Fiber optic network expanding, Killa Raymi in El Tambo this weekend, Forest fires in Azuay and Cañar, New Coopera investigation opens

Martes, 17/9/2019

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Painting at mercado 10 de Agosto – French artist The Semor <The must be a name and not a “title” like “The” One and Only or the “It” Girl.> is painting a 56 m. sq. mural of La Inmaculada cathedral (new cathedral) on the outside walls of the mercado 10 de Agosto. <That’s as much square footage as a small 1 BR apartment.>

Teatro – “Cataviento Dibujado” will return to Cuenca after a national tour. It will be in Cuenca el jueves y viernes próximo at the Prohibido Centro Cultural.

Performances – The 3d edition of Jornadas Magnéticas, an event with theater, rap, micro-theater, architecture and Dj is this week. The opening was Tuesday in the Yaw Cafetería. The second jornada is Wednesday with freestyle rap and “una batalla de gallos” (a battle of roosters) a las 19:00. The 3d jornada is el jueves a las 20:00 in the hotel Selina (Escalinata del Puente Juana de Oro y Calle Larga) with 3 micro-theater works.

The Killa Raymi festival is Friday and Saturday in El Tambo in Cañar Province.

Killa Raymi – The Prefectura announced the schedule for Killa Raymi which is the celebration of the earth’s fertility. Activities will start in the Casa de la Provincia Wednesday a las 7:00 with the making of a chacana. At 9:30, there will be a press conference where the significance of Killa Raymi will be explained in 5 minutes. <I bet they’re going to be talking faster than Cubans with all that splainin to do.> The celebration will start el sábado, 21/9 a las 6:00.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Killa Raymi 2019 in El Tambo – Killa Raymi will be celebrated in El Tambo este viernes y sábado. Activities are listed below:
Viernes –
13:00 – ritual starting ceremony.
14:00 – a paper on the “Historia del Killa Raymi.”
15:00 – festival with food, crafts, seeds and ancestral medicine.
17:00 – election of the Ñusta del Killa Raymi 2019.
19:00 – music festival with 5 groups. <Dancing in the plaza.>
Sábado –
10:00 – Festival de danzas
14:00 – Killa Moda (Fashion) 2019 with queens, ex-queens, ñustas y cholitas participating (modeling?).
16:00 – Encuentra de danzas with Ballet Causanacunchi and Ballet Kaypimi Kanchik.
19:00 – music festival with 3 groups.
Otras cosas –

Titular – Cambia el tránsito en sector El Vado (Changing traffic in El Vado sector) – There will be a 1 week test starting mañana in the area of El Vado to bring greater order to the traffic. Changes will include enlarging pedestrian circulation areas <the hatched areas if you’ve seen the intersections>; a dedicated stop light cycle for pedestrians and cyclists at the intersection of 12 de Abril, Loja and the bridge; prohibiting left turns from 12 de Abril onto the bridge and from the bridge onto 3 de Noviembre; connecting bike lanes from Loja and 3 de Noviembre with a widened lane on the bridge; and prohibiting vehicles from stopping in the cross hatched areas. Priorities, in order, are pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, buses, and private vehicles. There are also 5 sensors in the area to monitor air quality.

Coopera investigation – A judicial hearing on alleged money laundering by Marcelo V.V. restarted this morning as part of the investigation into unjustified transactions in the Ahorro y Crédito Coopera which is in the process of liquidation. The coop was closed in junio de 2013 when the A.G’s office and the Superintendencia de Economía Popular y Solidaria (SEPS) found $35,372,937 in unjustified transactions using the SUCRE system which was implemented in 2008 to facilitate payments for commerce between countries such as Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Nicaragua y Cuba. The system was used to pay for fake exports and over valued exports with paper companies between Ecuador and Venezuela. <You old timers remember that whole mess. I hope you all got your money back.> In one transaction, 4 fake companies exported chemicals to Venezuela for $400,000. Through SUCRE, the Coopera received $900,000. Except those chemicals are not produced in Ecuador.

Internet service improvements – ETAPA is installing fiber optic networks to improve speed and quality with the GPON network. <A huge chunk of the article reads like ETAPA wrote it – advertising the features of this wonderful new system.> Just about all of the Centro Hístorico has coverage and ETAPA is working on putting fiber optic into rural parishes. Currently, Baños, Ricaurte, Turi and other close in rural parishes have service.

Food sales at the Plaza San Francisco – Vendors who sell prepared food at the Plaza SF have until mañana to move out and apply for relocation to any other market except El Arenal. The vendors who are using stainless steel carts given to them by the previous administration will have to return them. <Talking about changes in law – this ain’t some kinda visa process change – this is their livelihoods.>

Controls on buses – The Agencia Nacional de Tránsito has a social network campaign to inform passengers to write down the plate number for interprovincial and intracantonal buses. That way you’ll have it ready for ECU 911 if you need to report an incident such as speeding. <Of course, you’ll need to do it in Spanish. But don’t worry, if it’s bad enough everyone will be on their cell phone and some of them will probably be calling 911.>

Mayor – Pedro Palacios will be in Europe and Asia until el 29/9, leaving Vicemayor Marisol Peñaloza in charge. Among the Vice Mayor’s activities were a visit to the mercado 3 de Noviembre to find out what the vendors want, and a visit to a school. She also filed a friend of the court action to participate in the application for a referendum on mining. Her position is anti-mining, especially in sensitive areas and she feels water and water sources should be protected. <Is she running for mayor already?>

Fires – 10 forest fires started the past weekend in Azuay and Cañar. So far in septiembre, 150.9 hectares have burned in Azuay with a year to date total of 370 hectares. Nationally, forest fires have burned 14,036 hectares with the most damage in Loja (5939 ha (abbrev. for hectar)), Pichincha (2403 ha), and Imbabura (1438 ha).

Suero de leche (buttermilk?) – This dairy by-product of cheesemaking is causing a controversy. The dairy industry is asking the government to extend the moratorium prohibiting use of this product. <Can someone who knows how to use buttermilk tell the dairy people just to bottle the stuff and sell it to gringos for pancakes and biscuits, etc.?> Others argue that this damages cheesemakers who can’t commercialize the suero and that with the moratorium, the buttermilk <if this is really buttermilk> gets thrown into the rivers, causing pollution.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne