Mexican kidnappers hold local migrants at the border; Azuay vaccination rate is highest in country; Holiday weekend attracts thousands of visitors

Miércoles, 11/8/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Nada.

Titular –

Lasso rechaza las amenazas (Lasso rejects threats) – See story in 6/8 issue of CHL.

Cuenca –

Some of the local migrants who are being held by coyote kidnappers in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. If ransom is not paid, the kidnappers threaten to turn the hostages over to drug cartels.

Segundas dosis, prioridad hasta el 31 de agosto (Second doses, priority until August 31) – From ayer, the second vaccine dose has been prioritized in the different sites in the country. People should finish their vaccinations according to the date on the vaccine carnet, and preferably at the same place they received their first dose. There are currrently 20 sites for vaccinations in Cuenca. These are the UPS (Coliseo), Unidad Educativa César Dávila Andrado, Unidad Educativa Herlinda Toral (Coliseo), Unidad Educativa Isabel Moscoso Dávila <I wonder if she’s related to César?>, Colegio Sudamericano (Ricaurte), Colegio María Auxiliadora (Salesianas), Coliseo del Manuel J. Calle, Unidad del Milenio Febrero Cordero, UDA, Coliseo de la U. of Cuenca, Colegio Nacional Benigno Malo (Coliseo), Unidad Educativa Sagrados Corazones, Unidad Educativa Antonio Ávila Maldonado, Escuela de Educación Básica Juan León Mera, Campus Bicentenario de la UDA (UDA-Coliseo), Coliseo de Sinincay, Poliforo Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Coliseo Jefferson Pérez, Colegio Técnico Chiquintad y Educativa del Milenio Sayausí. <Whew.> The locations for businesses who are also administering 2nd doses are Centro de Convenciones Mall del Río, Sindicato de Choferes, La Favorita/Supermaxi, Continental Tire Andina, Cooperativa JEP, Hospital del Río, Las Fragancias, Indurama, Cartopel and Holcim.

Azuay governor Esteban Bernal said that 84.57% or 544,172 of the people in the province have their 1st dose and of those, 221,414 are completely vaccinated. He said that we are the province with the highest level of vaccines, thanks to the behavior of Azuayans. He did not dismiss the possibility of some locations giving first doses around the middle of the month depending on the availibility of vaccines and sites. Also after 1/9, vaccinations for children between 12 & 15 will start.

El feriado tuvo una buena respuesta del sector turístico (The holiday had a good response from the tourism sector) – Diego Vidal, region 6 director of turismo, indicated that the Feriado del Primer Grito de Independancia from 7-9/8, had a lot of visitors from Guayaquil and Loja, the target market. Hotel occupancy reached 80%, but the number of tourists was probably higher since it’s hard to count visitors who used Online Travel Agency (OTA) or Airbnb to stay in private homes. He guessed that there were 50-60,000 tourists.

Denuncian secuestro de migrantes (Kidnapping of migrants denounced) – A group of at least 20 migrants from Cuenca, Sígsig y Girón in Azuay and Gualaquiza in Morona Santiago were kidnapped in México at the end of julio by unknown people. Their families reported this and are esperando (waiting, hoping, or expecting <interesting that 3 very different things in English only have one word in Spanish>) for help from Ecuadorian authorities. All they know is that the migrants are in a house in Ciudad Juárez. Last weekend, 3 were released and 1 escaped. The kidnappers contacted the families in Ecuador and asked for $2,500-$4,000 to get the migrants across the border to the US. A sister of one of the migrants said that her brother, along with others, got to Albuquerque, were caught and deported to Ciudad Juárez. They went to a hotel to rest and were taken by unknown persons and transported to a house which had been converted to a warehouse where there were already other migrants. The kidnappers said they were also coyotes and wanted money to take the migrants to the US. If the money wasn’t paid, they would turn the migrants over to the drug cartels. <What a contrast with richer Ecuadorians spending the same amount of money to zip up to the US for vaccine vacations.>

Sucesos –

Cuenca y Oña los cantones más afectaos por incendios (Cuenca and Oña the cantons most affected by fires) – The Servicio Nacional de Gestión de Riesgos y Emergencias (SNGRE – The National Service for Risk and Emergency Management) reported a total of 128.21 hectares affected by forest fires in Azuay in agosto. There were 8 fires over the holiday in Paute, Oña, Sígsig y Gualadeo. So far this year, 446.23 hectares have been burned with 113 in Oña, and 89.59 in Cuenca. The zone 6 coordinator of SNGRE said that some of them have been caused by campers who did not extinguish their fires correctly.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne