Five assembly members accused of plot; Repairs underway at city parks; City plans neighborhood meetings; Art and music in two heritage houses

Aug 17, 2023 | 0 comments

Miércoles, 16/8/2023

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Actividades en casas patrimoniales (Activities in heritage houses) – Art and music have been scheduled for 2 patrimonial houses. At the Casa de las Posadas (Calles Baltazara de Calderón y Octavio Cordero), there will be guided tours on the 17 & 19/8 to see the show “Del caos a la resiliencia” by Ximena Moreno Ríos. At the Casa del Artista (av. Loja y Cantón Gualaceo) there will be a latin rock show with the Grado 33 band interpreting music from the 80’s & 90’s. The show will be el 18/8 a las 19:30. On the 19/8 a las 16:00, the Casa del Artista will have a documental film cycle screening “The Devil and Daniel Johnston.” Cost: free. <Music to elderly gringos’ ears.>

The city is beginning to make repairs and improvements to public parks, including El Paraíso, La Madre, Tarqui-Guzho and Ictocruz. The work will include repairing and replacing wooden walkways and playground equipment. (El Mercurio)

Taller para crear tapices decorativos (Workshop to create decorative tapestries) – El Centro Interamericano de Artesanías y Artes Populares (CIDAP) is organizing a theoretical and practical workshop to learn how to create decorative wall hangings. Carolina Ponce will teach the workshop on Zoom from 21/8 – 25/8. The classes will also be transmitted on CIDAP’S Facebook Live page. Free.

MAAC expone a cuencano (MAAC exhibits cuencano) – The Museo Antropológico y de Arte Contemporáneo in Guayaquil will show “Un mundo Earth” by Cuencano artist Agustín Patiño who lives in the US. The show will run to 15/10 with the artist coming to the museum el 12/10 to give a talk about his work.

Exposición de Sidcay (Sidcay Exhibition) – The show, “Tejido, memoria y arte” will be at the Aceleradora of the Casa de la Cultura (Luis Cordero y Pres. Córdova) until el 15/9. The show includes articles made by the craftsmen and women from Sidcay. Free.

De El Mercurio del martes, 15/8 (1 article):

Ruta de leyenda en las Conceptas (Route of legends in las Conceptas) – The Ruta de las leyendas will be el 17 & 18/8 a las 19:00 in Las Conceptas church and museum. The public can learn the story of historic people and places in Cuenca. On the 17 & 18th, you will learn about the life of Saint Beatriz de Silva. To participate, you can make reservations at 099 900 3134. Cost: $7 for children and $10 for adults. <What will it cost for those of us adults who are in our 2nd childhood? $20 because we forget if we’ve already paid?>

Titular –

Zurita señala a 5 exasambleístas (Zurita singles out 5 former assembly members) – 5 ex-asambleistas, linked to the PSC and the Revolución Ciudadana were reported by Fernando Villavicencio 4 months ago of planning his assassination. The report was taken up by the journalist Christian Zurita who will replace Villavicencio as the candidate. He is insisting that the Attorney General investigate the case.

Cuenca –

Adultos mayores cuentan con un nuevo consultorio (Senior citizens have a new clinic) – The IESS has opened a new clinic in the Centro de Atención al Adulto Mayor (CAAM) on av. Huayna Cápac y calle República in Cuenca to serve seniors who are part of the social security system. <The Ecuadorian one, not the one in the US for those of you for whom wishful thinking has overcome your common sense.> Three doctors, a nurse, a paramedic, and a dispensary have been added with each doctor able to schedule 20 appointments per day so that the clinic can see about 3,000 patients a week. <Journalists don’t do arithmetic?> To get served, the only thing the senior has to do is be affiliated with IESS, go to CAAM and get an appointment for primary care with which the patient can get medicines for general illnesses. Hours are from lunes a viernes, from 8-16:00. What is still lacking, not only at this clinic but in the whole province, is immediate access to a specialist for whom you will wait at least 3 months.

