country’s military said on Friday. Police and operatives of the SNAI prison authority were shown wheeling out two pigs from the prison in…

QUITO, Ecuador — A 76-year-old woman who was declared dead at a hospital in Ecuador astonished her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake, and the incident has prompted a government investigation into the hospital. Relatives left the coffin behind and rushed retired nurse Bella Montoya back to the hospital after the wake…

ALAUSI, Ecuador—The official death toll from a landslide in Ecuador rose to 11 on Tuesday evening as families and rescue groups worked to find dozens of people still missing after large amounts of earth smothered buildings and a stadium in the small city of Alausi. Using spades, relatives dug through the dirt in places they…

ALAUSI, Ecuador—A huge landslide swept over an Andean community in central Ecuador, burying dozens of homes, killing at least seven people and sending rescuers on a frantic search for survivors, authorities said Monday. Earlier in the day, officials had reported 16 deaths, but President Guillermo Lasso put the confirmed toll at seven as he arrived…

QUITO, Ecuador—A strong earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least four people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams out into streets littered with debris and fallen power lines. The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8 that was centered just off the Pacific…

QUITO—At least 14 people were killed in a strong earthquake that shook a coastal region of Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, causing structural damage to multiple homes, schools, and medical centers. The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) measured at magnitude 6.8, struck at a depth of 66.4 km (41.3 miles) about 10 km (6.2…

The streets of Quito can be chaotic at the best of times. Rolling out from the heart of this high-altitude city, a place where the heart quickens and your breath gets short, real fast—we only climbed. Soon enough, we found ourselves in the clouds. Literally. Turning off the main highway, we curled up a dirt…

It can be a bit difficult, searching for something that’s invisible—but that was the mission, today. Heading north out of the capital, Quito, the grind and gridlock of the city quickly fell away. The highway was busy, and a bit gritty, with big diesel trucks carrying their cargo across the country. But it was rather…

Quito isn’t a city that hides its passions. Start with the geography, alone. Set high in the mountains, at a (literally) breathtaking altitude of 9,350 feet, it is set between steep hills on one side and the western edge of the Andes on the other. Long and narrow, the city’s dense network of streets and…