Anti-drug, anti-booze ordinance proposed, City paper work goes online, Sugar cane festival in Yunguilla, Back to school, Photo exhibit

Jueves, 29/8/2019

Hola, Todos –

Apologies for the abbreviated issue yesterday. Between the moment I finished proofreading and before I pushed send, I lost my internet connection. Or maybe it was already gone. Anyway, I lost some of what I’d written as well and didn’t see it until I got the email.

Actividades –

De la pagina cultural –

Exposición – A photo exhibit with other cultural symbols of China such as lanterns and knots opened Thursday in the Sala Proceso of the CCE and will run until the end of septiembre. Aguardiente chino was served with tea and Ecuadorian snacks. <I hope they didn’t have roll people out the door because of the aguardiente.>

Taller de tejido – The “Tejiendo la vida” (Weaving life) workshop will be el próximo sábado from 11-13:00 in the auditorium of CIDAP. You can register in the CIDAP gallery. During the day, there will be live demonstrations and sales of works. <I know there are a lot of gringa weavers out there – this is your event.>

Cuttin’ cane in Yunguilla.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Festival de la caña – The sugar cane festival will be this viernes y sábado in Santa Isabel. It will include ecuavoley and soccer, shows, and the Yunguilla rally.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Abogan por derechos de venezolanos (Advocate for rights of Venezuelans) – The Junta Cantonal de Protección de Derechos issued a disposition to different departments and institutions such as MIES, the Mayor’s office, and Police to guarantee the rights of people in migration. It also urged the Registro Civil and ID and Cedulization offices to put the interests of children absolutely first in whatever decisions they make. <How are venezuelans even going to make it to Ecuador through Colombia now that FARC has rearmed and it’s going to be a war zone?>

Mining free Loja – The Loja City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring the city “libre de minería metálica” (free of metal mining). The resolution was supported by a demonstration.

New refinery construction – Questions have arisen about constructing a new refinery in the country; the most important to most people and their wallets is what will happen to the gas subsidies. Various analysts say they will simply be eliminated since a private company won’t undertake them and the government doesn’t have the capacity to pay them. (Was this one of the conditions of the IMF loan?) Gas could go up to $9/gallon. Others say a new refinery is not needed – only the repowering Esmeraldas.

Anti-drug ordinance – The Federación de Barrios de Cuenca is proposing a general prohibition on the use and consumption of alcoholic and narcotic substances in public spaces including inside cars. <But parked on a public street?> First offenders would be punished with a fine of 30% of the SBI (basic salary), 40 hours of community service, and orientation talks. <Like traffic school? And will they present them in English?> The president of the federation said families should be able to send their kids to the park without worrying about the kids running into addicts. <Gotta love a place where parents can still send their kids to the neighborhood park. Can a kid still go to a park by himself in the US?>

Electric work – The Empresa Eléctrica Centrosur will be putting in a 22,000 volt high tension line from the substation at Luis Cordery y Muñoz Vernaza to the Visorrey station above the Sindicato de Choferes gas station. Part of the line will be underground and the rest on poles. The route will be Munóz Vernaza, Antonio Borrero, Héroes de Verdeloma, colegio Manel de J.U. Calle, Antonio Vallejo, av. de Las Américas, Barrial Blanco. The roads will remain open for vehicular traffic except when they are working at intersections. The project should be finished in marzo del 2020.

There is another project on calle Miguel Heredia to change poles to improve electric service and lighting.

City paperwork online – Starting el próximo lunes, 2/9, you can go to https://dp.cuenca.gob.ec./ to the Ventanilla Única del Municipio de Cuenca to the Cuenca DOC service. You can do a lot of paperwork on line. <I can’t resist – but you’re going to have to do it in Spanish or have a deep wallet for your facilitator.>

Back to classes – School starts el 2/9 with the 1st, 2nd & 3d levels of high school. The lower grades start from 3-9/9. In Zone 6, some 15,000 students are expected, 9,500 in Cuenca.

Extranjero voters in 2021 – The CNE wants to activate mobile brigades to add foreigners to the voter rolls. Foreigners in Ecuador can vote if they’ve lived here for 5 years and register to vote at the Registro Electoral. A CNE employee said 20,757 foreigners were registered and 16,053 exercised their right to vote – a participation rate of 77.34%. <I’ve got my certificado de votación.>

From yesterday’s paper –

4,000 packages at P.O. – There were about 4,000 packages waiting to be picked up by customers who bought from the Wish and Alibabá platforms in 2018 and 2019. Those packages were inventoried, recipients are being notified, and as of lunes, 30% had been delivered. They were being held at the post office because no one had paid the $3.49 fee. This payment can be made at the P.O. or on line at “Avísalo.” If you are buying online, you must register with Avísalo which also allows you to track your package.

And that’s all for today so Hasta la Próxima Semana –

Jeanne