Parque El Paraíso recibe mantenimiento por EMAC (El Paraíso Park receives maintenance from EMAC) – By the end of the year, the Parque El Paraíso along with other large parks such as the de La Madre, Tarqui-Guzho & Ictocruz parks will receive maintenance and improvements. The wooden children’s play structures in the linear parks will be replaced. In El Paraíso the paths, bridges, wooden handrails and the food court will be improved. There will be 9 new kioskos for food which are in the process of a competition to select vendors. 10 new boats will be bought which will seat 4 people and will rent for $3 for a half hour.

Another EMAC project is gardening for the redondels at the entrances to the city. The first one at Sayausí was completed, and next will be the Cholas de Piedra, followed by those along av. de las Américas. Another project is an environmental exchange to promote planting of trees and bushes to improve public and green spaces. The parish juntas that sign the agreement will receive a set of biohealthy games, a set of children’s games, and equipment for football and basketball courts. In exchange the barrios will add more garbage grills, respect collection days and hours, and separate compostable and recyclable garbage from common garbage and plant trees. <So are you separating your garbage or just dumping everything in a black bag – or worse, dumping everything into a green or blue bag.>

De El Mercurio del martes, 15/8 (1 article):
Ciudadanos pueden proponer proyectos en las asambleas (Citizens can propose projects at assemblies) – Part of the process of approving the city’s budget for next year is receiving public input for what public improvement projects citizens want. The Dirección General de Participación y Governabilidad (Department of Participation and Governance) has organized Asambleas Ciudadanas to hear what citizens need, then make technical analyses of the proposals, and to inform citizens if they are feasible. The proposals should be based on Cuenca’s development plan and be for the needs of the parish and not of individuals. <So don’t ask for a bus stop right in front of your house if there’s already one a half block away that you’re just too lazy to walk to.>

After these assemblies, the Cantonal Council will hold debates on the budget. The first debate will be towards the end of septiembre. Until then, councilmembers can make requests to include various items in the budget. Some of these are expected to be the construction of checkpoints at Turi, a new call for more guardias ciudadanos, supplying the Consejo de Seguridad Cuidadana with tools <Note that all 3 have to do with security and safety, in answer to “Why doesn’t the City do something about the crime problem? Patience, gringos, patience. Everything in it’s proper time and manner.> Other items will be new bridge in the U. de Azuay (UDA) sector, and renovations and construction of parks suich as the Parque del Ferrocarril in Gapal. The City’s budget for next year is expected to be around $227-230 million.

The schedule for the assemblies is as follows:
16/8, 18:00 (all assemblies are at 18:00)- El Vecino, Auditorio del Colegio Manuel J. Calle (Eugenio Espejo y Mariano Cueva).
17/8 – Bellavista – Multi-purpose room at the Federico Proaño School (Juan Montalvo y Alberto Muñoz Vernaza.
18/8 – Totoracocha – Casa Parroquial de San Pablo Culebrillas.
21/8 – Monay – Casa Comunal de la ciudadela del Cisne (Rómulo Gallegos y Miguel Ángel Asturias.
22/8 – El Batán y Sucre – Casa Municipal de la Juventud (calles Latinoamericana y Brasil).
23/8 – Machángara – Auditorio del Colegio COMIL (Av. Cordillera del Cóndor y Abdón Calderón).
24/8 – Hermano Miguel – Casa Comunal de las Orquídeas (Av. San Silvestre y Plovdiv). <Plovdiv? Where does that come from? Doesn’t sound either Spanish or Quechua.>
25/8 – Huayna Cápac y Cañaribamba – Casa de Chaguarchimbana (Las Herreras y de las Retamas).
28/8 – San Blas, Gil Ramírez Dávalos e El Sagrario – Salón Parroquial de San Blas (Simón Bolívar y Manuel Vega).