Crime is the target of two referendum questions; Holiday agenda includes parades, crafts and book fairs; New tourist markets; Coke bust off Galapagos

Miércoles, 10/4/2024

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Semana de arte y cultura – As part of the festivities for the Founding of Cuenca, the Feria International del Libro de Cuenca opened today at the Antigua Escuela Central. In the patio and on the 2nd floor are shelves of books from bookstores and publishers. There are also writers, poets, and illustrators who will have a series of talks from the 10 to 14/4. You can get the schedule of activities at https://n9.cl/2mdpsq. <Hog heaven for all you readers and book lovers out there.>

The annual student parade Thursday was the kickoff of a full agenda of events for Cuecna’s foundation holidays. (El Mercurio)

ARDIS, a biennal dedicated to crafts and design, also opened today at CIDAP. There will be a series of talks and workshops for craftspeople and designers. There will be activities for the general public which will start el jueves y viernes. The Salón ARDIS de Artesanía Contemporánea (ARDIS Contemporary Crafts Show) will open jueves, a las 19:00 in the Casona of CIDAP. This exhibit space will also include the Casa Arte-Museo Universitario and the Museo de Arte Moderno. Activities for the public will also include the opening of the Encuentro de Excelencia Artesanal ARDIS, a show and sale in the patios of CIDAP. The fair hours will be from el 12-14/4 from 10:00-19:00. Admission: free.

Agenda Feria del Libro –
11/4 – Taller: Biblioteca y ciudadanía, 10:00
Crónica literaria, 16:00
Escritura y naturaleza, 17:00
Ciencia Ficción, 19:00.
12/4 – Otras formas de hacer literatura, 11:00
Mediación lectora, 12:00
Poesía for export, 15:00
Periodismo cultural, 16:00
Migración y frontera, 17:00
13/4 – Mediación lectora, 10:00
Sobre el libro infantil ilustrado, 14:00
Taller de narrativa lúdica, 16:00
14/4 – Cómic y libro ilustrado, 15:00
Música y literatura, 16:00.

Amplia agenda en CCE-Azuay (Extensive agenda at CCE-Azuay) – There will be a series of events in the Casa de la Cultura. Tomorrow, jueves el 11/4 from 9:00 to 22:00, there will be a sale of vintage articles and sharing of music in the Galería Vitrina.

De El Mercurio del martes, 9/4 (2 articles):

Agenda cultural –
10/4, 20:00 – Recital: El principio era la fiebre (The beginning was a fever) – Museo Universitario.
11/4, 9:00 – Festival: Tumipamba Fest – GAD de San Joaquín.
12/4, 7:30 – Desfile: Rodada de vehículos eléctricos (Parade, Electric vehicle rally)- 12 de Abril y Paurcarbamba. <Sounds interesting, but not interesting enough to get me out of bed in time to get anywhere by 7 -in the middle of the night- 30.>
13/4, 7:00 – Gastronomía: Sabor, cultura y gastronomía (Taste, culture and gastronomy) – Mercados in Cuenca.
14:4, 10:00 – Feria: Feria de Chaguarchimbana – Casa de Chaguarchimbana.

Desfiles animarán festividad cuencana (Parades will enliven Cuenca’s festivities) – Students and alumni will be part of 2 parades for the 457th anniversary of the Founding of Cuenca fiestas. At least 1,700 students and professors from 17 primary and high schools will march. The first parade will be el jueves, 11/4 a las 9:00 starting at the Parque de San Blas, proceeding along Bolívar and ending at the glorieta at Parque Calderón. The 2nd will have the bandas de guerra (war bands – marching bands) with alumni of the Benign Malo, La Salle, Herlinda Toral, Federico Proaño, and Ciudad de Cuenca marching from the Parque San Blas to the Parque Calderón. This parade will be el 12/4 starting a las 18:00.

Titular –

Ecuador se defiende en OEA (Ecuador defends itself in OASt) – See Thursday’s articles in CHL for story.

Cuenca –

Cuenca tendrá seis ‘mercados turísticos’ (Cuenca will have six ‘tourist markets’) – The 6 supply centers in Cuenca will be converted into ‘Mercados gastronómicos turísticos’ in a project that will start at the mercado 10 de Agosto. The intention of the Ministerio de Turismo (Mintur) with the City of Cuenca and the State University is to train the merchants in manufacturing best practices and basic techniques of gastronomy as well as English to serve the foreign tourists who come to the markets. <And how good do you think that English will be? Just enough to make you mad and start yelling at the poor vendors for not speaking better English?> Training of 55 merchants started last week and will last about 6 months. <Yup, 6 months of training in a bunch of others subjects besides English plus the merchants still have their regular sales to attend to. I don’t think that will get you even marginal English speakers. Better use those 6 months to learn more Spanish.> After the 10 de Agosto, the project will move to the 9 de Octubre, 17 de Febrero, 3 de Noviembre, 12 de Abril and finally El Arenal (Feria Libre).

De El Mercurio del martes, 9/4 (1 article):
Charla con sobreviviente de Los Andes (Talk with Andes survivor) – Roberto Canessa, now a cardiologist, and one of the 16 Uruguayans who survived a plane crash into the Andes in 1972 will talk el 24/4 in the teatro Casa de la Cultura. The survivors of the crash lived for 72 days on melted snow and the corpses of those who died. They were rescued after Canessa and Fernando Parrado went for help and walked for 10 days through the mountains. <Now what audience member is going to ask what will be on peoples’ minds. What does long pig taste like?>

Consulta popular –

De El Mercurio del martes, 9/4 (1 article):
Penas completas en prisión (Full prison sentences) – This is the 8th of the 11 questions in the referendum and consulta popular. It asks, ” Are you in agreement that people deprived of their freedom complete their full sentences in a centro de rehabilitación social?” This would apply to people who have been convicted of crimes such as financing terrorism; recruitment of children and teens for criminal purposes; extortive kidnapping; illegal production of substances subject to control; illegal activity of mining resources, and prohibited or unauthorized firearms, ammunition and explosives. Other crimes include owning and carrying unauthorized arms; extortion; influence trafficking; offer of influence peddling; testaferrismo (being a front man); and revealing the identity of an undercover agent, informant, witness, and others.

Porte de armas divide opinión (Divided opinion on carrying arms) – The 9th question on the referendum and consulta popular is, “Are you in agreement with the criminalization of the crime of possession of arms, ammunition or components which are for proprietary use of the Armed Forces or the National Police? <I know there are some of you who believe you have the right to own grenade launchers, bazookas, and automatic weapons capable of firing 1,200 rounds a minute so you can shred your dog or worse, thinking it’s a burglar.> Rómulo Montalvo, a police coronel in passive service and ex-director of the Consejo de Seguridad Ciudadana (CSC), agrees.

It has been noticed that at times that the largest number of arms come from police and military barracks since those arms are registered. The referendum question would help control and avoid theft of these weapons since those in charge of these arms would be less tempted if sanctions were more drastic. <Isn’t he pretty much saying that military and police weapons in the hands of criminals is the result of “inside” jobs?> Gustavo Quito, a criminal attorney, said the current categorization of weapons is enough. He explained that if you tell someone that carrying arms from the Army will get you prison, but if you carry arms not from the Army, nothing happens, it’s illogical <An attorney in the image of Spock.>. For Quito, what should be prohibited is the carrying of all firearms, military or common, because they are all a danger in the hands of criminals. <But wouldn’t you think that a teenager with testosterone poisoning would rather have a high capacity weapon than some old Wild West six-shooter?>

Sucesos –

De El Mercurio del martes, 9/4 (1 article):
Policía incuata una tonelada de droga en operativo “Armagedón” (Police seize one ton of drugs in “Armageddon” operation) – The “Armageddo” operation was carried out el domingo, 7/4 by the Policía Nacional and the Navy 176 nautical miles NE of the Galápagos Islands. 1,021 packets of cocaine weighing almost 981 kilograms was seized from a “Go Fast” boat, and 2 Ecuadorians were arrested.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne