Tension in South America hems in Ecuador's capital (8)

I believe the answer is:

suspense

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'tension' is the definition.
(suspense can mean tension or uncertainty)

'south america hems in ecuador's capital' is the wordplay.
'south' becomes 'S' (abbreviation).
'america' becomes 'US' (United States).
'hems in ecuador's capital' becomes 'pense' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
's'+'us'+'pense'='SUSPENSE'

'in' is the link.

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(Other definitions for suspense that I've seen before include "Uncertain state" , "State of apprehension about what's going to happen" , "Excited anticipation of approaching climax" , "expectancy" , "State of anxious excitement" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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