Most dangerous Turi prisoners to be transferred; The biggest nativity scene; Cuenca gets a security upgrade; Doubts that blackout suspension can be maintained
Sábado, 21/12/2024
Hola, Todos –
Season’s Greetings, and I hope all of you enjoy your holidays. This will be the last Periodico for 2024. I will be taking a break over the holidays and the next issue will be el domingo, 29/12 if I’m recovered from holiday activities — or el lunes, 30/12 if I need another day to recover. Those of you my age will understand the need for more recovery time.
Cuenca –
Resoluciones de la Comisión de Seguridad sobre cárcel (Security Commission resolutions on prisons) – The Comisión de Soberanía, Integración y Seguridad Integral of the Asamblea Nacional met in Cuenca el viernes to analyze topics related to the prison in Turi and to safety in Cuenca. After receiving relevant reports and data the members of the Commission reached the following agreements. Prisoners in the maximum danger category who are currently held at Turi will be transferred to the new prison in Santa Elena <I think it’s still only partially complete, so those transfers aren’t going to be happening any time soon.>
Although there are doubts of whether the suspension of blackouts can continue, area rivers that flow into the Mazar hydroelectric reservoir are again flowing at normal levels. (El Mercurio)
The Servicio Nacional de Atención Integral a Personas Adultas Privadas de la Libertad y a Adolescentes Infractores (SNAI) will not transfer prisoners in organized criminal groups except on an as-needed basis for each case. SNAI along with the different authorities will prioritize inhibiting cellphone signals with the phone companies. It will also manage that the internet signal for the prison will be from cable and not wi-fi. $2.1 million will be invested in maintenance, remodeling and improvements to the infrastructure which should recover wards that were destroyed during previous riots. Optimal and safe conditions for the prisoners aligned with national and internacional standards will be guaranteed. Better technology will be implemented to avoid unnecessary transfers of prisoners to court hearings. <Do you feel safer now?>
Reforzarán seguridad en acceso a Cuenca (Security will be reinforced at the access to Cuenca) – At the Security Commission meeting authorities said they would take the steps needed to remodel and set up 2 Unidades de Policía Comunitaria (UPC – Community Policing Units) in the Tamarindo sector on the vía Cuenca-Molleturo-El Empalme. Also, the use of 30 motorcycles donated by the Azuay Provincial Gov’t will be used for monitoring this access to Azuay Province.
Actualidad –
De El Mercurio del viernes, 20/12 (1 article):
Los belenes más grandes, tradicionales e ingeniosos (The largest, most traditional and ingenious Nativity scenes) – Martha Coronel, along with other Cuencanan families, makes a Nativity scene every year. Martha converts her living and dining room into a huge nativity with thousands of figurines that increase in number every year. <A lot like those of you who need a bigger Christmas tree each year to hold your growing collections.> The sociologist lives at Rafael María Arízaga and General Torres and is continuing what her grandparents did with recreating mountains with an atmosphere of the countryside. She also has representations of the fiestas of Pillaro, Corpus Christi, the Mama Negra and more. She makes the figurines’ costumes with retazos (scraps – your word for the day) of fabric from her brother’s costume rental business, “Maskarade.”
Sisters Norma y Miriam Cabrera are building on the tradition their mother started 50 years ago when they were children and helped their Mom place the shepherds and angels. Now they use recycled materials such as cardboard, paper, jute and more to make the pesebre (Nativity scene) and have the confidence that their children and nephews and nieces will continue the tradition.
The Gárate brothers get together each year to help their 96-year-old mother, Raquel Andrade, to assemble the Nativity scene at their house on Hermano Miguel y Calle Larga. Their pesebre is unique in that theyhave at least 20 images of the baby Jesus in different sizes with the oldest over 100 years old. This is due to the custom of their mother who gives an image of the baby Jesus to each new family member as a sort of blessing for the whole life of whomever receives this gift. <Again, like a lot of you, each new tree ornament has a meaning attached.>
In the Catedral, there is a pesebre that gathers hundreds of devotees. The Archdiocese made it with the help of the Cartopel company which supplied the designs and assembly.
Nacional –
De El Mercurio del viernes, 20/12 (2 articles):
Fin de los apagones en medio de dudas (End of blackouts amidst doubts) – For the first time in three months, energy distributers didn’t publish a schedule of blackouts el jueves since the Government decided to suspend residential outages starting today (viernes). However, there are doubts about how long long suspension of outages can last. Data fom the Operador Nacional de Electricidad (Cenace) said electrical generation reached a maximum of 4,000 megawatts per hour (MW/h) while peak consumer demand was 4.500 MW/h leaving a 500 MW/h deficit.
Since el 15/12, the blackouts have focused on the industrial sector with the 7 businesses that are the largest consumers of energy obligated to disconnect from the national electrical system. This saves the country more than 300 MW/h. Those businesses are Adelca (Acería del Ecuador C.A.) and Novacero (acería – steel plant); Guapán, Holcim and Chimborazo (cementeras – cement plants); and Fruta del Norte and Mirador (mineras – mines). <How about that – 3 words of the day in one sentence.>
Sofia Arce, executive director of the Cámara de Industrias, Producción y Empleo (Cipem – Chamber of Industries, Production and Employment), explained details about the energy cuts for businesses that consume medium amounts of energy. The highest consuming businesses are in Group AV2 which include mines and steel plants. Group AV2, besides the 3 mentioned cement plants, includes over 100 medium sized businesses. These businesses have cuts of up to 8 hours, 2 hours more than they have been having. The Parque Industrial de Cuenca and the medium sized businesses signed an agreement with Centrosur and Elecuastro, and should reduce their energy consumption by 40%. The blackout was set for 23:00 at night to 7:00 on the following day in order to affect the industrial sector as little as possible. However, some businesses run 24 hours a day, and those decided to suspend their activities until el 31/12.
For Darió Dávalos, an electrical expert, the Government’s offer that the outages will end Friday is difficult to fulfill since the deficit continues to exist and could increase if it stops raining in the areas of the hydroelectric plants. This is what has happened in Colombia since 2019 between enero y abril. The country suffered a ‘veranillo’ (short summer) characterized by low rainfall which affected the reservoirs. The Government of Colombia projected that if the level of the reservoirs fell below 67.69%, it would again stop selling energy to Ecuador. And since el 15/12 water levels have fallen to close to that limit.
Because of recent rainfall and increased power generation at hydroelectric plants, Ecuador’s Energy Minister reports that it has reduced the amount of electricity purchased from Colombia.
Rechazan liberación de cabecilla de banda (Gang leader’s release rejected) – Vicente Angulo Sosa, aka ‘Comandante Vicente,’ who was the leader of the Los Lobos gang in Camilo Ponce Enríquez Canton, was released by the courts in spite of being on the “most wanted” list. In a press release, the Bloque de Seguridad composed of the Policía Nacional and the Fuerzas Armadas, categorically rejected the resolution of release and called it a denaturalization of the judicial guarantees and in a case of organized crime. Angulo was captured by the military after an armed confrontation in Camilo Ponce Enríquez in marzo, 2024.
He had been considered a fugitive from justice since septiembre, 2023 when he was ordered into prisión preventiva (pretrial detention) after not showing up for a hearing. The Servicio Nacional de Atención Integral a Personas Adultas Privadas de la Libertad currently has 17 cases on convicted persons who have been released from prison under alternative measures or have had their pretrial detention revoked. Based on the judge’s ruling, Angulo was released due to health concerns.
After Angulo’s release, the Bloque de Seguridad intensified operations in canton. The Policiá National is keeping its elite units on permanent alert.
Descuentos y compras –
RM – Regalón Navideño with discounts from 30% to 50% in the whole store until domingo, 22/12. <Just in case you’re one of those who leaves holiday shopping until the last minute. Me, I’m baking cookies so I don’t have to leave the house and fight the crowds.>
And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –
Jeanne
