City is 91% vaxxed and hospitals have no Covid cases; Cuenca holidays extended to five days; Country has adequate fuel supply; Azogues celebration underway

Lunes, 18/10/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Nada.

Titular –

Garantizan la entrega de diésel (Diesel delivery guaranteed) – The ministerio de Energía announced that the shipment and sales of fuel will be guaranteed in all of Ecuador after a supposed scarcity in Azuay. Petroecuador said there are sufficient stocks of Diésel Premium, Súper, Ecopaís, Diésel 2, and Jet A1 to fulfil the demand for fuel in the southern part of the country. There is a programmed shipment of 420,000 gallons by tanker trucks from the Pacuales terminal in Guayas. This will prioritize industrial clients and service stations. Petroecuador reported there was a problem with maritime traffic and meteorological conditions that delayed the arrival of one of the ships to La Libertad which affected the offloading of Diésel Premium at the Tres Bocas terminal. In the next few hours, the Poliducto Pascuales-Cuenca will resume operations with the transport of 1.2 million barrels of Diésel Premium. This will allow the Productos Limpios Cuenca terminal to start shipping Tuesday night. <So if you couldn’t get diesel, that’s why.>

Cuenca –

Eventos por las fiestas de Cuenca necesitan permisos (Events for the Cuenca festivities need permits) – The Government has declared two extra days of holiday in Ecuador, from el lunes, 1/11 to el miércoles 3/11 for the Día de los Difuntos and the Independencia de Cuenca so plus the weekend, there will be 5 days off. The Government is hoping to reactivate tourism on a national level. Franklin Rojas, intendente of the Policía del Azuay, said that events planned for the holidays need to comply with requirements that will be established by the National COE this week. Rojas said that promoters cannot publicize their events until they have permits.

Following a year’s absence due to the pandemic, craft fairs return to Cuenca’s independence celebration next week..

This year there will be carnival type events and fairs and circuses with large numbers of attendees. Carnival rides are being installed at the cuartel Cayambe, and a mega feria in Totoracocha will open on 29/11. There are close to 300 events being developed for the 201st anniversary of Cuenca’s independence including ferias and concerts. These will be held in different open air venues. Those events arranged by the Municipio de Cuenca will be free. Due to the issue of capacity. attendees should register and among the requirements will be carrying your vaccination card. <What? You don’t have a vaccination certificate, and you want to go to some of the shows? Well, I guess your priorities were something different than holiday festivities.> This holiday is important for Cuenca because of it’s economic benefits. On the last holiday, 9/10, there were 48,500 visitors to Cuenca which represented an injection of $2.5 million into the local economy.

Bioseguridad (Biosecurity) – The mayor of Cuenca communicated with the director of the COE that the events the city is considering will be held with all biosecurity measures, and the GAD Municipal will coordinate with the Gobierno Central. He said the city has complied with the vaccination process with the result that 91% of the population has been jabbed and there are 0 (zero) Covid patients occupying hospital beds. <This probably makes Cuenca one of the safest places to spend the rest of this Covid disaster.>

Productores se vinculan a supermercados (Producers are linked to supermarkets) – About 15 associations and independent producers are selling directly to supermarkets, tiendas, and restaurants at a local level through the help of MAG (Ministerios de Agricultura y Ganadería). This cuts the chain of middlemen, creating more income for the producers who have sold $56,026.88 directly to the retailers this year. Some of the stores carrying these products include Megatienda del Sur, Megatienda Santa Cecilia, Grupo Trujillo, La Bodega, Italdeli, and Gran Sol. Products include liquors, cofee, horchatas, panela, vegetables, máchica, barley, onions and more.

Concejo Cantonal de Cuenca tiene una tarea pendiente (Cantonal Council of Cuenca has a pending task) – Because of the passage of a reform to the law governing roads, transit and road safety, the Cuenca Cantonal Council has until 10/2/2022 to reform, develop, or apply at least 4 ordinances related to transit, transport and road safety. The reform went into effect el 10/8/2021 with cities having 180 days to comply. One of the ordinances should address promoting alternate mobility and especially electric vehicles. An incentive will be that 2% of public parking spaces should be for electric vehicles. Currently these vehicles can park in any public parking space for free. Another of the ordinances would be to encourage and regulate “vehiculo compartido” or carpooling (carpoolin, in Spanish) <Or would that be in Spanglish?> A 3d ordinance should regulate micromovilidad such as scooters, monopatines (skateboards – our word for the day), electric bikes, mini electric cars, segways, monociclos (unicycles) <And just how many unicycles have you seen adding to the traffic congestion in Cuenca?>, twikes, mopeds, and more.

Trámites solo con cédula (Procedures only with cédula) – The CNE (Consejo Nacional Electoral) announced that citizens who process paperwork in person at their offices only need to present their cédula. You don’t need to bring extra copies or your voting certificate. <Remember when you had to have extra copies of your cédula even if all you wanted was to pay your utility bill?> The CNE also confirmed that citizens will not be fined for not voting, not attending training if you’re a member of the <Juntas Receptoras del Voto (JRV – poll workers), or not attending elections as a JRV.

Region –

Azogues inicia sus festividades (Azogues starts its festivities) – Azogues started its celebrations for its 201st anniversary of independence last sábado with a parade with 20 marching/dancing groups. <Parades seem to have been victims of the pandemic – when was the last time you saw one in Cuenca?> Mayor Romel Sarmiento announced that “Azogues Festival, II Edición” will run from 1-4/11 with 4 days of national and international concerts.

Nacional –

El fantasma de la muerte cruzada y el futuro democrático del Ecuador (The ghost of the death cross and the democratic future of Ecuador) – This headline is for your information only, in case you want to read page 5A for yourself.

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.