Dry weather speeds landslide recovery; Sacred music festival, other holiday activities; Gov’t cracks down on credit card charges; Vendors crowd sidewalks

Jueves, 7/4/2022

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Hoy se inaugura festival de música sacra “Quien canta ora dos veces” (Sacred music festival “He who sings prays twice” opened today) – <And does he who laughs prays 3 times? I guess it depends on what he’s laughing at.> The U. of Cuenca organized its 1st sacred music festival with performances by the Coro Cantahuarmi from Guayaquil, the Coro Polifónico, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de la U. de Cuenca. The 4 performances started Thursday in the Catedral Vieja. The Coro Polifónico of the U. of Cuenca will perform viernes a las 19:00 in the Catedral Vieja. The Cantahuarmi women’s chorus will perform el 9/4 a las 18:00 in the Museo Universitario at av. 12 de Abril y Solano. The last performance will be el 10/4 a las 18:00 with the 2 choruses and the Orquesta Sinfónica in the Teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz.

Revista de la CCE Azuay (CCE Azuay Magazine) – The on-line magazine, “Monda y Lironda” with cultural criticism, an interview, an essay, a children’s section, literature, and text dedicated to the memory of Efaín Jara Idrovo is available on line. Go to https://mondaylironda.cceazuay.gob.ec to read it.

Recovery and cleanup work continues at the site of the Sayausí landslide. Dry weather is speeding up the effort. (El Mercurio)

Actividades Culturales (Cultural activities) – The Dirección de Cultura has prepared a series of activities for the fiestas of Cuenca. The first start Friday with a concert by DJs Romero Moscoso y Francisco Burbano a las 18:00 in the plaza de la Merced. At 19:00, Eduardo Segovia’s show, the Tiestero de la Convención 45 will open in the Antigua Escuela Central. At the same time (19:00, in case you’ve forgotten what you just read), the parade of the arts will start in the parque San Sebastián. <You’ll have to clone yourself to get to all of those events.>

Titular –

Fusil oculto en pared de cárcel de Turi (Rifle hidden in wall at prison) – A rifle, feeder, and 3 cartridges were found ayer hidden in a wall in one of the medium security wards. The rifle was used in the riot on 3/4. After the recent search, 853 objects were seized including 7 short guns, a rifle; armas blancas (sharp weapons – your phrase for the day) including knives and machetes; and other prohibited items. 197 pieces of ballistic evidence was gathered and corresponded to the calibers of the seized guns. Crews of bricklayers, welders, and technicians worked in damaged areas to reinforce security. SNAI said that it has mobile equipment to find prohibited objects in areas that aren’t visible in the cells such as inside mattresses <any mattress that clanks would be suspicious>, concrete columns, walls, false floors, ceilings, pipes and more. This equipment is used by the security forces in the wards and to control entry into the prisons. <Would those body scanners used by airports catch contraband?>

Cuenca –

Sayausí se levanta ante la emergencia por los deslaves (Sayausí rises to the emergency caused by landslides) – The Sayausí Parish is reactivating after the landslides 12 days ago. The lessening of rain has provided some relief to the residents who have suffered both economic and material losses. A temporary passage at km. 10 in the Marianza sector where the slide was the worst, has been open since last domingo.

Machinery is cleaning the material in spite of the risk of new slides. Traffic is being allowed thru the 250 m. of temporary road every 30 to 60 minutes depending on what the machinery needs to do. The passage is open at night under the supervision of CTE agents. In case of rain, the passage will be immediately closed for the safety of drivers since the land continues to be unstable. MTOP is working to open the Sayausí stretch of road as well as km. 49 of the vía Cuenca-Molleturo-El Empalme in time for the Semana Santa holidays.

Electrical service has been restored to the houses in the El Lirio-Marianza-Zorrocucho stretch of road, but it will be at least 15 days before water service is restored. The slides destroyed the intakes and part of the distribution network for the Citicay & Ventanillas community water systems. The slides also affected the Marianza-Gulag irrigation canal. These systems can’t be restored until the machinery has completed cleaning up the material.

Informalidad desbordada (Uncontained informality) – On calle Mariano Cueva you can see sales of all types. Vendors show their products in the open air in bags, sacks, baskets and buckets. Some of the sellers belong to the Asociación de Vendedores del Azuay “El Aventurero” and have permits to sell in that area. Inéz Muñoz, who belongs to the Association, said that they serve the public and will only leave when the mayor makes a mercado with a roof. Police are patrolling calle Vega Muñoz to clear the autonomous vendors to avoid crowds and traffic accidents. Another vendor who lives in La Caldera in Sidcay Parish gets up at 3:00 to cook lentils, peas, fava beans and toasted corn. She starts selling at 7:30 and stops at 19:00. <Have you ever met a gringo who works that hard? Aside from lawyers in big firms who want be a partner some day, and I bet they paid their hours.> The Association has asked if the City would consider using other near by streets for vendors since “todos necesitamos trabajar” (we all need to work). The vendors also have regular customers who understand this, and want to help these small businesses.

Nacional –

Prohibido recargos por uso de tarjetas (Card surcharges prohibited) – The Defensoría del Pueblo announced that there is no law that authorizes surcharges on payments with credit or debit cards. Complaints should be addressed to the financial institution issuing the card, at the Superintendencia de Bancos, or some kind of judge. It is prohibited for businesses to charge different prices for payments in cash and payments by card. The commission of 4% for credit cards and 2% for debit cards needs to be paid by the business and not the customer. <So the next time a business tells you there’s a 2% discount if you pay in cash, that seems to be illegal.>

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.