Airport certification, Street art festival, Growth predicted, Three more detained in Odebrecht

Viernes, 25/8/2017

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Today’s agenda events –

Teatro – “Solo, solo, solo” will close its season with the last performance Saturday a las 20:00 in the sala “Alfonso Carrasco.” Cost: $5 & $7 with 2×1.

Seminario académico <Are you all skipping to the next item having translated “academic seminar” for yourselves?) – The School of Arts at the U. of Cuenca is holding a seminar from Friday hasta el martes próximo, from 9-13:00, titled “Imágenes históricas y Educación Artistica.”

Upcoming agenda event –

Concierto – A festival of solidarity, “Cualquier noch puede salir el son” (Whatever night the son can leave), will be on 1/9 a las 16:00 in the Rizoma Plataforma Digital (in the CCE). Various collectives and organizations will participate.

Articles about –

14 Bienal – Two Venezuelans, Jesús Fuenmayor y Yucef Merhi, have been selected as the curators for the 14th Bienal de Cuenca. <I’m sorry, but I just can’t read beyond the first couple of paragraphs.>

Festival Internacional de las Artes Callejeras (Arte Calle 2017) – The 8th edition of this street art festival will be from 10-16/9 with artists in dance, music, theater, puppets, performance, and plastic arts performing in various parks and plazas. A calendar is being produced. The groups and artists have been selected. <It’s not a free-for-all jam where you can bring your clarinet and perform a Benny Goodman retrospective.>

Danza – The mission of the dance group Fuego Morlaco (Cuenano Fire) is to find, research, perpetuate and maintain in force the traditional forms of cultural expression of the villages and nationalities of Ecuador. The group is planning a show on 12/10. The 9 men and 6 women who aren members of the group are grads of the Colegio Borja and Conservatory,7 and university students.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Violencia contra la mujer motiva ley (Violence against women motivates law) – Yesterday, Pres. Moreno presented Ley Orgánica Integral contra la Violencia de Género to the Asamblea Nacional that seeks to erradicate gender violence and halt the increase in feminicides registered in the past years. AN president, José Serrano, announced he will create a “comisión ocasional” (one time, one issue commission?) to analyze the proposal and said it could be approved by 25/11. This is the 2nd project Moreno has presented to the Assembly. The first was the Ley de Discapacidades when he was VP.

Odebrecht – 3 more people were detained in two simultaneous raids on offices where illegal payments were made in Quito and Guayaquil. Investigators are looking at Sai Bank which seems to be operating in the country without authorization. Prosecutors think the bank made it easy to move cash without raising flags, which facilitated payments to public officials who are now under investigation. The multi-agency action followed 3 months of investigation. The Prosecutor is trying to establish responsibilities for “asociación ilícita, cohecho, concusión, y lavado de activos” (Illicit association, bribery, soliciting bribes <no, in this case it isn’t a concussion>, and money laundering).

Tax Havens – The Asamblea Nacional approved the application of the referendum about tax havens including the 4 comments made by the President. Exceptions to prohibiting public and elected officials from owning assets in tax havens would be those officials in foreign service who work in tax havens, students or fellows who want to run for public office, and candidates who live in tax havens. <I think Delaware and a couple of other states are a tax havens.>

Slides – Los Trigales is asking for a definite solution to the problems with constant landslides that started about 18 years ago. Several houses collapses and the rubble has still not been removed, and others are at risk but still lived in.

Airport – There will be a meeting between CORPAC (which runs the aeropuerto Mariscal La Mar in Cuenca) and the Dirección General de Aviación Civil (DGAC), the highest authority in civil aviation on 8/9 when CORPAC will submit a letter officially starting the process of certification of the airport. The airport dates to 1941 and the first route was a 45 min. Cuenca-Quito flight. <Doesn’t it still take that long? And using jets?> The TAME jet is still sitting off the runway. <Must make tourists feel real secure – a beat up passenger jet sitting there. Especially if they’re on a TAME flight.>

Pet registration – As part of the program for responsible pet ownership, you can register your pet at www.cga.cuenca.gob.ec. You enter your pet(s) age, breed, sex, if it is sterilized and basic data on yourself.

Feria – A Back to School Fair started ayer at the Portal Regional de Artesanías (PRAC) <Bolívar y Huayna Cápac). 90% of the booths had products not related to school. The fair was organized by EDEC EP (Economic Development City Business) to help the businesses along the Tranvía route.

Macroeconomic projections to 2020 from the BCE (Banco Central del Ecuador) – From 2017 to 2020, non-petroleum exports will increase from 19.066 billion in 2017 to 23.448 billion in 2020, and in all years, there will be a positive balance of trade. The PIB (GDP) will grow 0,7%. Due to factors such as growth in non-traditional exports resulting from the agreement with the EU, the economy as a whole will grow 1.6% in 2018, 2.39% in 2019 and 2.49% in 2020. Population growth is at about 1.5%.

Amenidades –

Pablo Milanés – The Cuban singer will be in Cuenca on 28/8 a las 20:00 in the coliseo Jefferson Pérez. He has more than 50 albums out. Ticket sales will start 28/8. Get them at La Victoria stores, Óptica Calderón (across the street from the teatro Carlos Cueva) and at El Surtido stores. Cost: $25, $45, & $65.

Movies – as usual, go to www.multicines.com.ec for show times and locations. All movies this week are 2D. The following movies open this week.

La torre oscura – Esp y Sub.
Guardianes – Esp.

The following movies are continuing.

Annabelle 2 – Esp.
Planeta simios guerra – Esp.
Capitán calzoncillos – Esp.
Mi Tía Toty – Esp.
Transformers 5 l Esp.
Aprendiz del crimen – Sub.
Valerian – Esp.

Internacional –

Venezuela – Juan Guaidó, a member of the Asamblea Nacional <the original one which is mostly opposition> said that ex-AG has “muchas” proof of corruption. Venezuela signed contracts with Odebrecht for at least 22.000 million <Would that be that 22 billion?> on 7 projects which are still unfinished including a hydroelectric plant, railway projects and 3 bridges. The bridge over the Lago de Maracaibo is 11 years late, 3,000% over budget, and only 36% complete.

Discuentos y compras –

Kia – Rio from $17,990 incl. IVA, Picanto from $14,590.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Domingo –

Jeanne