67 Facts About Ecuador

1.

Ecuador includes the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1, 000 kilometers west of the mainland.

FactSnippet No. 623,512
2.

Territories of modern-day Ecuador were once home to a variety of Amerindian groups that were gradually incorporated into the Inca Empire during the 15th century.

FactSnippet No. 623,513
3.

Sovereign state of Ecuador is a middle-income representative democratic republic and a developing country that is highly dependent on commodities, namely petroleum and agricultural products.

FactSnippet No. 623,514
4.

Thus, the region of highland Ecuador became part of the Inca Empire in 1463 sharing the same language.

FactSnippet No. 623,515
5.

The indigenous people of the Amazon jungle and coastal Ecuador remained relatively autonomous until the Spanish soldiers and missionaries arrived in force.

FactSnippet No. 623,516
6.

The Amazonian people and the Cayapas of Coastal Ecuador were the only groups to resist Inca and Spanish domination, maintaining their language and culture well into the 21st century.

FactSnippet No. 623,517
7.

Ecuador gave the territories pertaining to present-day Ecuador and northern Peru to his favorite son Atahualpa, who was to rule from Quito; and he gave the rest to Huascar, who was to rule from Cuzco.

FactSnippet No. 623,518
8.

Ecuador willed that his heart be buried in Quito, his favorite city, and the rest of his body be buried with his ancestors in Cuzco.

FactSnippet No. 623,519
9.

The rest of Ecuador gained its independence after Antonio Jose de Sucre defeated the Spanish Royalist forces at the Battle of Pichincha, near Quito.

FactSnippet No. 623,520
10.

In 1830, Ecuador separated from Gran Colombia and became an independent republic.

FactSnippet No. 623,521
11.

The first president of Ecuador was the Venezuelan-born Juan Jose Flores, who was ultimately deposed, followed by several authoritarian leaders, such as Vicente Rocafuerte; Jose Joaquin de Olmedo; Jose Maria Urbina; Diego Noboa; Pedro Jose de Arteta; Manuel de Ascasubi; and Flores's own son, Antonio Flores Jijon, among others.

FactSnippet No. 623,522
12.

Ecuador abolished slavery and freed its black slaves in 1851.

FactSnippet No. 623,523
13.

Ecuador supported his claims with Spanish Royal decrees or Real Cedulas, that delineated the borders of Spain's former overseas colonies.

FactSnippet No. 623,524
14.

Later, Ecuador contended that the Republic of Colombia, while reorganizing its government, unlawfully made its eastern border provisional and that Colombia extended its claims south to the Napo River because it said that the Government of Popayan extended its control all the way to the Napo River.

FactSnippet No. 623,525
15.

When Ecuador seceded from the Gran Colombia, Peru decided not to follow the treaty of Guayaquil of 1829 or the protocoled agreements made.

FactSnippet No. 623,526
16.

Ecuador countered by labeling the Cedula of 1802 an ecclesiastical instrument, which had nothing to do with political borders.

FactSnippet No. 623,527
17.

Ecuador protested that it claimed the Amazon Basin between the Caqueta river and the Maranon-Amazon river.

FactSnippet No. 623,528
18.

Peru briefly occupied Guayaquil again in 1860, since Peru thought that Ecuador was selling some of the disputed land for development to British bond holders, but returned Guayaquil after a few months.

FactSnippet No. 623,529
19.

On 6 May 1904, Ecuador signed the Tobar-Rio Branco Treaty recognizing Brazil's claims to the Amazon in recognition of Ecuador's claim to be an Amazonian country to counter Peru's earlier Treaty with Brazil back on 23 October 1851.

FactSnippet No. 623,530
20.

The pipeline in southern Ecuador did nothing to resolve tensions between Ecuador and Peru, however.

FactSnippet No. 623,531
21.

Ecuador remained in power until 1976, when he was removed by another military government.

FactSnippet No. 623,532
22.

Ecuador's government was committed to improving human rights protection and carried out some reforms, notably an opening of Ecuador to foreign trade.

FactSnippet No. 623,533
23.

Ecuador brought Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in June 2009.

FactSnippet No. 623,534
24.

Ecuador left the left-wing Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in August 2018.

FactSnippet No. 623,535
25.

In June 2019, Ecuador had agreed to allow US military planes to operate from an airport on the Galapagos Islands.

FactSnippet No. 623,536
26.

On 24 May 2021, Guillermo Lasso was sworn in as the new President of Ecuador, becoming the country's first right-wing leader in 14 years.

FactSnippet No. 623,537
27.

In October 2022, bloody riot among inmates at a prison in central Ecuador caused 16 deaths, among them was the drug lord Leonardo Norero, alias “El Patron.

FactSnippet No. 623,538
28.

Ecuador is governed by a democratically elected president, for a four-year term.

FactSnippet No. 623,539
29.

Ecuador is accompanied by the vice-president, elected for four years.

FactSnippet No. 623,540
30.

Ecuador's judiciary has as its main body the Judicial Council, and includes the National Court of Justice, provincial courts, and lower courts.

FactSnippet No. 623,541
31.

UN's Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) has treated the restrictions on freedom of expression and efforts to control NGOs and recommended that Ecuador should stop the criminal sanctions for the expression of opinions, and delay in implementing judicial reforms.

FactSnippet No. 623,542
32.

Ecuador joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 1973 and suspended its membership in 1992.

FactSnippet No. 623,543
33.

Ecuador has often placed great emphasis on multilateral approaches to international issues.

FactSnippet No. 623,544
34.

Ecuador is a member of the United Nations and a member of many regional groups, including the Rio Group, the Latin American Economic System, the Latin American Energy Organization, the Latin American Integration Association, the Andean Community of Nations, and the Bank of the South (Spanish: Banco del Sur or BancoSur).

FactSnippet No. 623,545
35.

In 2017, Ecuador signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

FactSnippet No. 623,546
36.

Ecuador was an original member of the bloc, founded by left-wing governments in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2008.

FactSnippet No. 623,547
37.

Ecuador asked UNASUR to return the headquarters building of the organization, based in its capital city, Quito.

FactSnippet No. 623,548
38.

Ecuador is divided into 24 provinces, each with its own administrative capital:.

FactSnippet No. 623,549
39.

In Ecuador, there are seven regions, or zones, each shaped by the following provinces:.

FactSnippet No. 623,550
40.

Military tradition starts in Gran Colombia, where a sizable army was stationed in Ecuador due to border disputes with Peru, which claimed territories under its political control when it was a Spanish vice-royalty.

FactSnippet No. 623,551
41.

Once Gran Colombia was dissolved after the death of Simon Bolivar in 1830, Ecuador inherited the same border disputes and had the need of creating its own professional military force.

FactSnippet No. 623,552
42.

Ecuador is bigger than Uruguay, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana in South America.

FactSnippet No. 623,553
43.

Ecuador is one of seventeen megadiverse countries in the world according to Conservation International, and it has the most biodiversity per square kilometer of any nation.

FactSnippet No. 623,554
44.

Ecuador has 1, 600 bird species in the continental area and 38 more endemic in the Galapagos.

FactSnippet No. 623,555
45.

Ecuador has the first constitution to recognize the rights of nature.

FactSnippet No. 623,556
46.

Ecuador had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 7.

FactSnippet No. 623,557
47.

In 2022 the supreme court of Ecuador decided that "“under no circumstances can a project be carried out that generates excessive sacrifices to the collective rights of communities and nature.

FactSnippet No. 623,558
48.

Ecuador has a developing economy that is highly dependent on commodities, namely petroleum and agricultural products.

FactSnippet No. 623,559
49.

Ecuador's economy is the eighth largest in Latin America and experienced an average growth of 4.

FactSnippet No. 623,560
50.

Ecuador was able to maintain relatively superior growth during the crisis.

FactSnippet No. 623,561
51.

In late 2021, Ecuador had to declare a Force majeure for oil exports due to erosion near key pipelines in the Amazon.

FactSnippet No. 623,562
52.

Ecuador produces coffee, rice, potatoes, cassava, plantains and sugarcane; cattle, sheep, pigs, beef, pork and dairy products; fish, and shrimp; and balsa wood.

FactSnippet No. 623,563
53.

Ecuador has negotiated bilateral treaties with other countries, besides belonging to the Andean Community of Nations, and an associate member of Mercosur.

FactSnippet No. 623,564
54.

Ecuador was placed in 96th position of innovation in technology in a 2013 World Economic Forum study.

FactSnippet No. 623,565
55.

Ecuador was ranked 91st in the Global Innovation Index in 2021 up from 99th in 2020.

FactSnippet No. 623,566
56.

Major areas of scientific research in Ecuador have been in the medical fields, tropical and infectious diseases treatments, agricultural engineering, pharmaceutical research, and bioengineering.

FactSnippet No. 623,567
57.

The Center for Research and Technology Development in Ecuador is an autonomous center for research and technology development funded by Senecyt.

FactSnippet No. 623,568
58.

Not in vain, Ecuador is considered one of the 17 countries where the planet's highest biodiversity is concentrated, being the largest country with diversity per km2 in the world.

FactSnippet No. 623,569
59.

Ecuador's population is ethnically diverse and the 2021 estimates put Ecuador's population at 17, 797, 737.

FactSnippet No. 623,570
60.

Ecuador has a small population of Asian origins, mainly those from West Asia, like the economically well off descendants of Lebanese and Palestinian immigrants, who are either Christian or Muslim, and an East Asian community mainly consisting of those of Japanese and Chinese descent, whose ancestors arrived as miners, farmhands and fishermen in the late 19th century.

FactSnippet No. 623,571
61.

Today the Jewish Community of Ecuador has its seat in Quito and has approximately 200 members.

FactSnippet No. 623,572
62.

The classic paradigm of the Italian immigrant today was not that of the small trader from Liguria as it had been before; those who emigrated to Ecuador were professionals and technicians, employees and religious people from South-Central Italy.

FactSnippet No. 623,573
63.

In recent years, Ecuador has grown in popularity among North American expatriates.

FactSnippet No. 623,574
64.

The first and most substantial wave of modern immigration to Ecuador consisted of Spanish colonists, following the arrival of Europeans in 1499.

FactSnippet No. 623,575
65.

Best known art styles from Ecuador belonged to the Escuela Quitena, which developed from the 16th to 18th centuries, examples of which are on display in various old churches in Quito.

FactSnippet No. 623,576
66.

Ecuador finished in second place in the CONMEBOL qualifiers behind Argentina and above the team that would become World Champions, Brazil.

FactSnippet No. 623,577
67.

Ecuador won the 2019 Giro d'Italia, and a gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the men's individual road race.

FactSnippet No. 623,578