Feds confiscate real estate of ex-prez; Cuenca gets only 400 Covid vaccine doses; New Glocks for cops; Voto 2021; Man selling fake city jobs goes to trial

Jueves, 21/1/2021

Hola, Todos –

The article yesterday about the closure of the chifa did not name the chifa, and the health inspector I talked to was in the U.S. By law, businesses under legal investigation or penalized for local violations cannot be named by the media. <If your favorite chifa is closed for cleaning maybe you should find yourself a new favorite chifa.>

Actividades –

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Presentación de obras literarias y exposición (Presentation of literary works and exhibit) – The Dirección de Cultura del Municipio of Cuenca, as part of the bicentennial celebration of Cuenca’s independence, held the first literary event of 2021 with the presentation of a collection of Eugenio Moreno Heredia for the 95 years since his birth, and the presentation of books by 2 of his children in the casa de la Lira.

The department will also open the exhibit “Desconexiones” by visual artist Boris Ordóñez el 22/1 a las 19:00 in the Quinta Bolívar.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Biden y “soñadores” (Biden and “dreamers”) – <There’s nothing in the article about DACA or the dreamers and what the article does cover, you can get from the English language source of your choice.>

Cuenca’s first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines arrived Wednesday and were contained in a single box. (Cronica Cuenca)

Aprueban tres zonas protegidas (Three protected areas approved) – Starting today, Cuenca has 3 new Áreas de Conservación y Uso Sustenable (ACUS – Conservation and Sustainable Use Areas) where mining and other types of intervention are prohibited. An ordinance creates a Subsistema Autónomo o Descentralizado (Autonomous or Decentralized Subsystem) for the ACUS to protect water sources, clean air and biodiversity. The areas are Mazán, Curiquingue-Gallocantana, and Machángara with a total of 20,000 hectares which is double the area of urban Cuenca. <From the accompanying map, the areas look like they contain the headwaters and watersheds for the ríos Yanuncay, Tomebamba and Machángara.> With this ordinance, ingress to the areas is absolutely prohibited without authorization from the administrator of the ACUS. This includes motor sports <So no tearing up the landscape with motocross or ATVs. Those of you are hikers might want to be careful about where you’re going.>, collection of anything for scientific or research purposes, and taking, processing and commercializing timber and non-timber forest products. The fine for doing so is $12,000 and double for repeat offenders. Landowners in the protected areas can still access their properties. The ordinance also creates a fund to purchase lands in the ACUS to that they will be public lands.

A juicio por la estafa masiva (On trial for massive scam) – In evaluation hearing and preparatory trial, Judge William Sangolqui issued a summons to trial and preventive prison against Franklin Patricio Z for his alleged responsibility for a massive fraud. Since junio de 2019, the accused represented himself as an employee of Cuenca and offered jobs in exchange for money. He held meetings in his home to explain how to get jobs and labor contracts with the city. About 50 people were cheated out of $128,000 with some going into debt to buy vehicles so they could work as city drivers. The crime of massive fraud is punishable by 7-10 years in prison.

8,424 armas de fuego recibe Policía National (National Police receive 8,424 firearms) – The National Police received 8,424 Glock pistols in a ceremony at the Escuela Superior de Policía (Police School of Higher Education) “General Alberto Enríquez Gallo.” The weapons will go to police in the areas of prevention, investigation and intelligence. <Are cops now going to be as well armed as typical bank security guards?>

Conflictos en el GAD Azuay no son nuevos (Conflicts in the GAD Azuay are not new) – There is an impasse between the prefecta, Cecilia Méndez, and viceprefecta, Magali Quezada, of Azuay which came to a head at the session of the Cámara Provincial de Azuay when Méndez removed Quezada from the Direción de Participación Ciudadana. The cause was an invitation to breakfast at the house of the mayor of Paute which Quezada attended. Méndez said that at that meeting pressure was applied to give priority to projects in the cantons located in the watershed of the río Paute. There were conflicts between Paúl Carrasco and his 2 vice prefects and relations between Yaku Pérez and the then vice-prefect, Cecilia Méndez, were not good either.

Ley para recuperar los bienes robados (Law to recover stolen property) – <This is one of those article I might have turned around 180 degrees because of the complicated debate.> The Asamblea Nacional passed la ley de Extinción de Dominio (the Domain Extinction law) which will be used to recuperate illegally obtained assets. An AP legislator presented an alternative which would eliminate articles that created divergence during the debates. <And here is where my Spanish is insuffient to translate the constitutional issues.> The alternative received 67 of the 70 votes needed to pass.

