Cuenca zoo reopens; June unemployment rate is 13.3%; Uber adds delivery app; Paute children’s park renovated; New vehicle inspection hours

Lunes, 10/8/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Nada.

Otras cosas –

Titular – ‘Hinchas de cartón’ animarán el fútbol (‘Cardboard fans’ will animate football) – 50% of the professional Ecuadorian basketball teams <average height: 5′-10″> are playing in front of “fans de cartón.” For $15.00, fans can take a high quality picture of themselves, top half, and Visual Print will put it onto a corrugated plastic backing of 70×50 cm to be attached to a seat in the Palco section of the estadio Alejandro Serrano Aguilar. Deportiva Cuenca’s goal is 5,000 fans. Other clubs and universities are doing the same thing.

Unemployment exceeds 1 million – The Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y Subempleo (Enemdu <sounds like that rap artist> – National Survey of Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment) conducted a phone survey from 5/5 to 30/6 and found that 1,009,583 people are unemployed which is 13.3% of the Población Económicamente Activa (PEA – Economically active population). In junio, 2019, 366,163 people were unemployed (4.4% of the PEA) and in diciembre, 2019, there were 311,134 unemployed (3.8% of the PEA). In junio, 2019, the same survey found l,667,289 people (34.5% of the PEA) in the underemployed category.

This lion is welcoming visitors once again at Cuenca’s Amaru zoo.

14 month pay will not be complete this time – The extra 14th month payment is due to employees by 15/8. Before the pandemic, the amount due was one SBU (salario basico unificado – basic salary) of $400. This payment is not tied to the employee’s salary but their work day so for people working part time, the décima cuarta renumeración will be proportionate. This applies to employees whose hours were reduced due to the pandemic. The 13th extra month, paid in diciembre, will be 1/12 of the employee’s annual earnings. This reduction also affects vacation and IESS contributions. <This is something else you shouldn’t rely on my translation for. Go to your accountant for what you specifically need to pay your employees, or to find out what you should expect from your employer.>

App for repartidores de productos – Uber has an app for home delivery of products called Uber Flash that is now available in Cuenca along with Uber Eats for food delivery.

New hours for vehicle inspections – Due to the curfew, EMOV EP has new hours for their services for the revisión técnica vehicular (RTV – technical vehicle inspections) and matriculations. Hours for the RTV are from lunes a jueves, 7-19:00; viernes, 7-18:00; y sábados, 7-16:00. For matriculation (registration) centers, the hours are from lunes a viernes, 7-18:00 and sábados, 7-15:00 except for the center in the Terminal Terrestre which is from lune a viernes until 16:00. The head of the RTV said that appointments will be given in agosto with the first 2 weeks for inspecting all vehicles and motos regardless of plate number. For the rest of the month, appointments will be given to cars with 7, 4, 3, y 2 as the last number of the license plate in order to finish inspecting vehicles whose inspections were delayed. The RTV centers have all the bio-security and signage measures. <So we park our cars on those circles of life? Spaced 2 meters apart?>

Parque Infantil in Paute – Work on the childrens’ park in Paute should be finished in septiembre except for the play structures which will be installed in octubre. The park is next to the “Lujis Pesántez” sports coliseum and will have new areas for Personas con Capacidades Especiales (People with Special Abilities).

Jorge Glas – Glas’ defense attorneys are proposing that the ex-VP be released early. Early release is for a prisoner who has served 2/5 of their sentence, shown good behavior, is not under any other warrants for other crimes, and has been sentenced with a specific law. <Can anyone explain the last condition? Wouldn’t that apply to all crimes?> A member of a citizen control group said that Glas should not be eligible while complaints in the Manduriacu, Caminosca y Toachi Pilatón cases are being looked into. Glas is “seriamente involucrado” (seriously involved) in those cases. A former coordinator for the Comisión Nacional Anticorrupción (National Anticorruption Commission) recalled that along with the prison sentence, Glas was ordered to pay a sanction of $33.40. The commissioner asked if he’d paid the fine or was it a chiste (joke <More like a burla on every honest Ecuadorian. And I know there are those of you who’d say “What honest Ecuadorians?” Would that be a case of projection?>).

From Sunday’s paper –

Zoológico Bioparque Amaru – The Amaru Zoo was open this holiday weekend with regular hours starting at 9:00. After closing for a few months, it has opened with a bio-security protocols and marked routes for orderly attendance. They are also selling visors and masks with original designs – mainly animals such as lions and jaguars and bears <Oh, my. In case any of you remembers the Wizard of Oz.> These “Salvajes” visors can be delivered to your house. Contact www.zoobioparqueamaru.com.

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne