IMF still wants fuel subsidy cuts, Cañar border dispute, Carnaval agenda, Symphonic tribute to Gustavo Cerati, Food and ag fair in Tarqui

Martes, 4/2/2020

Hola, Todos –
Actividades –

De la pagina cultural –

Exhibición – Brazilian artist/architect Cristiana Sultani will open her show of paintings and sketches mañana (miércoles) a las 19:00 in La Galería White House (Herrerias 12-21 y av. Doce de Abril).

Exposición fotográfica – The show, “Hydro: el agua, un recurso común” (Hydro: water, a common resource), will open este jueves in the Casa de la Provincia.

Exhibit opening – A collective exhibit, TransAmérica, of works by 20 young artists from 8 countries will open el jueves a las 19:00 in the Salón del Pueblo Efraín Jara Idrovo of the Casa de la Cultura (Sucre y Benigno Malo). The exhibit will run through 29/2. <Right – it’s a leap year and I have a friend born on the 29th who will be celebrating the whole month.>

Gustavo Cerati

Concierto – 70 artists and the Orquesta Sinfónica of U. de Cuenca will perform a tribute to Gustavo Cerati este viernes y sábado in the Teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz. Tickets are available at Meet2Go. Cost: $35 & $55.00.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Tarqui – Tarqui will be holding an agricultural and gastronomic fair in the local stadium el domingo 23/2 for Carnaval. Prepared foods will include papa con pepa (potatoes with pepa <squash seeds?> mote pata, roast chicken and cuy, papas locas (crazy potatoes), colada de harina de 7 granos (beverage with 7 grain flour), dulces de sambo (sweets from squash) and more.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Se oponen a que calle se peatonal (Pedestrian street opposed) – See Tuesday’s article in CHL for story.

Cañar defiende sus límetes – The Province of Cañar is defending its borders. A recently published map implies that about 1,000 of the 4,100 square kilometers of Cañar will become part of Guayas and Chimborazo. <Didn’t Pres. Trump just do something similar when he put Kansas City, Mo. into Kansas? That didn’t go over well either.>

Carnaval agendas – Most of the cantons in Azuay Province presented their Carnaval agendas at an event in Cuenca este lunes. They also brought different typical foods that they will be serving to tourists. The schedule for the 22, 23, & 24 is as follows.
22/2 –
Cuenca – Carnaval de los Cuatro Ríos <During which everyone runs down to the closest río, removes water, and throws it at someone else.> – a parade organized by the Amistad Club and Unión de Periodistas <who also organize the Años Viejos contest and Mascaradas parade>.
Nabón – Festival de la Cascarita – Carnaval is being organized by the indigenous communities which will demonstrate how they celebrate according to old traditions.
Paute – Parade and music shows.
23/2 –
Chordeleg – Desfile de Carnaval and music shows.
Oña – Taita Carnaval – A “real” carnaval with the taita, compadres, chicha and alcohol. <The last item makes it a real gringo Carnaval.>
Sígsig – Festival del Agua (Water Festival).
Girón – Festival de Espuma (Foam Festival) – Girón’s festivities will be extended to 27/2 when the Battle of Portete will be remembered.
24/2 –
Sevilla de Oro – Ruta de Carnavales de Antaño (Carnival Route of Yore) – tourists can tour the canton to learn about the celebrations of the past.
El Pan – Festival del pan y dulce (Festival of bread and sweets)
Pucará – Festival de la Natación (Swimming Festival) – also gastronomy with honey and cheese which the canton produces.
New events include the festival del Pan y Dulce (Bread and Sweets) in El Pan; the festival del Agua (Water) in Sígsig; and the festival de la Cascarita () in Nabón.

New evaluation by the IMF – An IMF team will be coming to Ecuador this month to evaluate Ecuador’s compliance with the goals set in order to receive $2.8 billion in loans in the next 2 years. The IMF has shown some flexibility in the goals, but above all, the help of the citizenry is needed to accomplish goals such as targeting subsidies. The government is also not getting support from the National Assembly which did not approve the Ley de Crecimiento Económico which contained tax reforms, changes to the Central Bank and public finances. <If you’re interested in this subject, you really should look for other sources since my understanding of what the article says is very poor.>

Comptroller’s report on the Poliducto Pascuales-Cuenca – The Comptroller’s office published the results of an audit on the management of the pipeline from Pascuales to Cuenca which is administered by EP Petroecuador. The period covered was from 1/5/2016 to 30/4/2019, and 11 conclusions were made. These included that 24.35% of the personnel on the pipeline did not meet the perfil (profile/requirements?) for their jobs and 56.41% didn’t receive training. There was also a lack of personnel for operations at the stations, the operation wasn’t at its maximum capacity due to mechanical deficiencies, and the plans for electro-mechanical preventive maintenance were not complied with. The fiber optic communications system wasn’t in operation in section II of the pipeline. <I suppose we should be grateful that anything’s getting through at all.>

Water – ETAPA is in the final stages of a 3-part water project that will guarantee water to Cuenca and rural parishes such as Ricaurte, Llacao, Nulti, Paccha, y El Valle for the next 15 years. 4.7 kilometers of PVC and ductil iron piping have been installed from Saymarín to the Tixán plant, and all but one of the 11 valve chambers have been completed.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
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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. The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.