Bienes de ocho sentenciados del caso Sobornos pasan al Estado (Assets of eight convicted in the Bribery case go to the State) – 49 properties in Guayaquil that belong to 8 of the 20 people sentenced for aggravated bribery in the Sobornos 2012.2016 case have passed to the Government. This includes an apartment of ex-pres. Rafael Correa. Others who were sentenced transferred the titles of the properties to another person. Jorge Glas put his properties into his children’s names.

Médicos del VCM, primeros en vacunarse (Doctors first to get vaccinated) – In a simultaneous event Wednesday in Quito and Guayaquil, the Ministerio de Salud started vaccinating against Covid in Ecuador. There was another ceremony in Cuenca on Thursday. 3 doctors in each city will receive vaccinations. This pilot phase will include 108 people in the Vicente Corral Moscoso hospital in Cuenca. Inicially, there were going to be 15,000 doses, but logistical problems at Pfizer necessitated reducing the number of doses shipped to 8,000 of which 40% will go to Quito, 40% to Guayaquil and 20% to Cuenca. 86,000 doses will be shipped from Pfizer by the end of febrero <If there aren’t any more logisistical problems.> to complete the pilot plan. 19 vaccination centers will be installed in Cuenca, Guayaquil and Quito in the 1st week. In the 2nd week, another 29 centers will be installed in Napo, Orellana, Cotopaxi, Pastaza, Tungurahua, Manabí, Galápagos, Guayas y Pichincha. In the 3d week of this initial phase, 48 centers will be installed in Carchi, Esmeraldas, Imbabura, Sucumbíos, Chimborazo, the southern part of Manabí, Santo Domingo, Bolívar, the rural zone of Guayas, los Ríos, Santa Elena, Morona Santiago, El Oro y Loja.

In a Thursday interview, Dr. José Pazmiño, President of the Azuay College of Physicians, complained about the small size of the vaccine shipment to Cuenca — 400 doses in total. He said thousands of doses are necessary to inoculate all healthcare and emergency services personnel in the area and that the government should work harder to obtain them. Dr. Luis Mario Tamayo, director of Santa Ines Hospital, also complained, saying that private hospitals treating Covid patients should also be among the first to receive vaccines. In addition to the 108 doses sent to the Vicente Corral Moscoso hospital, the IESS received 162, Solca 54 and the public hospital in Azogues 66.

In this pilot phase, health personnel at greatest risk will be vaccinated: those who work in the ICUs, covid wings, Emergency and Triage. It will include doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, and support and cleaning personnel. Doses will go to 14 senior centers where employees working directly with the aged will be vaccinated. Massive vaccinations will start in marzo. If you want to be vaccinated, register in the system that the Ministerio de Salud is setting up. The vaccine is voluntary and free. By the end of the year, Ecuador should receive 18 million doses costing $200 million. 2 million doses will be from Pfizer, 4 million from AstraZeneca and Oxford University, 4 million from the Covaxx organization in the US, and 8 million from the Covax initiative led by the WHO.

Voto 2021 –

Concertación se enfoca en jovenes (Concertación focuses on youth) – List 51, Concertación, has refused public campaign funds from the CNE in Azuay and asked that the money be reinvested in health. At a national level, the list has an agreement with the Partido Socialista Ecuatoriano (PSE), but the two parties have separate lists for national assembly seats for Azuay. Concertación supports César Montúfar for president. The average age of the list is 33 years. The list is led by Rafael Vásquez who is 32, a professor at the UDA, lawyer and a former student leader with postgraduate studies in Spain and the US, whose proposals are dominated by a technological and ecological campaign. The 2nd candidate on the list is Carmen Iñiguez who is a businesswoman, civil engineer, animalista (animal rights activist) and athlete. She bases her candidacy on providing low cost housing, which she has done in her profession in the private sector. The 3d candidate is Juan Pandi Cajamarca who represents the rural population and whose campaign is to create a law to strengthen the justice of the peace courts in the most remote parishes. The last two candidates are Paulina Barrera who is the youth candidate and who is a women’s rights activist, and Jamil Hinojosa whose proposals are for the youth.

Besides the individual proposals, the list wants a thorough inspection of the last years of the Government, Asamblea Nacional, and GADs. The list is the only one openly in favor of the debate on decriminalization of abortion and for more severe penalties for femicide. Its plan de trabajo includes reforms to laws to promote employment, a fiscal and tax pact, actions against climate change, eradication of poverty and childhood malnutrition, and defense of migrants rights.

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.