Free Republic

New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez interceded on behalf of an Ecuadorian woman who was banned from traveling to the U.S. because of allegations she had engaged in visa fraud. The woman, Estafania Isaias, is the daughter of a fugitive from Ecuador convicted in absentia for bank fraud and whose relatives in Florida made significant campaign donations to the New Jersey Democrat's 2012 campaign and the Democratic Party. Current and former U.S. government officials tell NBC 4 New York that Estefania Isaias was barred from traveling to the U.S. in 2007 because she allegedly lied on visa applications to bring immigrant...

MIAMI — The donations kept pouring in: hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to President Obama and more than a dozen members of Congress, carefully routed through the families of two wealthy brothers in Florida. They had good reason to be generous. The two men, Roberto and William Isaias, are fugitives from Ecuador, which has angrily pressed Washington to turn them over, to no avail. A year after their relatives gave $90,000 to help re-elect Mr. Obama, the administration rejected Ecuador’s extradition request for the men, fueling accusations that such donations were helping to keep the brothers and...

China poised to take over U.S. base at Ecuador's invitation Ecuador’s president has offered the Chinese government an airbase currently serving as one of the last U.S. military outposts in South America. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said during his recent visit to China that he would offer Beijing a lease on the Manta Airport, the presidential website reported last week. Currently, Manta is used by U.S. military forces for operations. The contract is up in 2009 and Correa will not renew it, a transport and public works ministry communications official told BNamericas. Correa said access to the air base is...

Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead during a campaign event in northern Quito on Wednesday night, according to Reuters. A suspect in the killing of Villavicencio later died from injuries sustained during a shootout, the attorney general's office said on Twitter. "A suspect, who was injured during the shootout with security personnel, was apprehended and moved, badly injured, to the (attorney general's) unit in Quito. An ambulance from the fire department confirmed his death, the police are proceeding with collection of the cadaver," the attorney general's office said. Villavicencio's party Movimiento Construye said on armed men attacked its...

Unknown gunmen killed presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio – running on a strong-on-crime, anti-corruption, anti-China platform – on Wednesday night before a massive crowd outside of a campaign event in Quito, Ecuador. Villavicencio was one of eight candidates vying for the presidency of Ecuador. The election remains scheduled to take place on August 20, the result of current President Guillermo Lasso, a conservative, using a constitutional provision to dissolve the National Assembly (the federal legislature) in May and call for general elections. Lasso claimed the unprecedented measure was necessary because leftist lawmakers’ incessant attempts to impeach him had made the regular...

In a shocking incident that has sent shockwaves through Ecuador's political landscape, the notorious Los Lobos gang has carried out a violent action. Fernando Villavicencio, a prominent presidential candidate known for his staunch stance against corruption, lost his life in an armed attack just days before the scheduled presidential election on August 20th. The assassination of the presidential candidate was claimed by the Los Lobos gang, who released a video proudly displaying victory signs and shouting slogans of triumph. Villavicencio was fatally shot three times in the head by an assailant while getting into his vehicle after attending an event...