Only two presidential tickets cleared to run; Bus terminal projects costing $4 million go unused; Write Cuenca’s bicentennial song and win big bucks

Oct 12, 2020 | 1 comment

Lunes, 12/10/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

CCE-Azuay amplía plazo para presentar proyectos (CE-Azuay extends deadline to present projects) – The deadline to submit projects to the CCE for its second edition of the Incubadora Cultural has been changed from 11/10 to 16/10. Go to http://convocatoria.incubadoracultural-cuenca.com/ (I’m not sure if the – before cuenca is part of the web site address or because of a line break.) The main requirements are that groups be composed of at least 2 people and the leader should be at least a 2-year resident of Cuenca. An outside jury will pick 30 pre-incubation projects which will receive both in-person and on-line training. Later, 10 ideas will be picked and awarded $3,500 in seed money.

Llaman a crear canción del Bicentenario (Call to create a Bicentennial song) – The Mayor’s Office and the Dirección Municipal de Cultura have two calls out for artists who want to participate in the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the independence of Cuenca. The first is to compose a song with the winner receiving $6,000 to produce, record and perform the song in the Museo de la Ciudad. Go to the Facebook page for the Dirección Municipal de Cultura. The second call is for works related to canto lírico <highfalutin music?>, popular music <not highfalutin music>, dance and monologues. Winners in each category will receive a cash award and perform in the teatro Sucre during the independence of Cuenca festivities.

Otras cosas –

New gasoline prices go into effect November 10..

Titular – Ven fallas en compras municipales (They see failures in municipal purchases) – The Comptroller General’s office found faults in the City’s purchasing process for food kits. $259,834 was spent to buy food for vulnerable groups. It found substitution of products in food kits <I hope more substantial than people getting nabo instead of acelga or carrots instead of beets.>; lack of controls in the articles purchased and what was stored and taken from the municipal warehouses; and an uncompleted order from a contractor. The director of the Acción Social Municipal explained that the agency opted to fill the kits with products available in the market and the urgent need to deliver food didn’t allow for the bureaucratic process to justify the changes. <I imagine the recipient was just as happy to get beans instead of corn rather than wait for an overworked clerk to count the beans first.> During the emergency, the worker in charge of checking things in and out of the warehouse was teleworking since they were in an at-risk group and their presence in the warehouse was sporadic which didn’t allow for detailed product control. The use of a contractor that had been identified as not completing contracts by the Servicio Nacional de Contratación Pública was justified by the Purchasing Department of the Acción Social as the only one interested in a $488 medical supplies contract. <Gimme a break here. The purchasing deficiencies don’t appear to be someone selling carrots to the city for $120.00 per pound, or taking half the food kits and selling them at the Feria Libre. And taking $488 won’t get you very far – it’s certainly not condo in Miami money.>

Terminales: 2 obras que iniciaron mal y están sin funcionar (Terminals: 2 projects that started badly and are not working) – The transfer terminals at El Arenal and the Terminal Terrrestre were inaugurated 7 years ago but have not fulfilled their planned purpose. The terminals which cost $4 million, were to integrate the public transportation system, but with the construction of the Tranvía and changes in the city’s administration, the integration has gone nowhere. <Cuenca seems to be under a transportation curse – a Tranvía system too big for its budget, transfer terminals that don’t transfer anything, no flights from the airport, big city traffic congestion, hardly any bike lanes, and sidewalks with potholes.> A 10 year concession ending in abril, 2013 was given to the Cámara de Transporte, but given how the Tranvía was constructed, the tram/bus transfer is on the sidewalk and not inside the terminal. The whole idea of feeder lines never materialized. The current administration is studying if the terminals can be used for intercantonal or interprovincial transport.

2 son los binomios presidenciales que están ya en firme (2 firm presidential tickets) – Of the 7 tickets the CNE has approved, only 2 have definitely qualified without challenges or appeals against the candidates within the allotted time periods. These are Gustavo Larrea and Alexandra Peralta of the Democracia Sí movement and Xavier Hervas y María Sara Jijón of the Izquierda Democrática party. <The least known or least contentious candidates?> The CREO plus Partido Social Cristiano alliance is facing a process in the Tribunal Contencioso Electoral (TCE – Contentious Electoral Tribunal). There are objections to the tickets of the Partido Sociedad Patriótica, Amigo movement, Ecuatoriano Unido movement, and Honestidad 17-51 alliance composed of the Partido Socialista Ecuatoriano and Concertación movements.

Nuevos precios de combustibles regirán hasta el 10 de noviembre (New fuel prices will be in force starting November 10) – Petroecuador published fuel prices yesterday. The suggested cost of sales to the public will be $2.28 for Súper, $1.75 for Extra y Ecopaís, and around $1.19 for Diésel 2 y Premium. According to an executive decree, prices are announced on the 11th of each month. There is a system of bands to fix the maximum increase or decrease of gas to avoid the disparen (skyrocketing – your word for the day) of prices due to drastic increases in the price of crude oil. This band system regulates the prices of Extra and Exopaís gas and Diésel for the automotive, shrimp, tuna and fishing sectors by limiting both increases and decreases to a maximum of 5% from the previous month. The price of Súper can float with the international market.

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.

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