Pachakutik will oppose Lasso’s plans in Assembly; Comptroller, 8 others arrested for corruption; 7,579 seniors vaccinated Tuesday; ATM theft thwarted

Miércoles, 14/7/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Nada.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Detenidos por corrupción en Petroecuador (Arrested for corruption in Petroecuador) – Ayer, Attorney General Diana Salazar, led 25 raids and the arrest of 9 people including the Comptroller Pablo Celi, his brother, an ex-secretary of the cabinet of the current government, the ex-minister of Energy and his brother. The ex-director of Petroecuado, Pablo Flores, was not at home but was alerted to the judicial proceedings, and his mother was arrested. This case has exploded 3 years after the nephew of Pablo Celi was arrested in the US with money he couldn’t justify which was part of more than $3 million in bribes he received when he was an employee of Petroecuador. He has completed his sentence and is now free. In the raids in Quito, Guayquil and Samborondón, $93,562 in cash was seized.

Vacunación se retoma en el Azuay (Vaccination is resumed in Azuay) – 7,579 seniors who registered for the vaccines were innoculated Tuesday. The priority was to give 2nd doses to vulnerable groups in the population. The process, which was paused over the weekend for the elections, resumed yesterday with seniors. The 7,579 vaccines were given at 30 locations in Zone 6 (Azuay, Cañar, y Morona Santiago – I’ve repeated this often enough that you should know what Zone 6 is by now.) In Cuenca, vaccines will be given at the fixed sites of the UPS and the Coliseo Jefferson Pérez. Zone coordinator Julio Molina <who seems to have unresigned or been restored to his position> explained that vaccines will be given from martes to sábado from 9:00 and only by appointment. In addition to the UPS and Coliseo, 3 more sites have been prepared – the Centro de Salud de Pumapungo, the Centro Diurnal del Adulato Mayor, and the seat of the Colegio de Médicos.

Health workers prepare vaccines at one of 30 Covid-19 inoculation centers in the Cuenca area. (El Mercurio)

One senior and his wife who got their 2nd shots after registering with the Plan Vacunarse site said that “We have taken care, we have felt fine without any complications, the doctors told us we should keep being careful, and that is what we are going to do.” Other groups are asking to be included in the vaccination process including doctors in private practice and dentistry students.

Los asambleístas de Pachakutic anuncian bloque de oposición (Assembly members of Pachakutik announce opposition block) – Sofía Sánchez and Bruno Segovia, the Azuay legislators from the Pachakutik movement, will adhere to Yaku Pérez’ proposal that they assume leadership of the political opposition to the new government of Guillermo Lasso. The legislators said they are entering a new phase of resistance and the political fight to maintain the ‘Minka por la Vida’ political project with the objective of becoming the Government in the medium term. They justified their position with the numbers of nulo and blanco votes and absenteeism. Those 3 combined are like a vote for a 3d way for the great majority of the country.

According to the CNE, absenteeism, and nulo and blanco votes composed 32.54% of all voters, Arauz votes were 32.58% and Lasso votes were 35.94%. <Can you imagine what the US results would have been if “none of the above” was an option? Only 66.3% of eligible US voters cast votes meaning 33.7% were absent. Then how many of those who did vote would have picked none of the above? Enough for no vote at all plus none of the above to have gotten a majority? Hell, we might have elected Mickey Mouse if he’d been on the ballot.>

Tranvía vuelve a ser revisado por Contraloría (Tram is once again reviewed by the Comptroller’s Office) – The Comptroller General’s office said that 3 of their recommendations about the construction of the tram in Cuenca have not been completed, and another 3 have been partially completed. The report which was approved in enero, will be made public this month. <So those of you who are convinced that there was corruption in the construction will have something to read that will either support or not support your convictions.>

No tendrían que hacer remediación (They should not have to do remediation) – The Fire Department wrote a letter responding to the sentence from a special division of the Corte de Justicia de Azuay which suspended construction on an emergency station in the Cajas. The sentence said the court did not find negligence or intent by the fire department. The Department’s position is that the land was made available by the Ministry of Environment and Water and the City of Cuenca and they should start the remediation and recuperation studies to restore the laguna Illincocha and adjacent areas.

Detienen a sospechoso de intentar robar cajero (Suspect trying to rob ATM was arrested) – A group of 4 robbers tried to break into a cajero automático (ATM- your word for the day) around 3:30 yesterday morning. They forced open a roll-up door to the first floor of a house where there was a recessed ATM. The criminals brought a tank of oxygen and welding equipment to cut the ATM to get to the bill dispenser, but set the machine on fire instead. <I bet they were making a lot of noise as well. What more could they have done to call attention to themselves?> The 4 fled in a Hyundai that possibly had stolen plates. 3 escaped, and the driver abandoned the car on a sidewalk and was caught near the Cruz del Vado.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper. The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.