Foreign investments, Guayaquil flight review, Efforts increased to stop illegal fishing, Three former cabinet officers are on the run

Lunes, 28/8/2017

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming agenda event

Simposium Internacional de Neurociencias <All cognates, all yours)> – The symposium will be from 28-29/9 in the Teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz and deal with the themes of human interaction with artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the environment. Register until 15/9 at www.ucuenca.edu.ec.

Articles about –

Conservatorio – The Conservatorio Superior is waiting for approval from two agencies to become the Cuenca campus of the Universidad de Artes and to move to the old colegio Borja campus in Pumapungo.

CCE – Johanna López, a CCE board spokesperson, said that the CCE is working on a project to be an incubator for projects and another is a gallery of “oficios” (trades – what used to be called manual arts.). For septiembre, a workshop on “Derechos de autor” (copyrights – literally author’s rights) is being planned.

Escuela Honorato Vásquez – <This seems like an article filling a hole in the cultural page.> Parents and students of the school don’t know where the kids will go for classes or what uniform they need. The experimental school on 1 de Mayo, with teachers from England and Belgium, most of whom have masters degrees, lost the land for the school and is looking to merge with the Colegio Febre Cordero or Benigno Malo.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Urgen más ajustes en ruta aérea a Guayaquil (More adjustments for flights to Guayaquil urged) – This Thu. will be the first complete month of resumed service by TAME on the Cuenca-Guayaquil route. The company is analyzing occupancy factors in a period of 30-90 days, and later, profitability. From 31/7-22/8, TAME flew 329 passengers between Cuenca and Guayaquil – 185 going CUE-GYE and 144 going GYE-CUE. Flights are at night from lunes a jueves. Lv. GYE at 17:40 and arr. CUE @18:30. Turnaround and lv. CUE at 19:00 and arr. GYE at 19:50.

The pres. of the Azuay Chamber of Tourism said that schedule doesn’t work and flights should connect to international flights. <In a way, it makes people stay overnight for next day activities like appointments, shopping, continuing travel, etc.> The number of users of the Cuenca airport increased due to vacation travel and the return of migrants. Complaints about delays on TAME between Cuenca and Quito have also increased. <Every once in a while something pops up to remind you that you’re not living in the First World anymore. Inexplicably erratic air service is one of them.>

Foreign investments – An economic and commerce mission will travel to 7 countries in search of financing for projects including the Refinería del Pacífico which has an estimated construction cost of $15 billion. From 2008-2016, $1.5 billion was invested in pre-construction work such as studies, environmental reports, land, earth moving and administration. <Was Odebrecht involved?> According to the president, if investors can be found, the project will be go ahead, and if not, the project will not. <Ecuador seems to have elected a president blessed with common sense.> Other projects are in energy, mining, and road infrastructure.

Fishing – Ecuador has launched “una implacable lucha” (a relentless fight) against the presence of foreign fishing vessels close to the exclusive economic zone (ZEE) to prevent cases like the Chinese boat that was captured in the Galápagos. The director of the Parque Nacional Galápagos wanted to see maximum 3 year sentences, and reparations of $36.8 billion for long term environmental damage. He said that sharks have life spans of 20 years, and the fishing destabilized the health of the ecosystem. Officials clarified that the measures weren’t against China specifically, but the whole fishing business.

Search team – A “bloque de búsqueda” is looking for 3 ex-ministers of Public Works and Water, of IESS, and of Hydrocarbons. They are asking Colombia and Perú to let them know if they’re seen there, and borders are being watched.

Police page – Two cars were stolen in the south side of Cuenca, stripped and left abandoned in unpopulated areas.

Descuentos y compras – <Back to school cars?>

Kia – Sorento from $49,990 including IVA, Sportage X Line/GT Line from $35,990 incl. IVA – 10 yr, 160,000 km guarantee.

Hyundai – Grand i10 hatchback from $13,990 incl. INA and ICE – 7 yr or 140,000 km. guarantee.

Claro – Package including Internet (10 megas of speed?), 144 TV channels including HD, Telephone with unlimited calls to Claro fixed and cell phones – $39.99/mo, $47.98 after taxes.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne