Brothel suffers grenade attack; Airport to close Saturdays for maintenance; New pharmacies popping up all over; Work begins on hydro electric project

Miércoles, 10/11/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

From the Fiestas de Cuenca Agenda:

11 al 14 de noviembre: 1st CAMPEONATO CHALLENGER DE LAS AMÉRICAS – 20:00
Colegio Benigno Malo, Av. Solano y Aurelio Aguilar – Organized by Cuenca Club Sercobaco

Cuenca’s Mariscal La Mar Airport

Titular – Tres sábados sin vuelos (Three Saturdays without flights) – The Cuenca airport will suspend operations for 3 consecutive Saturdays, los 13, 20, & 27/11, from 6-21:00 to do runway maintenance. There will be repairs to the surface and sealing and repairing cracks since the asphalt cap has reached the end of its useful life. The two airlines that serve Cuenca, LATAM and Avianca, have been notified and will notify and reschedule their passengers as needed. This work is prior to a comprehensive rehabilitation in the runways and área de movimiento (taxiways?) which will be done in the first part of 2022. Other work will include a new drainage system, reconstruction of the electrical circuits, changing the LED lights, and horizontal signage. The $9,311,282 project will be financed with funds from the Banco de Desarrollo para América Latina (CAF). <Wasn’t this the same list of improvements that were made after the TAME flight ran off the end of the runway in 2016? Is 5 years the useful life of these kinds of projects?>

Cuenca –

Firmado contrato para Soldados-Yanuncay (Signed contract for Soldiers <an example of the limits of a translation program>-Yanuncay) – Antonio Borrero, manager of the Empresa Electro Generadora del Austro (Elecaustro), announced that a contract for the construction of the Proyecto Hidroeléctrico Soldados Yanuncay (PHSY) has been signed. The $9 million project is on the borders of the Baños and San Joaquín parishes about 43 miles from Cuenca’s urban center. The project will use water from the río Yanuncay and have a 42 m. high dam with a 20,000,000 cubic meter capacity. <Good thing earthquakes aren’t common here.> There will be 2 centers in a series with the Soldados station capable of generating 7 MW and the Yanuncay with a capacity of 15 MW. The energy produced will go to the Turi Substation for distribution to the rest of he country. Elecaustro’s projections guarantee that the dam will not affect the ecological flow of the río Quingoyacu which feeds into the Yanuncay which is used for the potable water plant in Sustag.

3 fases para retorno a las aulas (3 phases to return to classrooms) – Because of the advanced levels of vaccinations for children and teens, the necessity of closing the educational gaps left by the pandemic, and because of the 150,000 students who left the system in the last year and half, the Ministerio de Educación has proposed a mandatory return to classes for both public (fiscales) and private schools on 22/11. The return will have 3 phases with 402,309 students in technical high school and rural schools returning on 22/11; high school students and those in básica superior (higher primary?) will return el 6/12; and students in educación básica (grade school?) will return on 17/1/2022.

Nationally, as of 7/11, first vaccine doses for students between 12 & 17 exceeds 50% in all provinces. In Azuay, there is a 76.12% first dose rate for 12-17 year olds with 46.81% rate for students with both doses. Schools can operate at 100% capacity but with staggered hours for lunch and recreation. Schools cannot demand the purchase of uniforms or the school supply kits normally required at the beginning of the year. Schools and teachers cannot ask for money to reactivate the schools, unless a consensus has been reached to carry out mingas or arrangements.

Proliferan farmacias en Cuenca y en toda la región (Pharmacies proliferate in Cuenca and throughout the region) – The number of pharmacies has grown by 14% due to the pandemic. From 1/2020 to 9/2021, the number of pharmacies in Azuay, Cañar, y Morona Santiago grew by 309 to 1,168. Cuenca had 576 pharmacies in 12/2020. The number has grown to 626 to date. The process of getting a permit for a pharmacy takes 30 minutes. <???? Even changing minutes to days seems fast. I would have guessed 30 weeks.> The main requirements are the owner is a biochemist or has contracted with a technical representative who is a specialist in biochemistry or pharmacy. <I wonder if some enterprising gringo hasn’t taken advantage of this to open up a chain of pharmacies.>

Empleadores deberán actualizar sus datos (Employers must update their data) – The Dirección Provincial de Azuay del IESS announced that employers must update their data and the data of the insured if there have been changes. This would include changes of addresses, email addresses, etc. This can be done at www.iess.gob.ec. The insured party <like your cleaning lady> can go to the service windows at the IESS offices to make their changes.

25 mil atenciones en las brigadas integrales Cuenca Unida por tu Bienestar (25 thousand attentions in the integral brigades Cuenca United for your Well-being) – <I know that there’s a better way to translate that than what GoogleTranslate is telling me, but I’m too lazy to fret over it.> Since the formation of these brigades on 13/3/2021, these teams have gone to 50 barrios in the 21 rural and 15 urban parishes of Cuenca with free health services. They provide health, nutritional, and dental services; different types of training; and Covid tests to people in forgotten sectors who lack the resources to access medical services. Members of these brigades come from the public businesses such as Farmasol EP, ETAPA EP, Consejo Seguridad Ciudadana, Consejo Cantonal de Salud de Cuenca, Hospital Municipal de Cuenca, Acción Social Municipal, Dirección de Desarrollo Social y Productivo, and the Dirección de Gobernabilidad, among others.

Sucesos –

Investigan atentado con granada (Grenade attack investigated) – The Policía Nacional is investigating a grenade attack in the zona de tolerencia (red light district). El último domingo, around 4:30, an unknown person threw a grenade into the parking lot of a location leaving damage to vehicles and to walls and doors of the location. The police said it seems that a criminal group is terrorizing and extorting owners of the locations. <How about an angry wife who saw her husband’s car in the brothel’s parking lot?> The police found an abandoned moto which was used by the criminals a few blocks away. They also found a note which attributed the attack to a national criminal gang associated with violence in the jails. <Well, there goes the angry wife theory.>

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne