Ecuador

Ecuador's largest Indigenous organization began a strike two weeks ago to demand gasoline prices be cut, price controls be imposed on agricultural products and a larger budget be set for education.

For millions in remote areas, health-care is barebones. The health-care team may be a long canoe ride away. Supplies are meager. Electricity comes and goes. And the pandemic made things worse.

Ecuador's Emergency Operations Committee said the eruption on Isabela Island didn't represent a risk to humans or to native local species.

A prolonged gun battle between rival gangs inside Ecuador's largest prison was the latest violence to hit the Litoral Penitentiary, which recently saw the country's worst prison bloodbath.

Ecuador's president has declared a state of emergency in the prison system, blaming the violence on rival gangs. The prison near Guayaquil holds nearly 10,000 inmates.

President Lenín Moreno said he would preside from Guayaquil after Quito descended into chaos. The violent reaction to his cuts in fuel subsidies has also significantly disrupted oil production.

Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno says he won't budge on his plan to end "a perverse subsidy that was causing harm to the country."

The earthquake's epicenter was far inland, away from the country's main highways that run along mountain ranges.