Heads-of-state and their staffs arrive in Cuenca for the Ibero-American Summit; No blackouts this week; Bus internet is available; Heavy rain floods Colombia

Lunes, 11/11/2024

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

De El Mercurio del viernes, 8/11 (1 article):
Epicentro Cultural impulsa el arte desde la academia (Epicentro Cultural promotes art from academia) – The U. of Cuenca announced the Primer Festival of its Epicentro Cultural, an event considered a bridge between academia and the community. The event will be from the 11 to 15/11 in the Epicentro’s patrimonial houses: Casa Rivera, Pintado, & de Los Arcos, and in the plaza de El Vado where there will be more than 40 free cultural-artistic activities for the public from 9:00 – 20:00. <Will they let the public into the El Vado given that there will be heads of state staying at the hotel? Or will this event provide the local color, cultural, and artistic side of Cuenca?> Juan Pablo Carvallo, the director of Innovation and Technology Transfer, said the event will include talks, dance, exhibits and pop-up gastronomy as well as a crafts and agro-ecological fair.

Titular –

En los ojos de Iberoamérica (In the eyes of Iberoamerica) – The whole issue of today’s El Mercurio is about the XXIX Cumbre Iberoamericana de Jefas y Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno (XXIX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government) and the XV Encuentro Empresarial Iberoamericano (XV Iberoamerican Business Meeting) which will be held in Cuenca between el 13 & 15/11. The summit is a political and diplomatic meeting to which the presidents of 22 Iberoamerican countries (from Latin America, Spain, Portugal and Andorra) have been called. The meetings will be held at the Museo Pumapungo <Sorry, tourists, but you might not get to see the shrunken heads on your visit to Cuenca at this time.>, Museo de la Ciudad, and the Seminario San Luis <And the rest of you might not get to eat at your favorite restaurants in the old seminary either.>.

The specific issues for this summit include food security <Does that include water? Like keeping Nestle from draining all the water from the lakes in the Cajas and bottling it to sell in richer countries?> and social well-being in terms of looking for solutions to reduce inequality and improving child nutrition. Other issues are the development of more sustainable and circular alternate models for economic development, climate change, and actions to mitigate its effect. For Marco Salamea, a sociologist at the U. of Cuenca, these summits are basically formal events with a lot of pompous declarations and interesting promises that are never kept. Consider that this summit has themes (Innovation, Inclusion, and Sustainability) which are important and fundamental for comprehensive devlopment of populations. However, most of the countries that agree with the public policies are not so interested in promoting actions that point at developing social inclusion in their own countries.

Suits (sic) de lujo, vistas y jardines 5 estrellas para delegaciones (Luxury suites (sic), views and 5-star gardens for delegations) – There are about 800 people from the various delegations that need to be housed. Some of the hotels include the Hotel Cruz del Vado, Mansión Alcázar, Four Points by Sheraton, El Dorado Hotel, and Hotel Oro Verde among others. <I imagine the heads of state get the luxury suites. So do the security teams, secretaries and other grunts get the $40 hostals?>

El cacao será el protagonista del menu para los “huéspedes” (Cocoa will be the protagonist of the menu for the “guests”) – Quinta Lucrecia will cater the food for the summit and will use the best Ecuadorian ingredients and products such as cocoa and shrimp. <Do you think that seco de pollo will be on the menu?>

Despositivos de seguridad en la cumbre presidential (Security devices at the presidential summit) – Tactical units of the Policía Nacional and the Armed Forces (FF.AA.) are in charge of security for the attendees to the Iberoamerican summit. <This is what will affect you.> Streets in the area where the summit will be held will be closed starting miércoles in the afternoon until the night of viernes. Classes for the 58 schools with in the Cuenca’s urban core will be virtual on los 14 & 15/11.

The summit is good news for most Cuenca residents since there will be no power blackouts through Friday.

Cuenca –

De El Mercurio del domingo, 10/11 (3 articles):
Código QR de internet en los buses urbanos (Internet QR code on city buses) – The Cámara de Transporte de Cuenca (CTC) has put seals with QR codes on urban buses to facilitate internet access for its riders. Passengers can scan the code with their smart phones to get into the Movilízate WIFI network. From there, enter your cédula number and the code on your Movilízate card. The video surveillance system has also been strengthened to guarantee security to its users and to help recover objects that have been forgotten. The security cameras are connected to an area where monitors can track and return forgotten articles. <But I wouldn’t bet that if you forgot something valuable and a fellow passenger didn’t notice it and alert you, a less conscientious passenger wouldn’t walk off with it.>

Respeto al cronograma de recolección de basura (Respect the garbage collection schedule) – EMAC EP is reminding residents to put out their garbage in the proper plastic bag a maximum of 1 hour before the garbage is collected. <Like someone who has to leave for work or school by 7 am, is going to be able to respect that 1 hour if their garbage gets collected at 11 am. Unless EMAC is assuming everyone has a cleaning lady who can put the garbage out at the proper hour.> People who don’t respect the hour can be fined.

Multas por estacionar en lugares prohibidos (Fines for parking in prohibited places) – EMOV EP indicated that drivers can be fined 10% of the Salario Básico Unificado (S.B.U. – Unified Basic Salary) or $46.00 for parking in prohibited locations such as on sidewalks, yellow lines, bike lanes and others. As for bus stops, drivers should not park closer than 10 meters to the bus stop. <Probably the distance a bus needs to swing out of the driving lane into the stop – assuming you’ve got a driver that actually wants to let his passengers off at the curb instead of the middle of the street.>

De El Mercurio del viernes, 8/11 (1 article):
Vacunan para prevenir influenza (Vaccination to prevent influenza) – The vaccination campaign against seasonal flu started el 15/10 and will run until el 28/2/2025. 410,000 doses have been distributed to Zone 6 (Azuay, Cañar and Morona Santiago) with 195,000 for Cuenca Canton. The main focus will be for vulnerable groups with the highest risk such as children from 6 months to 7 years, seniors, pregnant and lactating women, health personnel and people with chronic illnesses. Vaccines are available at any health center with the presentation of your cedula, and health brigades will visit schools and strategic locations such as mercados, churches and parks, especially on weekends.

Sucesos –

De El Mercurio del domingo, 10/11 (1 article):
Posible caso de escopolamina a conductora ocasiona un fuerte choque (Possible case of scopolamine against driver causes strong collision) – A woman who was driving a car that hit a light post on the road to San Joaquin la noche de viernes said that she was with her daughter when she felt dizzy, and the next thing she knew she was waking up in an ambulance. Before that she was driving on av. José Peralta near the Millenium Plaza when a person approached asking for charity. She gave him a coin and suspects that’s when she was escopolaminado (scopolamined, to invent a word – dosed with scopolamine.)

Neighbors called 911, the woman was treated by first responders and the car taken to the impound lot since there was damage to both public and private property. The Policía Nacional recommended to avoid being a victim of a “escopolamina” type of robbery, you shouldn’t let strangers get too close to your personal space for much time to prevent inhaling the substance. Also don’t accept drinks or food from people you don’t know since this is another way to administer scopolamine.

Mundo –

Lluvias causan estragos y afectan zonas en Colombia (Rains wreak havoc and affect areas in Colombia) – Heavy rains that fell in the last few days in Colombia have wreaked havoc in 27 of the 32 departamentos (provinces?) of the country affecting 46,000 families. The Chocó department was hardest hit with 22 cities affected and 30,000 families injured. <What I’m selfishly wondering now is can Colombia please send some of that rain our way, or start exporting electricity to Ecuador now that they have water to run their generating plants?>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne