Drought takes a toll on agriculture; Judge rejects Metastasis case appeals; Murder suspect ‘lynched’ in Cayambe; Pumapungo closes for maintenance

The country’s ongoing drought is not only threatening hydroelectric generation and drinking water supplies but agricultural production as well. Farmers across the country say that due to the lack of rain, local irrigation systems and farm holding ponds are going dry.

“While the emphasis has been on electricity and potable water supplies, the drought is hurting farming interests throughout the country, particularly in the southern sector,” the Agriculture Ministry said Friday. “We are urging farming interests to use water with care and to conserve as much as possible.”

Farmers in the Tarqui parish, south of Cuenca, have been hard-hit by drought conditions and temperature extremes.

Especially hard-hit by drought conditions, the ministry says, are potato, beans, broccoli, tomato and tree tomato production in Chimborazo, Canar, Azuay and Loja Provinces. The ministry reports that potato yields have fallen almost 70% in the Riobamba area.

The drought is also affecting banana production in El Oro Province, where some farmers say irrigation canals are running dry. After Guayas Province, El Oro is Ecuador’s largest banana producer, with 22,000 hectares of production.

The Agricultural Ministry adds that intense sunshine in the intermountain valley that stretches from Colombia in the north to Peru in the south has made the drought worse. “Under typical seasonal weather conditions, the valley experiences an average of 50% cloud-cover during daylight hours from June to October,” a ministry spokeswoman explained. “In 2023 and again this year, we are experiencing almost 70% of sunshine hours, and this is increasing the evaporation level.”

Judge rejects Metastasis case appeals
National Court Judge Manuel Cabrera has denied appeals by the 37 defendants in the Metastasis corruption case. According to defense lawyers, the appeals were based on a wide range of “procedural, technical and substantive” violations committed by the prosecution.

Cabrera, who took a month to deliver his ruling, said the grounds for appeal in all cases were not sufficient to overturn the accusations or to free the defendants from detention. He ordered trials of the defendants to proceed.

Murder suspect is lynched in Cayambe
An angry crowd beat, stripped and hung a man they believe kidnapped and murdered a truck driver in northern Pichincha Province. As the crowd watched, police arrived late Friday to remove the man who had been hung naked from a parapet at a memorial to former President Eloy Alfaro in a Cayambe public plaza.

Although the victim, identified as Luis Z., was taken to a local hospital by police, he died late Saturday. It was believed he was suspended by ropes at the Alfaro monument for at least two hours before being removed.

“If the police do not respond to the kidnapping and killing of our friends and neighbors, the people will take justice into our own hands,” said an unnamed man who participated in beating the suspect. “These crimes may be accepted in some parts of the country, but we will not tolerate it here.”

The location of man’s lynching was ironic. Eloy Afaro was himself a victim of mob violence. He was seized from a Quito jail in 1912, murdered, dismembered and dragged through the streets. The mob was led by Catholic priests and pro-Catholic soldiers carrying a sign “Muerte al indio Alfaro” (“death to the indian Alfaro”), referring to Alfaro’s support of indigenous rights.

Pumapungo Museum closes for maintenance
Cuenca’s Pumapungo Museum is closed temporarily for upgrades and maintenance. Among the upgrades is a “reorganization and updating” of permanent and temporary exhibitions and the reconstruction of exhibit spaces. The work includes the incorporation of new technologies to “enchance the visitor experience,” museum management said.

The archaeological site and ethnobotanical gardens behind the museum will continue to be open to the public. In addition, the schedule of events such as the International Puppet Festival “TitiriCuenca” in late September and the “Scenarios of the World” theater festival will not be affected since they will be staged in the auditorium adjacent to the museum.

The Museum will reopen in early December.