New tram contract expected, Violent drunks are arrested, Colombia prepares for protests, Vegan cooking workshop, Christmas fair

Martes, 19/11/2019

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Opera contest – The last phase of the “Ecuador Opera Competition” will be el martes, 26 de noviembre in the teatro Pumapungo a las 20:00 with the 16 finalists out of 60 competitors (I think). A closing gala with the winners and the OSC will be el viernes 29/11. <You’ll get to hear the fat lady sing.>

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Feria navideña – There will be Christmas Fair from el 21-23/11 desde las 9:00 hasta las 17:00 (from 9 to 5) at the plaza artesanal (Bolívar y Huayna Capac).

Comida vegana – “ShantiÑan (Miguel Cordero Crespo 2156) will hold a workshop <here’s where you need to show off your Google skills – and use your Spanish skills> on learning how to prepare 20 things with plant based foods and 5 vegetable milks from almonds, peanuts, quinoa, sesame, <and one more unspecified plant>.

Otras cosas –

A maintenance contract for the tram is expected to be signed within a month.

Titular – Restricción vehicular en centro de Cuenca (Vehicle restriction in center of Cuenca) – A new “supermanzana” (super block) will be in effect from 30/11 to 3/12. Streets within calles Pres. Córdova, Padre Aguirre, Gran Colombia y Antonio Borrero will form a superblock. Access to the streets immediately around Parque Calderón will give priority to pedestrian and bicyclists with vehicle access only for business and homeowners, at a speed of 10 km/h. Part of this plan will include reinforcing controls of the bus only lane on Pres. Córdova. An engineer and architect both mentioned that public transportation needs to be replanned to encourage use of buses which need to be efficient, timely, safe, and comfortable in order to get people out of their cars. <It would probably take gas going up to $10/gal. to get people out of their cars. And then only the rich would be driving again.>

Tranvía – The Unidad Ejecutora del Projecto Tranvía (UEPT – Tranvía Project Executive Unit) – is looking to sign a contract with the Metropolitano de Tenerife Sociedad Anónima (MTSA) for tram maintenance within a month. This Spanish company signed a $3,495,878.60 contract with the city in septiembre de 2018 to advise on the pre-operation and operation of the system.

No a minería – Community members from the rural parish of Chaucha were in Cuenca el lunes to call for stopping mining by Ruta del Cobre S.A. in their parish. The Environmental Management Department of Azuay issued a bulletin in which INPC recommended precaution due to archeological vestiges in the area. The Environmental Department report also said that exploitation would destroy the Los Naranjos hill, Cerro (hill) Cascajo, Loma (hill) Pocafrete, Loma de Tunas y Loma Guguatio as well as affecting the water quality. The project is currently in the financial feasibility phase.

Cooperación de EEUU – A cooperation agreement was signed with the US on security matters to exchange information and cooperation in the fight against terrorism. The agreement will provide Ecuador with a Sistema Seguro de Comparación y Evaluacción de Identificación Personal (PISCES – Safe System of Comparison and Evaluation of Personal Identification) which will monitor the movement of foreigners in airports and other migration points. <Is this facial recognition software – which can distinguish white people but to which all black/brown/yellow/red people look alike?>

Police page –

Death – The president of the Fireworks Guild died in hospital after suffering injuries on 6 noviembre in an explosion at a fireworks factory. The factory had all its operating permits.

Drunks attack transit cops – A citizen called 911 to report a car evidently being driven by a drunk. Two transit cops responded and found 8 people in the car, all drunk, who attacked the cops. The cops called for back up and 3 more arrived. All 5 (3 men and 2 women) were beaten with two receiving bite wounds. The National Police arrived and arrested 4 of the aggressors who were put in prisión preventiva. <Good to get mean drunks off the streets. And now you see why Transit cops don’t stop cars and hand out tickets. Not worth the risk of rabies.>

International page –

Chile – The month in which Chile despertó (woke up) resulted in 23 deaths, 2,365 injured, 258 with eye injuries from perdigones (bird shot – your word for the day just because you probably won’t need to use it much), $4.5 billion in infrastructure damage, 300,000 lost jobs, and a predicted slowing of economic growth from 2.5% to 1.9%. The largest march the country had seen in 30 years brought 1.2 million people into the streets. But there will be a constitutional convention in abril de 2020 to replace the one which has been in effect since 1980 when the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet was in power.

Bolivia – Citizens are stocking up on food which is getting scarce in the markets, garbage trucks can’t run due to a scarcity of gas so garbage is piling up in the streets, and at least 23 people were killed and over 700 were injured. <Sound familiar?>

Colombia – The government has taken measures to keep order el próximo jueves when a national day of protest has been called for by unions and social movements. Measures include closing the borders <To keep out all those Ecuadorian terrorists?>, restriction on bearing arms and a curfew. The government will respect the right to protest, but is aware of messages on social media calling for violence.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper. The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.