Five die in ‘Big Money’ shootout; Cuenca – Machala highway falling apart; Businesses join vaccine campaign; 13-year prison sentence for hospital fraud

Jul 8, 2021 | 4 comments

Miércoles, 7/7/2021

Hola, Todos –
Actividades –

De la pagina cultural –

Taller de narrativa (Narrative workshop) – There will be a narrative workshop <huh? what’s that?> and a discussion on texts related to creative work given by Cuencano writer Carlos Vásconez. It will be from the 19-23/7 in the Sala de Conciertos of the CCE Azuay. Register at: https://n9.cl/qggi6.

Lanzamiento de LP (LP release) – The Roto-Fest music festival will release its 2nd vinyl LP tomorrow at the MMAM (calles Sucre y Coronel Talbot) a las 19:00. The album will have songs from Perros de Fu, Sudakaya, Los Brigante, Mr. Monkey, Letelefono, and Maniati. Free.

Titular –

El frío afecta al agro (The cold affects agriculture) – Extreme measures are needed to lessen the effects the cold weather is having on crops, livestock and human health. Most affected are agricultural and ranching zones above 2,500 meters above sea level. <We humans could always turn up the heat. If we had heat. Or pile on a couple of extra sweaters. As it is, I’m typing in gloves.> It is recommended to not feed livestock in the first hours of the morning since they can ingest the escarcha (frost – your word for the day). <Would you want your poor cows to suffer from brain freeze?> Pablo Jerves Cueva, district director of the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG – Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock) recommended using silage, balanced diet, and mineral salts. He said that MAG technicians with their mobile vet units will help evaluate animals that have been affected by the cold. Azuay has a strategic reserve of 17 tons of silage which is available for livestock. MAG also provides a 60% subsidy for livestock insurance. For crops he recommended aspersion irrigation or covering plants in the afternoons in anticipation of night frosts.

Cuenca –

The Machala highway, in the Yunguilla Valley, is falling apart. (El Mercurio)

Lista vacunación en empresas (Vaccination in businesses ready) – Representatives of the Asociación de Cámaras de la Producción del Azuay met with the Coordinación Zonal 6 de Salud to finalize details for massive vaccinations in businesses in the province. This campaign will start late this week or early next week. The businesses will cover the costs of vaccine supplies including syringes, cotton, alcohol, swabs, Internet service, data entry staff, one nurse and one doctor for every 125 people, an ambulance, and snacks for health workers. Vaccinations will start with workers from 16-49 as well as their families. For now, there will be 3 vaccinations centers: Hospital Universitario del Río, Centro de Convenciones Mall del Río, and Asociación de Empresas del Parque Industrial de Cuenca (AEPIC) which have covered handicapped accessible spaces with good ventilation of sufficient size. The business organizations and Coordinación Zonal 6 are organizing the lists of employees to assign them to one of the 3 centers. The help of the businesses will avoid absenteeism. Businesses with more than 1000 employees can ask for vaccinations to be done on their own premises. <Show up for your jab if you want to keep your job?> This same campaign is being carried out in other provinces. To date, 30% of Azuayans have received their first dose, and 18% their second. In Cuenca the percentages are 31% & 19%.

USD 17 millones adeuda Gobierno a U. de Cuenca (Government owes $17 million to U. of Cuenca) – Universities are also beneficiaries of the decision by the Corte Constitucional to receive IVA directly. When the Government was collecting IVA, the funds were not returned to the GADs and universities immediately so that $3,700,000 accumulated and is now owed to the U. of Cuenca. The rector, María Augusta Hermida, said there also needs to be a mechanism so that the debts from budget allocations from previous years can be paid to the University. Another $14 million is owed for money the University earned from its own income producing activities. This will help the University pay what it owes to its creditors.

Sucesos –

Atribuyen balacera a caso Big Money: hay 5 muertos (Shooting attributed to Big Money case: 5 dead) – 5 people were killed and 6 injured el último lunes in Quevedo. Policía Nacional are hypothesizing that the shooting orginated with an armed group of about 15-20 people who went to the Nazareno Center where Miguel Ángel Nazareno (“Don Naza”) was. They demanded return of the money they deposited in Big Money and shots were exchanged with the center’s security employees. After this, people who in Don Naza’s house went looking for the aggresors at “Preciado’s” house where another shoot-out occured with 9 mm. weapons. This one left 5 dead and 6 injured. The Policía Nacional responded, various people fled and abandoned 2 vehicles which had altered vehicle ID numbers. According to the investigators, these vehicles had been used in a previous march in support of “Don Naza.” <Bernie Madoff is lucky no one ever went gunning for him.>

Región –

En riesgo el tramo Girón-Santa Isabel por socavamientos (Girón-Santa Isabel section at risk due to undermining) – There are 3 stretches of the vía Girón-Santa Isabel (E59 to Machala) that have been undermined. The first is at km. 40, in the El Salado sector, where 26 m. of the side of the road have been affected. There is no signage warning drivers of the danger. At km. 43, around the El Pongo sector,40 m. of the road is affected with half of one of the two lanes completely unsupported. This stretch has heavy traffic including public buses, tankers, and loaded dump trucks. It also has no signage. <The photo taken from below the road shows nothing at all under that half lane. You couldn’t pay me enough to drive on that road.> The 3d stretch is at km. 66 in the El Ramal sector at the entrance to Santa Isabel. 10 m. of roadway is affected, and some of the roadway has already fallen. There are no warning signs here, either, and yellow peligro tape that was put up has disappeared. Besides these major problems <Actually they’re disasters waiting to happen.> various areas of the road have subsided with the worst at km. 50 in the Rircay sector, km. 55 in Léntag, and km. 58 at the Parque Extremo.

Nacional –

Seguirá acéfala la Contraloría (The Comptroller’s Office will remain headless) – The resignation of Comptroller Pablo Celi has not solved the lack of a head of that institution since experts agree that the replacement Celi appointed is not legal. The institutions that can change the situation have not done so because legally, they can’t. The CPCCS consulted with an attorney and was told it cannot name a temporary replacement. A legislator said that the problem is not one for the Asamblea Nacional, but for the CPCCS which should have started the competitive process to replace Celi while he was in jail. This process takes 6 months, and the office could be vacant for that long. An ex-secretary of the CPCCS said that since both Celi and the sub-comptroller that he named resigned, the Comptroller’s position should go to the sub-comptroller of Audit.

Daniel Salcedo es sentenciado a 13 años de prisión (Daniel Salcedo is sentenced to 13 years in prison) – Salcedo was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his part in selling overpriced body bags and other medical supplies to the IESS Hospital de Los Ceibos in Guayaquil during the pandemic. He sold the $12 bags for $148.50. <Salcedo was caught when the plane carrying him, a couple of other people, and bags of money crashed in Perú.> The ex- general manager of the hospital, the Public Purchasing officer, the ex administrative and financial sub-director, and 4 other defendents also received 13 year sentences. With this sentence, Salcedo will be spending 17 years in jail. <And now, let’s uncork all those comments about corruption.>

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
____________________

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.

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