Infections increase 228 in a week; Traffic accidents drop; Election deadline approaches; 18 gov’t employees test positive; Debt payment plan

Martes, 7/7/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Archives – Documents dating from 1563 are in the archives of the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Núcleo del Azuay. This archive contains the oldest book in Ecuador and are the records for the Notaría Tercera for 1563. <If you’ve bought property here, you got it registered with a Notaría. If you used Notaría Number 3, that position has been occupied since 1563.> The archives are currently being digitalized.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Ajetreo electoral en medio de pandemia (Electoral hustle amid pandemic) – Candidates for the elections on 7/2/2021 have 70 days to register, and political organizations in Azuay are getting ready. This is not much time given the restrictions due to the pandemic and because the CNE did not change the date of the election. For the first time, due to the health emergency, parties and movements will select candidates using electronic media. The President, Vice President, provincial and national assembly members, and the representatives to the Parlamento Andino will be elected.
11 cantonal and 3 parochial political groups have been qualified to field candidates in Azuay. 3 provincial groups, Igualdad, Participa, y Conciencia Ciudadana Democrática, have qualified to present candidates for the assembly from Azuay. National movements and parties can also field national assembly candidates. Possible candidates for legislators from Azuay include Marcelo Cabrera (ex-mayor of Cuenca and leader of the provincial Igualdad movement), Paúl Carrasco (ex-prefect of Azuay and leader of the national Podemos movement), Esteban Bernal (ex-assemblyman from Azuay who resigned in order to run for the Prefectura de Azuay in 2019 and is close to CREO), and Fernando Aguirre (ex-legislator, ex-governor of Azuay, and provincial director of the Partido Social Cristiano).

Many office of the Azuay prefectura have closed in Cuenca due to Covid-19 cases among employees.

State debt reduction plan – The Government is ready with a re-honing of the national debt with 10 groups of bondholders, 50% of whom already have pre-approved the plan. To restructure the debt, 66% of the holders of 9 types of bonds need to accept the proposal. Final responses will be made el próximo 15/8. If approved, the plan will reduce the total debt from $17.375 to $15.835 billion, increase the term of the bonds to 2040, reduce the interest rate from 9.2% to an average of 5.3%, and include a 5 year grace period to repay capital and 2 year grace period for interest.

Prefectura closed – The department of Talento Humano de la Prefectura del Azuay closed its doors in the Casa de la Provincia to the public until 12/7 after 18 workers tested positive for the coronavirus. All employees will be telecommuting. The City was also affected and some employees are in quarantine. The publicity department has closed to avoid possible cases after a patient tested positive. Employees are tested before they can return to work, but they can still be infected after the test, and not necessarily at their work. <Let’s hope it’s not city employees being busted at midnight volleyball games.>

Since the start of the health emergency, cases in Cuenca are at 1,740, up 228 from last week. It is the city with the 4th most infections after Guayaquil with 11,006, Quito with 8,195, and Santo Domingo with 1,917.

Traffic accidents down – EMOV (Empresa Pública de Movilidad) registered a decrease in accidents in mayo y junio, due partly to the health emergency. After the city went to yellow on 25/5, traffic controls increased. EMOV statistics show 34 accidents without fatalities in mayo and 29 accidents with one fatality in junio. In that period there were more than 500 controls with over 18,000 cars checked. The majority of traffic infractions were by men from 21-50 years. Of the 40 sanctioned, 5 were women. The main causes of accidents were driving in an estado de embriaguez (drunken state – your phrase for the day), inattention to traffic conditions <as in, get off the phone, idiot>, not staying in your lane, and T-bone crashes. Controls also checked for informal transport, and 67 drivers were sanctioned for operating without papers for commercial transport. <Does your private driver have a permit for commercial transport? If he’s stopped, I don’t know if would be better to plead dumb gringo or just run.>

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne