Audit questions $3.5 million in tram expenses, Trial of former foreign minister set, New airline announces fares, Rights of the disabled

Martes, 6/8/2019

Hola, Todos –

I might be taking a vacation from this column next week. It will depend on if I can work with a houseful of painters and carpenters doing whatever it is that they’ll be doing.

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Día del Cine Ecuatoriano – The Cine Club Catarsis is presenting the 4th edition of the Celebration of National Film Day on Wednesday. The program will be a seminar a las 10:00, showings of short films in the afternoon, a showing of “Medardo” by Nitsy Grau a las 17:00, and ending with “Estación Polar.” <No mention was made of a change in venue.>

Prettiest cuy dressed up for dinner.

Exposición – A retrospective of Cuencano artist Gustavo López will open Wednesday a las 19:00 in the galleries of the Antigua Escuela Central with about 90 works spanning a 40 year career.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Festival del cuy – There will be a Cuy Festival in the El Tablón community in Nulti Parish el próximo 11/8. There will be contests for the best dressed and biggest cuy; a cuy race <I imagine they’d be a little faster than snails>; and the best plate of cuy. <I’m guessing for some of you, a plate of snails would go down faster than a plate of cuy.> There will be a 5K race for people as well. The main objective is for cuy raisers to exchange cuys to improve the breed. Go to “Gadpr Nulti” on Facebook for more info or to enter a contest.

Cantonization of El Troncal – There are more than 60 activities planned for the 36th anniversary of El Troncal becoming a canton starting with electing a Queen of El Troncal este sábado a las 19:00 in the Parque Urbano. This park will also have a qualifying round for the BMX Championships el domingo a las 9:00. At 10.00 there will be a 4×4 competition in the Ciudadela Jaime Roldós (Parque Extremo). There’s a long list of events that lasts until 25/8 which is the main day of the festival.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Los informales piden más espacios públicos (Informal <vendors> ask for more public spaces) – 1.600 informal vendors asked the Municipality to operate the sales platforms in Totoracocha, Miraflores, Quinta Chica, y Narancay every day as well as other spaces such as the Ezequiel Crespo School, el colegio Febres Cordero, and the Hermano Miguel passage. They would like to regularize their businesses and leave the streets. <Means the shopper will probably have to go further to get their cookies, chips and fruit.>

New airline – Aeroregional started its Cuenca-Quito-Cuenca route Monday night. The price of their ticket on the Cuenca-Quito-Cuenca route is $160.32 compared to LATAM at $354.42 and TAME at $352.18. They will fly you to Guayaquil, but via Quito for $200.00. The prices do not change if you buy your ticket in advance or the day ahead.
The Cuenca-Quito flights will leave Cuenca Mon-Fri at 6:15 with an additional flight at 21:30 on viernes. There will be no flights los sábados, and one flight at 10:00 on domingo. From Quito-Cuenca, there will be 7 flights, all at 20:00 from Mon-Sun. Currently, Aeroregional operates package tour charter flights from Quito and Guayaquil to Panamá and other tourist destinations.

Ricardo Patiño – The ex-Sec’y of State and National Defense Minister has been called to trial for the alleged crime of instigation of public disorder after receipt of a request from the A. G. to judge Marcelo Palomo. Patiño was found in Mexico. He left Ecuador for Peru the day before he was sentenced to prison in April, 2018.

Nunac – Two young entrepreneurs have started Nunac, a company that distributes products that address the environmental contamination from single use plastic articles and styrofoam. They sell straws ($3.00 for 100), glasses for 10¢ each, coffee filters, utensils, containers, etc. which are made from vegetable fibers such as cornstarch or sugar cane bagasse. The plastic substitute materials decompose easily, especially in land fills. <Start bothering your local SuperMaxi to order these products.>

Drivers’ license test – You can take see the bank of questions used for the written driving test at www.lecuadorlegalonline.com, and take practice tests.

Discapacidad – One of the agenda items for today’s extraordinary meeting of the Consejo Cantonal was the Ordenanza Municipal de Protección de Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad (Municipal Ordinance for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). It will be the 2nd and definitive debate on this ordinance. <Remember that seniors also often benefit from these protections.>j

Tranvía – The Azuay Department of the national Comptroller’s office found about $3.5 million in payments without their respective justifications. Payments included 663,929 Euros to SMTC-AC/Artelia Ville & Transport and $1,687,420 to GME CITA Cuenca. There was also an emergency contract which wasn’t clearly justified in the amount of $191,246.

UPS – The Universidad Politécnica Salesiana is celebrating its 25th anniversary. It was started in Cuenca and then expanded to Quito and Guayaquil. The university has 25,700 students with 5,500 on the Cuenca campus. The vision of the salesianos was to work in popular education and currently 60% of the students are from the middle and lower middle classes, 14% are economically advantaged, and 25% need scholarship help.

Referendum – the “Ahora” movement is starting to collect the 130,000 signatures needed to hold a referendum on eliminating the Consejo de Participación Ciudadana y Control Social (CPCCS).

Internacional –

Colombia – The approximately 24,000 babies born to Venezuelans in Colombia between 19/8/2015 and to date will be able to become Colombian citizens. These babies were essentially stateless with insurmountable obstacles to getting Venezuelan citizenship, and not being eligible for Colombian citizenship since their parents were foreigners not resident in the country.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne