Country Profiles: Ecuador

Official name: Republic of Ecuador

Official language: Spanish

Land area: 109,484 sq mi/283,561 sq km

Population:  14,012,000

Dominant religion:  Christianity

Capital: Quito

Current leader: President Rafael Correa

Ecuador is a small country in the northwestern part of South America. It is bordered by Colombia to the north, Peru to the east and southeast and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Its name is Spanish for “equator” and the equator runs through the country. Much of Ecuador’s terrain is rugged and mountainous with Andes Mountain range running through the central part of the country. The Galapagos Islands, about 600 miles (970 kilometers) off the coast, are part of Ecuador. Much of the country’s interior remains unsettled while the coastal plains are developing rapidly.

 Roughly 75 percent of Ecuadoreans are of mixed European and Native American ancestry. Of the rest, 10 percent are of pure European descent, 7 percent of pure Native American descent and 5 percent of mixed Ecuadorean and African.

 Ecuador’s main crops are bananas, cacao, coffee, sugar cane, oranges and rice. Ecuador is also the world’s leading producer balsa wood.

 Spanish conquistadors arrived in Ecuador in the early 1500’s and made it a Spanish colony in 1534. Like most of Spain’s other South American colonies, Ecuador took advantage of Spain’s preoccupation with France in the early 1800’s and broke away, joining a confederation called Gran Colombia, which consisted of Columbia, Panama and Venezuela. That union only lasted eight years and in 1830, Ecuador became fully independent.

 Like most Latin American countries, Ecuador had to deal with constant civil unrest and dictatorships after independence and even fought a war with Peru over a border dispute in 1941. The country was under constant dictatorship throughout most of the 20th Century, ruled by strong-armed, U.S.-backed military generals. In 1979 it held its first free elections and since then, transfer of power has generally been smooth.