Ombudsman wants health minister fired for getting vaccinated; Mexican prez has Covid; Doctors protest vaccine priorities; Ex-VP Glas gets more prison time

Martes, 26/1/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Nada

Otras cosas –

Titular – Ocho años de prisión (Eight years in prison) – The Corte Nacional de Justicia sentenced 7 people including ex-VP Jorge Glas for a new crime of corruption in the Singue case. Also sentenced were Wilson Pastor y Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli, minister and vice minister of Recursos Naturales no Renovables, and César Guerra, controlling shareholderof oil company Dygoil-Gente Oil Ecuador. Part of the sentence for embezzlement of public money is the payment of $5 million. 3 other officials who gave favorable technical reports for contracts were sentenced to 4 years as accomplices. This is the 3d sentence for Glas: 6 years for the Odebrecht case, and 8 years for the Sobornos case, and now 8 years for the Singue case. He is still facing investigation in 3 more cases stemming from the Sobornos case. <What can you say about someone like that? Ditto for CaPaYa. I wonder if they think it was all worth it? I guess it depends on if they think they’ll live long enough to get out of jail and get to the money they’ve stashed away.’>

Pedirán a la Asamblea que destituya al Ministro (Assembly will be asked to remove the Minister) – The Defensor del Pueblo, Freddy Carrión, announced he will ask the Asamblea Nacional to remove the Ministro de Salud, Juan Carlos Zevallos, after it was found that his family members had been vaccinated against Covid. Seniors at a private geriatric center were vaccinated over the weekend. There was criticism for giving priority to a private institution over public hospitals, and because family members of Zevallos reside at that center.

Zevallos defended himself before the Health Law Commission of the Asamblea Nacional and at a press conference. He said that doctors working at the Hospital de los Valles, a private high priced hospital, were also vaccinated. He said the Hosp. de los Valles is part of the macro network of Health and its doctors have as much right to vaccines as public health system doctors. People in public geriatric centers are scheduled for vaccines between 2-3/2. <Does tone deaf describe his attitude?>

Doctors at Vicente Corral Moscoso Hospital are complaining about the hospital vaccine distribution plan.

Empantanada la venta del predio de excuartel (The sale of the excuartel property is bogged down (empantanada – bogged down – your word for the day. <You can use it to describe your visa paperwork.>) – 4 years after land belonging to the military was donated by the Government to Cuenca, it still hasn’t been sold. Proceeds from the sale of the land were to have been used to pay off the Tranvía project. 2 public auctions were held in mid-2018 with no bidders. The land use allowed enlarging the Parque Industrial and building offices, warehouses, parking, and space for loading and unloading finished and raw materials. The city council is again talking about what to do with the land. One suggestion is to sell it to build housing. This would require a change in the land use.

Hallazgo de osamentas humanas (Human bones found) – Human bones found in a mountainous area with difficult access are believed to be of a 73 year old man who disappeared 3 years ago while riding his horse to check on his cows. The bones were found in the Gualdeleg Alto sector in Santa Isabel canton and were taken to the Policía Nacional to confirm their identity. Searches by family and authorities 3 years ago were unsuccessful. <My question is how were the bones found?>

Inconformidad entre médicos del HVCM (Disagreement among HVCM physicians) – Doctors at the Vicente Corral Moscoso hospital gathered outside the hospital to protest that the Government should prioritize first line workers for vaccines. Only 13 of the more than 70 doctors who have been treating Covid patients for over a year were vaccinated el 22/1. According to people inside the institution, administrative personnel who were not exposed to Covid patients received vaccinations. A doctor who spoke said that apparently there are all the medical personnel (vaccinated), but few of the first line. The idea of some of the protesting doctors was that personnel not close to infected patients were vaccinated so they could help in the Covid areas. <Or something like that – another confusing article beyond my Spanish level.>

Internacional –

México – AMLO se suma a lista de líderes con COVID (AMLO joins the list of leaders with COVID) – Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has refused to wear a mask in public, announced el domingo that he has Covid with light symptoms. In chronological order of their infections, the following national leaders have also caught Covid – Alberto II of Monaco, Prince Charles of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Mijaíl Mishustin, PM of Russia, Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, Jeanine Áñez of Bolivia <Try typing her last name – you have to be a digital contortionist.>, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Diosdado Cabello of Venezuela, Donald Trump of the US, and Emmanuel Macron of France.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne