New trouble at two prisons; Azuay women suffer high rates of violence; Highway upgrades completed in Cañar; New government bank focuses on small loans

Martes, 26/4/2022

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Nada.

Titular –

Pedidos de la CNJ y del CJ, innecesarios (Requests from the CNJ and the CJ, unnecessary) – <This topic was too hard for me to translate yesterday, and I haven’t gotten any smarter since then so if you’re interested, you’ll have to read it on your own.>

Cuenca –

A German study at 16 Ecuadorian universities found that violence suffered by 252,429 women led to 3,664,409 days of missed work and classes. (El Mercurio)

Violencia a mujeres en la universidad (Violence against women in the university) – A German organization, the Programa Prevenir la Violencia contra las Mujeres (PreViMujer), and the U. San Martín de Porres in Perú conducted a study about violence against women in universities in Ecuador. 16 universities participated in this study, one of the first done in Latin América. There were 3 objectives: first, to describe the current state of violence against women in the universities; second, to identify best practices and the status of research about preventing violence in universities in different parts of the world; and third, to propose a comprehensive model of prevention and how to act before violence occurs. The research concluded that this violence creates $68,833,079 in indirect costs each year and a loss of 3,664,409 days for 252,429 students and professors affected by male violence. The research showed that 7 of 10 students, both men and women, who witnessed situations of violence against women didn’t act or intervene for various reasons. A sociologist, Nancy Tenorio, said that people need to be more prepared to detect, report, and act when confronted with a case of violence.

Análisis (Analysis) – Psychologist and activist, Marilú Bravo, said that according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas y Censos (INEC), Azuay is one of the provinces with the highest rate of violence with 68.8%. She said that psychological mistreatment, as in the rest of the country, is the most common from of violence with 60.3%. Margarita Arriaga, socialogist and consultant on gender policies, said that in Azuay, 85.1% of women have suffered physical violence from their partners compared to 87.3% nationally. The information is from INEC’s last Encuesta Nacional de Relaciones Familiares y Violencia de Género contra las Mujeres (National Survey on Family Relations and Gender Violence against Women) which included 848 households in Azuay. <If this was another epidemic, the country would be throwing most of its budget at it to eliminate it.>

Curso para dar seguridad en aviación (Aviation safety training) – The Dirección General de Aviación Civil (DGAC) through its Escuela Técnica de Aviación (ETAC) finished a course for aviation security guards. The course covered areas such as regulatory framework; national and international legislation; access control to restricted areas; inspection of vehicles and what they are carrying; recognizing arms, explosive devices and dangerous objects; patrolling and guarding; and crowd control. It also covered types of airport emergencies and knowledge of medical tissue transport. <It must be working – when was the last time you heard about an Ecuadorian highjacking an airplane?>

ANT analiza matriculación irregular (ANT analyzes irregular registration) – the process of cancelling 110,000 irregular vehicle registrations is proceeding. ANT gave the different GADs 72 hours to present plans regarding the disqualification of 399 users in 147 jurisdictions so that vehicle registrations can continue without disruption to citizens. ANT is treating this as basically a municipal problem. Most of the irregular registrations are from municipalities in the coastal, central and north zones that do not have Vehicle Inspection centers. The people who evade legal requirements either pay an official or someone with access to the passwords in order to avoid paying taxes. This causes a loss of $50 million. Of the 2.5 million vehicles in Ecuador, 1,700 of the irregular registrations were for vehicles reported as stolen.

Region –

Cañar: mejoran 21 km. de vías (Cañar: 21 km. of roads being improved) – The first of 10 road improvement projects in Cañar has been finished. The contract between the Prefectura of Cañar and the Empresa Pública Asfaltar EP will improve road conditions in rural zones of Azogues, Biblián, Cañar and La Troncal. The work includes paving and repairing potholes. <Maybe this will make your next road trip a little less teeth rattling.>

Nacional –

Gobierno crea el Banco de Government creates Banco de Fomento Económico al fusionar dos entes (Government creates Banco de Fomento Económico by merging two entities) – Pres. Lasso signed Executive Order 406 yesterday that merged BanEcuador and the Corporación Financiera Nacional (CFN) to create the Banco de Fomento Económico del Ecuador. The new entity will focus on giving credit to micro, small and medium businesses. The merger will save the country $25 million annually. The new bank will start with a healthy portfolio and assets valued at $5 billion, $1.8 billion in available funds, and equity of $1.6 billion. The bank will also focus on recuperating $400 million in non-performing loans granted in previous administrations. Those loans were given to benefit only one person or business. Lasso also said that there will be no more credit tied to political power. <Hopefully, no more using government banks as private piggy banks.>

Enfrentamientos en cárcel; hacen explotar vehículo (Confrontations in jail; vehicle explodes) – 15 inmates were injured in a reyerta (fight – your word for the day and another way to say pelea or riña) in the El Inca prison in Quito. The fight was attributed to the Los Lobos and Latin King gangs. The brawl happened about 10:00 and when police entered, they seized 43 armas blancas (sharp and/or bladed weapons).

In a separate incident outside of the country’s maximum security prison in Guayas, a car exploded in the early morning. There were no injuries although a nearby restaurant was damaged and the car was complete destroyed by the ensuing fire. Leaders of gangs that instigated riots in another prison had been recently transferred to the prison in Guayas. Witnesses said that two people abandoned the car before it exploded, and fled on 2 motorcycles with 2 accomplices. <So who was sending what message to whom with this?>

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 (please don’t ask her for them). The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.