Better PR urged as vaccinations lag; Complaints mount about land use ordinance; Airport fined for lack of firemen; Abortion bill goes to Assembly

Martes, 29/6/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

De la pagina cultural –

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Una MasterClass con Supermaxi y Megamaxi (A Master Class with Supermaxi and Megamaxi) – Supermaxi and Megamaxi customers have an opportunity to enter a lottery to participate in a MasterClass with Roberto Ayala who won the 2nd season of MasterChef and with Irene Gonzáles, a judge on the show. If you buy more than $35 of fruit, vegetables, pork cuts, and products of participating brands by 21/7, you will get a coupon to be part of the drawing. For another $34.99, you can get a set of pots from UMCO’s MasterChef edition. The drawing will be 3/8 in the “Megamaxi 6 de diciembre.” Each class will have 15 winners in person and 50 on line. Gonzáles will hold her class el 10/8 a las 18:00 in the Megamaxi Mall del Sol in Guayaquil. Ayala’s class will be el 13/8 a las 18:00 in the “Megamaxi 6 de diciembre”.

Titular –

Builders and property owners are complaining about a new land use ordinance and the big fines it applies to violations.

Campaña de vacunación debe ser más creativa (Vaccination campaign must be more creative) – In the past days, vaccine centers in the country have been empty. Some say the absenteeism is due to lack of information and others say that the range of ages should be increased. Sofía Cabrera, a professor and researcher at the Universidad UTE, said there is a lack of adequate communication. The vaccine campaign has explained who needs to be vaccinated and when and where. But it has not explained in layman’s terms the importance of getting vaccinated. Right now, there is a pandemic of desinfodemia (disinfodemic) on social networks, mainly Facebook and WhatsApp. The Gobernador of Azuay, Esteban Bernal, spoke about the 30% absentee rate. He brought up factors such as people simply not wanting to be vaccinated, people who have had Covid and decided to not get vaccinated, and others who got vaccinated abroad. <Medical tourism to the US?>

Cuenca –

El Plan de Ordenamiento debió anteceder the norma (The Management Plan should have preceded the rule) – The debate and discontent over the Ordenanza de Control para el Suelo Urbano, Suelo Rural y Suelo Rural de Expansión Urbana de Cuenca (Ordinance to Control Urban Land, Rural Land and Rural Land for Urban Expansion of Cuenca) has increased since this ordinance establishes fines up to $40,000 for those who build without permits. After 2 years of debates, the ordinance which has 63 articles, was approved by the Concejo Cantonal on 23/4/2021 and went into effect el 23/6.

For Juan Bustillos, a civil engineer and ex-president of the Federación de Barrios de Cuenca (FBC), the ordinance has errors in form and substance which are confusing and make it hard to interpret. He said that the Plan de Desarrollo y Ordenamiento Territorial (PDOT – Development and Territorial Organization Plan) and the Plan de Uso y Gestión del Suelo (PUGS – Land Use and Management Plan) should have been approved first since they are basic rules that clearly spell out the new land uses that will cover the whole canton. <Way to go – fine people for breaking laws that haven’t been written yet.> Bustillos noted that the new ordinance also creates the Unidad Administrativa Sancionadora (Sanctioning Administrative Unit) which adds more bureaucracy with an undetermined number of employees. Juan Carlos Machado, a lawyer and urban development consultant, said the new ordinance contains disproportionate sanctions which are illegal in that they do not respect the constitutional principal of proportionality.

Multa de 5,000 dólares para el aeropuerto ($5,000 fine for the airport) – The Dirección General de Aviación Civil (DGAG) fined the Mariscal La Mar airport for not being ready for Latam flight 1403 on 23/5/2021. The flight was scheduled to land at 15:05, and just before landing received a notice from the DGAG that it had to return to Quito. The reason was a lack of personnel in the Servicio de Seguridad de Extinción de Incendios (SSEI – Firefighting Security Service). The sanction was accompanied by recommendations such as constantly reviewing shift changes at the SSEI station, having back-up personnel in cases of sickness or vacation so that all shifts are covered, and training aeronautical firefighters for back up.

Veeduría pide que se liberen las edades ante ausentismo en vacunación (Oversight requests to expand ages eligible for vaccines in view of absenteeism) – Teresa Bermeo, coordinator of “Veeduría por la Vida” (Oversight for Life), responded to seeing empty vaccine sites. She said this is a waste of money and personnel and called for more ages to be included. She also has heard of people who are not being vaccinated because of unfounded rumors they have heard. She has been told that the vaccines contain bat blood and smart chips. <I haven’t heard the one about bat blood, but I don’t hang around the sites promoting theories like that. Maybe that’s an Ecuadorian rumor.>

Region –

Inversión directa del IVA alivia a los alcaldes y prefectos (Direct deposit of IVA relieves mayors and prefects) – Regional authorities feel that by receiving the IVA (VAT) directly, they will be able to execute projects in the middle of the pandemic which has affected their budgets drastically. According to the Asociación de Municipalidades del Ecuador (AME) Regional 6, the Government owes about $10 million in unreturned IVA funds to 34 municipalities in Azuay, Cañar, y Morona Santiago. Byron Pacheco, prefecto of Cañar, said that the GAD Provincial de Cañar is owed about $400,000 of IVA funds which will be used for health projects due to the pandemic. Representatives of the Consejo Nacional de Gobiernos Parroquiales Rurales del Ecuador (Conagopare – National Council of Rural Parish Governments of Ecuador) said that 61 parish juntas (parish councils or boards) in Azuay are owed about $361,000. <Now there will be even less money at the federal level to pay for stuff like vaccines, public hospitals, etc. Too many needs chasing too few dollars.>

Nacional –

Proyecto de ley sobre el aborto en casos de violación debatirán (Draft law on abortion in cases of rape will be debated) – The Defensoría del Pueblo sent the Ley orgánica para garantizar el derecho a la interrupción voluntaria del embarazo en case do violación (Organic law to guarantee the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy in case of rape) to the Asamblea Nacional ayer. Zaida Rovira, an official with the Defensoría del Pueblo said that the law would recognize a voluntary interruption of pregnancy in case of rape as a right of women. The law would guarantee women will not be revictimized with a forced pregnancy and in the case of girls younger than 15, a risky pregnancy. Rovira said data from the Fiscalía showed that 2,000 girls and teens become pregnant each year, most of them by rape. <I wonder what stance Lasso is going to take on this legislation? His action to celebrate the LGBTI movement was not something I would have expected.>

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 (please don’t ask her for them). The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.