City council considers reducing Covid restrictions; Lasso’s investment law looks doomed; Cuenca misses out on big-name concerts; Nabón landslide relief

Miércoles, 23/3/2022

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Titular –

Tambalea la Ley de Inversiones (Investment Law falters) – The Izquierda Democrática (ID), UNES (Correismo), & Pachakutic have made their position clear – they will not give their almost 90 votes to pass the Ley de Inversiones as proposed by the Government. The ley will probably be archived. ID and Pachakutic object to a section of the law that they consider an instrument of privitization of government services and assets. The Government has the support of only the Partido Social Cristiano (PSC) and independents who generally vote with the government, but have a maximum of 45 votes.

Cuenca –

The National Assembly appears to be poised to reject President Guillermo Lasso’s Law of Investment.

Falta actualizar restricciones (Restrictions not yet updated) – The Consejo Cantonal de Cuenca is analyzing a proposal from 8 council members to make the Covid restrictions in the city more flexible by reforming the Ordinanza que Regula las Medidas Temporales de Prevención, Contención, Mitigación, y Control (Ordinance Regulating Temporary Prevention, Containment, Mitigation, and Control Measures). The ordinance was approved in 9/2020 and revised in 2021. The ordinance established restrictions such as those on driving between 2-5:00, determining capacity limits, and opening hours. Councilman Xavier Barrera said that modifications to the ordinance would include 100% occupancy in restaurants, gyms, event salons, movie theaters, theaters and other locations. As part of this, there would be a provision that in order to enter establishments, people should show their vaccination card. <So maybe those of you who paid for fake cards will be able to get a little more use out of them.>

Barrera felt that these modifications should be made due to the current situation in the city. 92.35% of citizens have had their 1st doses, 90.24% their 2nd, and 40.05% their 3d as compared to 26% who have had 3d doses nationally. The positive testing rate is 9% when 5% or less is considered a controlled pandemic. In addition, there have not been reports of new admissions to ICU beds, and there is a decrease in patients receiving intermediate care.

Proyectos sociales dan ayuda a haitiana que dormía en la calle (Social projects help Haitian woman sleeping on the street) – La Dirección de Desarrollo Social y Productivo del Municipio de Cuenca (The Department of Social and Productive Development of the Municipality of Cuenca) through its Proyecto Vida (Project Life), was successful in convincing a Haitian woman who slept near 10 de Agosto y calle de las Herrerías to change her life el lunes pasado. The Project LIfe made more than 8 contacts with her since 29/7/2021, providing her with lodging at the Posada San Francisco and hygiene kits. They communicated with her through an interpreter provided by the Fundación Alianza Francesa and even offered a humanitarian flight to Haiti which she refused. <Says something about the conditions in Haiti, and maybe in Cuenca, that she’d rather sleep on the street here than go back to her home country.> The woman had always said she wanted to live by herself, and Proyecto Vida found her independent housing.

Conciertos en Cuenca son complicados (Concerts in Cuenca are complicated) – Of the many concerts scheduled in Ecuador this year, international artists perform in Guayaquil and Quito with Cuenca left out again. Jorge Gallegos Mendieta is a promoter who has stood out for bringing famous artists to Cuenca. Although it is the 3d largest city, its venues can’t hold a large number of attendees. The Coliseo Jefferson Perez holds 6,000, while the Voltaire Paladines Polo in Guayaquil holds 9.000 and the Coliseo Rumiñahui in Quito holds 16,000. The stadium in Cuenca holds 20,000 with those in Guayaquil and Quito holding 60,000. This means that ticket prices for well known performers in Cuenca are high — from $100-$250. Other issues are national with high taxes and slow paperwork compared to Colombia and Perú. Gallegos said that costs to present a show in a coliseum can run to $30,000 and up to $100,000 in a stadium. The break even point comes when 30% of the seats are filled.

There will be various artists for the fiestas for the Foundation of Cuenca in abril including Charly Alberti y Zeta Bosio of Soda Stereo. In the past few years, Maná, Alejandro Fernández, Daddy Yankee, Aventura, Romeo Santos, Ricky Martin, Prince Royce, Marco Antonio Solís, and Melendi have performed in Cuenca. <They forgot to mention Manu Chau.>

Region –

Obras para salvar 4 barrios (Projects to save 4 barrios) – Neighbors in the Rosas, Bellavista, Tamboloma y El Rosario barrios in Nabón are watching the project to mitigate a macro-landslide with alivio (relief – your word for the day.) The work, which will be in 3 phases, should last about 6 months. The slide caused earth settlement creating cracks in houses and roads, and a multi-use sports court that sunk leaving it unusable. <Talk about home court advantage – knowing where the trip hazards are.>

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.