New rental ordinance considered; Legal marijuana initiative seeks signatures; Van robbed in Puerto Inca; New mall plans opening; Traffic to be rerouted

Bored? –
(De El Mercurio del jueves, 23/4) Agenda –
27/4 a las 19:30 – Premier of “El velorio,” a comedy about the death of a couple, told through their belated confessions – Teatro Sucre.

28/4 a las 18:00 – A discussion on AI and contemporary creation, followed by a screening of a short documentary about life. Casa de la Lira.

29/4 a las 19:30 – “El monólogo de la escoba” (The broom’s monologue) – Teatro Pumapungo – $12.00, tickets available on Meet2Go, Librimundi (in El Centro and the Mall del Río) and 099 994 0014.

The new Mall del Alto near Circunvalación Sur on the Cuenca-Azogues autopista will have its formal opening on May 21. (El Mercurio)

(De El Mercurio del sábado, 25/4) Tres noches sinfónicas al ritmo de Juan Luis Guerra (Three nights of symphonic music to the rhythm of Juan Luis Guerra) – The Orquesta Sinfónica de la U. de Cuenca will perform music by the Dominican singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra next jueves the 7th, viernes the 8th and sábado the 9th a las 19:00 in the Teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz. The concert will combine Caribbean rhythms characteristic of Guerra with orchestral and choral arrangements. Cost: $10 for the general public with a $5 cultural voucher for U. of Cuenca students which is available only at the theater ticket office. So far, the start date for ticket sales has not been announced.

Hungry? –
(De El Mercurio del viernes, 24/4) Se alista la II edición de la “Ruta de papas con cuero” (Second edition of the “Ruta de papas con cuero” is in the works) – 13 businesses in the mercados 9 de Octubre, 10 de Agosto, 12 de Abril, 27 de Febrero, 3 de Noviembre, El Arenal, and the Valdiviezo platform <a physical and not a virtual platform> will hold the “Ruta de las papas con cuero de los mercados” on the 27 & 28/4. The last day will be el 2/5 when the best preparation will be picked. <So is the winner going to get a GringoPost award for “Best papas con cuero?” Maybe it’s too Ecuadorian, but at least it won’t be judged by gringos who’ve been here all of one week and don’t even know what the heck cuero is.> The judges will be specialists in gastronomy from the U. of Cuenca. Vice Mayor Marisol Peñaloza said this edition seeks to increase the visibility of not only the dish, but the locations where it is made. She said the mercados are meeting places where ancestral knowledge and practices tied to food sovereignty are preserved.

(De El Mercurio del sábado, 25/4) Fiesta del Septenario empieza preparativos (The Septenario Festival Begins Preparations) – The city is readying for the 2026 Corpus Christi religious celebration, known in Cuenca as the “Fiesta del Septenario” Many people will be going to church and others will be heading to Parque Calderón for the sweets. This year, the celebration will start el jueves, 4/6 and run until el jueves, 11/7. The sales of sweets will be from el 4-14 de junio. <This is the holiday your dentist has been waiting all year for.>

Curious? –
(De El Mercurio del jueves, 23/4) Instalación de medidores “inteligentes”, en marcha (Installation of “smart” meters underway) – After a successful pilot program in which smart water meters were installed in various businesses and clients at the Parque Industrial, ETAPA will install them for clients with new houses, edificios and condos. For those who already have property, it is not obligatory to get a smart meter. The equipment is ultrasonic with the goal of measuring water use in an efficient manner. It will capture data instantly and send it to the billing department of ETAPA. Customers with the device have an app they can use to know when their consumption increases, mainly to detect possible leaks. <My app was my neighbor’s who let me know when I had a broken pipe with water running down the street from under the front wall of the property.>

(De El Mercurio del jueves, 23/4) Ecuador passes another FMI economic review (Ecuador passes a new IMF economic review) The board of the IMF finished the 5th review of the 48-month agreement for Ecuador which allows the country to receive an immediate disbursement of $394 million. In total, Ecuador will receive about $5 billion from this loan, approved in 5/2024, and increased in 7/2025. According to the IMF, the Government received this loan because it made significant advances in its economic reforms plan it returned to the international capital markets <would that be borrowing more money from China?>, and took steps to address fiscal performance.

(De El Mercurio del viernes, 24/4) En mayo habrá dos feriados nacionales (There will be two national holidays in May) – Ecuador will have 2 national holidays in May, both in the form of extended weekends. The first is the Día de Trabajo, officially celebrated on viernes, 1/5. This has been extended by an executive decree to include el jueves, 30/4 to make a 4-day weekend. The holiday will apply to both the public and private sector, is obligatory, and the days do not need to be made up. The 2nd holiday is for the Batalla de Pichincha, celebrated every 24/5 which falls on un domingo this year. It will be celebrated on el lunes, 25/5.

(De El Mercurio del viernes, 24/4) Asaltan furgoneta en Tamarindo (Van robbed in Tamarindo) – An interprovincial van on the Cuenca-Guayaquil route was robbed la noche de miércoles, 22/4 at the entrance to Puerto Inca near the P&S gas station. The criminals who were on a motorcycle and in a pickup, shot at the van, injured the driver, threatened the passengers, and robbed them. The shots hit the driver’s door and window and he was wounded in his hand. He was able to get to a gas station to report the crime and get assistance. In various stretches of the vía Cuenca-Molleuro-Naranajal, considered a tourist route, there have been surges in attacks on vans in sectors such as Tamarindo, Hierba Buena and the lower areas on the border with Guayas. In noviembre of 2025, a technological control portal in the Tamarindo sector of the vía was installed and upgrades were made to the UPC (Community Police Unit).

(De El Mercurio del sábado, 25/4) Plan piloto de tránsito habrá en Control Sur (A pilot traffic plan will be implemented at Control Sur) – The increase in the number of cars has caused congestion in key entrances to the city, motivating changes to hours and lanes to improve circulation. About 120,000 vehicles are registered in Cuenca with about 150,000 circulating in the city every day. Pablo Carvallo, Director of Mobility for EMOV EP, said this traffic has caused a collapse in various arterial roads during ‘horas pico’ (rush hours), especially in the Control Sur sector.

The changes will affect the 3 lanes from the Control Sur stoplight (at Super Aki) to the entrance to Nero. The plan has a schedule for the Labor Day holiday where lane 1 will be used for ingress, lane 2 for egress, and the carril central (middle lane) will switch between ingress and egress according to a schedule where the direction of traffic changes from every couple of hours up to 13 hours on el domingo. The paper has published the table. <You’ll have to rely on your taxi driver if you’re going to points south on the Labor Day extended weekend.>

(De El Mercurio del sábado, 25/4) Ordenanza de registro de arriendos aguarda debate (Rental registration ordinance awaits debate) – Councilwoman Jenny Bermeo reported that the project for an ordinance for the execution and registration of lease agreements is ready and hopes it will be placed on the council agenda for its first debate. The proposal would create a municipal registry of leases which will allow identification of properties that are rented, who occupies them and for how long.

This information can be used by entities such as the Policía Nacional in their investigations, especially in cases where it is necessary to track occupancy of homes or commercial properties in cases of illegal activity. Currently there is very little information since rentals are made without verification of identity, without formal contracts, and without registering leases. The fee for registering a contract is planned to be $6. In some neighborhoods, people will pay a year in advance and owners don’t ask where the money is coming from — often from criminal or money laundering groups. Bermeo said that in sectors such as Totoracocha, Ciudadela Álvarez and housing developments, residences have been used for irregular activities including clandestine brothels.

(De El Mercurio del domingo, 26/4) Mall del Alto anuncia acto inaugural para 21 de mayo (Mall del Alto announces Inaugural Ceremony for May 21) – The Mall del Alto will be inaugurated in a formal ceremony planned for el jueves, 21/5. This will be the official presentation of the new commercial complex. The ceremony will be in the mall on the Circunvalación Sur on the autopista Cuenca-Azogues. It will be attended by government officials and representatives of the business community. The opening to the public <that would be the rest of us who don’t have some kind of official title> will be el viernes, 22/5 a las 10:00. <Who’s going to run the pool to guess at what time the traffic trying to get into the parking lot will be backed up as far as the 12 de octubre redondel?>

(De El Mercurio del domingo, 26/4) Ley de uso de cannabis, sin firmas según el CNE (Cannabis Use Law, Lacking Signatures According to the CNE) – The Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) met el sábado to consider the Ley Orgánica para el Uso Responsable del Cannabis project. It reported that there were only 11,134 valid signatures, which didn’t reach the minimum number of signatures required by law. Referendums and citizen proposals for law need .25% of the voter registry or 34,136 signatures to show interest in the proposal. Now the organizers who proposed the law have 90 days to collect the signatures if they want to continue the process.

One of the main points in the proposal is the decriminalization of personal cultivation of cannabis. Every citizen of age can keep up to 30 plants on private property for their personal consumption. <If you knock your grill over into your pot farm, 30 plants is probably enough to intoxicate your whole neighborhood.> A restriction is that access to recreational use is prohibited for minors under 18. Minors need to have a medical prescription and adult supervision. If the law is approved, a new government entity will be created, the Instituto Nacional de Regulación de Cannabis, an autonomous institute which would govern the entire cannabis production chain. As part of the project, the Asamblea Nacional formed a committee to process the initiative, and it has some questions. The full Assemblea approved the compliance with the formal requirements of the project and sent it to the CNE. In order for the proposal to come back to the Assemblea, the organizers need to collect the minimum number of valid signatures that show citizen support. <No matter how much you want this to pass, if you’re not registered to vote, your signature is no good.>