Military to start assisting police; New airline to fly Quito-Cuenca route; Remembering Father Crespi; Cañar bridge collapses; Nabón hemp products

Miércoles, 24/4/2024

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

“Cine Lux” recuerda a padre Carlos Crespi (“Cine Lux” remembers Father Carlos Crespi) – The Salesiana community is remembering Father Carlos Crespi with a schedule of social and cultural activies. The “Cine Lux” event will be mañana (jueves) a las 18:30 in the parque María Auxiliadora. There will be screenings of Charlie Chaplin movies as well as music and other surprises. <Like the power going off in the middle of the movie?> There will be una velada (evening or soiree) with the presentation of a micro story “Crespi más allá de las cenizas” (Crespi more than the ashes), the launching of the carloscrespi.com web page, and performances by the Big Band orchestra and the UPS (Universidad Politécnica Salesiana) chorus.

Cuenca will host the fifth annual Craft Brewery Industry Convention next week to boost the industry in the city and Azuay Province. (El Mercurio)

From hoy (miércoles) to el domingo, a las 18:00, there will be a women’s chess tournament in the covered salón Yanuncay. <For a non-chess player, this tournament ties with a golf tournament for the most boring way to waste an evening. Even watching grass grow would be more entertaining.> There are several activities el martes, 30/4. The first is a mass in memory of Father Crespo las 8:00 in the open sports field of the high school. A las 9:00 there will be a floral offering in the parque María Auxiliadora and a las 10:00, a visit to his mausoleum in the municipal cementery.

Titular –

Pólit, culpable de ‘lavado’ en EEUU (Polit, guilty of ‘laundering’ in the U.S.) – <Found guilty of washing Ecuador’s dirty linen in front of the whole world?> See today’s (miércoles) article in CHL for story.

Cuenca –

V Convención de Industria Cervecera Artesanal alistan (V Craft Brewery Industry Convention ready) – Cuenca will host the 5th Craft Brewery Industry Convention on los 2, 3, & 4 de mayo to boost the industry in the city and province, and to gather craft beer producers from the whole country. <Some of you will probably feel like you died and went to heaven. Just don’t drink so much that you make the heaven part come true.> There is a broad agenda including master classes on beer brewing, talks on challenges and opportunities in the industry, live music, and offers from brewers. The Expoferia will be el 4/5 in the Centro Interamericano de Artesanías y Artes Populares (CIDAP) (Paseo 3 de Noviembre). Craft beer lovers can enjoy new products and tastes. <Did this article just make your day? Give you something to look forward to?>

Autorizan a aerolínea Sky volar entre Cuenca y Quito (Sky airline authorized to fly between Cuenca and Quito) – The Dirección de Aviación Civil (DGAC) announced that the Consejo National de Aviación Civil (CNAC) issued the Permiso de Operación to the Fly Airline Ecuador Flyar company, a subsidiary of Sky Airline. The airline can fly on 8 domestic routes, one of which is Quito-Cuenca-Quito. It can also fly to Guayaquil, Baltra, San Cristóbal, Manta, Loja, San Francisco de Orellana y Santa Rosa. It can provide air transport, public, domestic, regular, passenger, cargo and mail services. <What mail? I can see all this mail stuck in the holds of the airplanes with no way to deliver it to recipients in the country.> Passenger services will be a low cost model with its operations center in Quito.

Rehabilitan el parque del Dragón, en la Feria Libre (Rehabilitation of the parque del Dragón at the Feria Libre) – The City rehabilitated the parque del Dragón with new lighting, water features, and ornamental plants. And FIRE! There is a system to create the emanation of fire from the dragon. <So if you’re passing by and see flames, don’t panic and call 911. Just relax and enjoy the special effects. Bring marshmallows.>

Cannabis no psicoactivo (Non-psychoactive cannabis) – Ecuannabismedica Cía. Ltda. has introduced its line of products from cáñamo (hemp – your word for the day) and non-psychoactive cannabis. Located in Nabón, Azuay, it’s the first business producing these products in the south. It has licenses types 3 & 5 for growing and processing the plant. There are 7 types of licenses issued by MAG (Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería) including importation of seeds, research, production, processing, and sales.

El nuevo rol de militares (New role of the military) – Starting today, El Mercurio will present an analysis on each of the 9 questions that passed in el referendum y consulta popular el domingo. <Dang, looks like I’m not thru translating referendum stuff yet.>

Question A asked if the voter was in agreement with allowing complimentary support from the Armed Forces in the functions of the National Police in fighting organized crime, partially reforming the Constitution? The appendix to the question said that the FF. AA. couldn’t support the National Police in internal protection and maintenance of public order if there wasn’t a state of emergency. It also said that if this question won, article 158 of the Constitution would need to be revised. It said that military intervention would be subject to the principals of exceptionality, proportionality and reasonableness and international standards of human rights. It also said that coordinating functions would be subordinate to the dispositions of the President and would cover the crimes of narco-trafficking, money laundering, arms and people trafficking, terrorism, illegal mining, extorsion and intimidation, organized crime, and when there is serious internal commotion in the prison system.

A legal scholar explained that with the passage of this question, an immediate reform of article 158 can be done so that the the president can, by decree, allow the FF. AA. to compliment the work of the police. This is the only question that can take immediate effect once the official voting results are announced. The Government should guarantee the budget the FF. AA. requires to cover the additional work.

Region –

Un puente Bailey para la vía La Troncal-El Triunfo (A Bailey bridge for la vía La Troncal-El Triunfo ) – The La Cadena bridge in the La Troncal Canton on the vía Zhud-Cochancay-El Triunfo collapsed last domingo. One person suffered minor injuries and 2 cars that were trapped in the middle were damaged. <How would you like to be driving along and all of a sudden the road thinks it’s an express elevator, and some invisible hand pushed the down button?> After an inspection, it was decided the best temporary fix would be the installation of a Bailey bridge. The bridge was one of the 21 infrastructures that MTOP contracted for in 12/2023 as part of the contingency plan to deal with the rainy season. The bridge can be installed immediately in 10 days. The Prefectura de Cañar announced the opening of a 1.8 km. long bypass thru the río Negro sector to keep this route open. It will add 10-15 minutes to the trip. <I think this on the route between Guayaquil and Cuenca when the road thru the Cajas is blocked.>

Compras y discuentos –

todohogar – more than 10,000 products for your home – opens today (miércoles) in the Plaza de las Américas. <Have fun shopping in the dark. Does this replace Sukasa?>

And that’s all for today so hasta el …?

Jeanne