LatinNews Daily - 19 October 2026

*Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has announced a resumption of electricity imports from Colombia with a social media post thanking his Colombian counterpart, Abelardo de la Espriella. Colombian electricity exports to Ecuador were first suspended in January amid tensions between Noboa and De la Espriella’s predecessor, Gustavo Petro (2022-2026), before being restored in August. However, Colombia again paused energy exports in September due to concerns about potential shortages caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon. Ecuador’s state oil company, Petroecuador, also announced yesterday that it has resumed the transportation of Colombian crude oil through the trans-Ecuadorean pipeline system (Sote) and the Oleoducto San Miguel-Lago Agrio (Osla) pipeline. Colombian oil flows had been paused after Ecuador hiked its pipeline charges in January as part of the dispute with Bogotá. Petroecuador said that pipeline tariffs would generate US$16.8m per year for the Ecuadorean State and that the resumption of crude transportation “strengthens bilateral cooperation between Ecuador and Colombia and reaffirms our technical capacity to provide first-class logistics services”. Ecuador, which was hit by severe energy shortages in 2023 and 2024, is facing renewed strain on the power grid which earlier this month forced the Noboa administration to tighten electricity rationing for the industrial sector.