Little has been collected on $33 million Odebrecht judgements; Rivers still run low; Hopes for minimal blackouts by Christmas; Keeping culinary traditions

Martes, 15/10/2024

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Listo VII Festival de Cine Cámara Lúcida (VII Camera Lucida Film Festival is ready) – The VII Festival Internacional de Cine Cámera Lúcida will be in Cuenca from el 16-31/10 with 25 previously unscreened works from national and international film makers. The films will be free and shown in the Multicines Batán Shopping and in Sala Park Cuenca (Padre Aguirre 10-58 y Gran Colombia).

The Paute-Molino facility is one of three hydroelectric plants that has shut down operations due to the low water level at the Mazar reservoir on the Paute River. (El Comercio)

Marta Liliana López presenta poemario “Oleaje y desiertos” (Marta Liliana López presents her book of poems “Surf and Deserts”) – This book of poetry will be launched mañana a las 19:00 in the Complejo Patrimonial Todos Santos and covers 40 years of literary creativity.

De El Mercurio del lunes, 14/10/2024 (2 articles):

Presentan libro gráfico (Graphic book launch) – One of the winning books from the Casa de la Cultura’s open call for publications in 2024 will be presented el jueves, 17/10 a las 18:00 in the Sala Proceso of the CCE (calle Pres. Córdova 7-22). The graphic book is titled “PENASperononosgustanloslibroscontítuloscortos.” (PITYbutwedonotlikebookswithshorttitles) by Juan David Acurio and Eduarda Abad.

“Ashanga” recopila secretos de la cocina morlaca (“Ashanga” compiles secrets of the Morlaca kitchen) – Keeping the culinary tradition of Cuenca, to some extent unique to each family, alive was the motive for Nydia Vázquez de Fernández de Córdova to publish “Ashanga:cocina morlaca.” The first edition was published in 2015, and the second edition was launched last week with added recipes for foods and desserts. She said the recipes are easy to make but need to be followed exactly. Vázquez, who is a researcher of gastronomy, recalled that the book is the result of more than 40 years of work. When she married, she lived in the El Vado neighborhood where there used to be several bakeries that have now disappeared. This prompted her to compile the recipes for the breads and publish her first book, “Panes tradicionales” (Traditional breads) in 1985. This was followed by “Dulces de Corpus” (Corpus Christi Sweets) and “Comidas y mistelas traditionales de Azuay” (Traditional foods and mistelas (a sweet wine liqueur) of Azuay). “Ashanga” is a recompilation of those books. <And last ditch battle against corporate fast food.>

Titular –

Apagones hasta diciembre (Blackouts through December) – The new minister of Energía y MInas, Inés Manzano, predicted that the blackouts which now are at 10 hours per day, will continue through diciembre, although she espera (hopes/expects <One of those words in Spanish that doesn’t convey enough information for English speakers.>) that December’s outages will be minimal. Because of a number of government actions to increase the power supply, she also hopes blackout periords will be reduced.

The Paute Hydroelectric Complex which produces 38% of the electricity consumed in Ecuador, shut down at 13:00 ayer. This was because the Coca Codo Sinclair plant in Napo and Sucumbíos increased production and to protect the reservoirs at Mazar and Amaluza which feed the 3 hydroelectric plants at Mazar, Paute-Molino, and Sopladora which operate in a series. Fabián Carpio Becerra, an electrical engineer and former university professor, said the main reason to shut down the complex is to avoid sediments due to the low flow rates which can affect the equipment and machinery. He added that the Coca Codo Sinclair does not have a dam and is a flow-through plant depending entirely on the flow of the río Coca. <Which has got its own problems that I don’t think have been solved.>

Van 94 días con sequía hidrológica (94 days of hydrological drought) – In spite of the recent rains, there still isn’t water in the rivers. The 4 rivers in the city are running at about 1/4 the flow for the Tomebamba and Yanuncay, 40% for the Tarqui, and about 1/3 for the Machangara. ETAPA is forecasting the chances of rain for hoy at 24%, mañana at 17%, jueves at 14%, viernes at 20%, sábado at 48% and domingo at 72%. <Start praying for a really good drenching – maybe not 40 days and 40 nights, but 15 should do it.>

Cuenca –

Cuenca recibió más de 55 mil visitantes en el feriado (Cuenca received more than 55,000 visitors during the holiday) – Cuenca received more than 55,000 visitors with an economic impact of more than $8 million. 18,607 visitors arrived in private cars, 21,673 through the Terminal Terrestre, and 4,199 by air. <How do they calculate these numbers?> Hotel occupancy reached 59.48%. The economic impact was a total of $8,359,989.81 with businesses registering $1,253,695.81 in sales. 2,989 people visited museums and historic houses, while 36,450 went to the municipal markets. The Tranvía moved 59,579 passengers.

Nacional –

Tras 7 años se logrará el primer cobro: Odebrecht (After 7 years the first payment will be made: Odebrecht) – It will be 7 years since the decisions were handed down in the Odebrecht case where 8 people were sentenced to pay $33,400,000 in reparations to the Government. In that time, none of those sentenced has paid anything until recently when Gustavo Massuh Isaías, in an offer of payment hearing, presented a plan to pay $860,000 in 4 payments to settle his role as a perpetrator of the crime of unlawful association. To guarantee his compliance, Massuh has offered 3 properties through his businesses that will be mortgaged in the name of the State and returned when he pays the fines.

The ruling in the Odebrecht case that called for the payment of $33,400,000 was based on declarations made by the directors of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht who admitted to paying bribes to Ecuadorian officials in exchange for contract benefits. The total amount was divided as follows: $14 million from ex- VP Jorge Glas, $14 million from Glas’s uncle Ricardo Rivera, $200,000 from Ramiro Carrillo, $6 million from Carlos Villamarín, $10 million from Edgar Arias, $860,000 from Gustavo Massuh Isaías, $749,999 from José Terán, and $473,000 from Kepler Verduga. <Does anyone remember if Odebrecht was sentenced to anything? Or are giant multinational corporations immune from criminal wrongdoing? There’d be a lot less corporate malfeasance if the top management and boards of directors were held personally responsible for damage they cause.>

Difícil cobrar reparación (Difficult to collect reparations) – According to the Attorney General’s office, in addition to the payment from Gustavo Massuh Isaías, the government has only succeeded in confiscating an apartment from Jorge Glas in the Diamond Beach development in Tonsupa, Esperaldas. The rest of the ex-VP´s assets were seized in the Sobornos case and unavailable for the Odebrecht case. Although the State has control of the apartment, this doesn’t mean that what Glas owes the government has been recovered since the apartment needs to be auctioned off which is not a speedy process. <7 years isn’t enough time?> Added to that is that 2 of those sentenced, Edgar Arias and Ricardo Rivera, died during the Covid pandemic and collecting the over $14 million they owe(d) is almost impossible. <Maybe the Ecuadorian government should consult with an entity with a lot of experience for ways to collect that money – like the IRS.>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne