Passport facilitators busted, U.S. seizes Miami property of Ecuador bribery suspects, Wildfire burns grasslands, Alejandro Sanz to perform

Feb 21, 2020 | 2 comments

Jueves, 20/2/2020

Hola, Todos –

I will be taking a break until martes, 3/3. Even volunteers need an occasional vacation.

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Feria en CEMUART – The 80 craftspeople that are part of the crafts center, CEMUART launched an “Expo Carnaval” Thursday with the Taita Carnaval which included a free tasting of traditional sweets and live music.

Ad for a concert by Alejandro Sanz – 7/3 a las 20:00 in the Estadio Alejandro Serrano Aguilar – tickets available at www.ticketshow.com.ec, Mall del Río bowling rink.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

“La Fiesta de Todos” – The Federación Nacional de Cámaras Provinciales de Turismo de Ecuador and Cervecería Nacional are presenting the “Party for All” 2020 in various cities. This free event will be be in Cuenca el 29/2 at the hostería Caballo Campana. Look for La Fiesta de Todos on Facebook to get tickets for various activities.

Otras cosas –

Cuenca’s Jose Carrasco Arteaga Hospital.

Titular – Un manto de ceniza en bosque protector (A mantle of ash on protective forest) – At least 10 hectares of grassland and primary forest was burned in the Yanuncay-Irquis forest in the Trancas sector of the Victoria del Portete parish. The fire was reported la noche de martes and rainy conditions helped put it out.

ETAPA’s finances – ETAPA’s payroll is $3 milllion per month for 1,400 employees. The company’s income is $7.7 million with expenses of $8.5 million leaving a monthly deficit of $800,000 which is being added to the $3 million deficit from previous years. <Can you smell a rate increase coming?> In the short term, the company has already cut costs such as upper management salaries, cars assigned to officials, the number of hired cars, and has vacated rented spaces. They are renegotiating with service providers especially in the area of internet. ETAPA expects to save $4 million annually. Longer term actions include restructuring the company and personnel.

The other issue is income. Decisions have to be made about water rates. The cost to produce a cubic meter of water is $1.35 and the company charges its customers from 60-70 cents. The company also has a special sector that pays only 20 cents. All of these subsidies need to be looked at.

IESS – Actions are being taken to prevent the problems the Jose Carrasco Arteaga Hospital had with lost, expired, and deteriorated medicines. There will be one storage location to prevent uncontrolled dispersal of the medications and control their use. The hospital will work with the Information Technology department to develop a control system and is looking for space within the hospital to store medicines and medical supplies. The hospital is working on other projects including remodeling the Pediatric area so babies with serious illnesses can be isolated. Other projects are the construction of an operating room in the Emergency area and new high tech equipment and remodeling in the Gastroenterology area.

Tramitadores de pasaportes (Passport processors – passport facilitators?) – 3 suspects who are part of a gang of passport processors were arrested yesterday outside of the Registro Civil. They were charging their customers $250 to get a passport which only costs $70 to get directly. They found their customers through Facebook. <So Ecuadorians also need facilitators to help them through government paperwork? How about tramitadores de visas? Is that activity also illegal?>

Oil company bribes – The US issued 15 orders to seize houses and apartments in Miami owned by 8 people implicated in the Petroecuador bribery case and valued at over $8 million. The Fiscalía General (Attorney General) is preparing to request the US to levantar la reserva de la información (lift the information reserve? There’s got to be a legal meaning that makes more sense.) One of the owners is the ex-General Contract Coordinator for the Esmeraldas Refinery who has 6 properties in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties valued at $3.2 million. <Is this maybe a result of the recent Moreno/Trump meeting?>

Road closures – The intersections of Benigno Malo y Pres. Córdova, Padre Aguirre y Pres. Córdova, and General Torres y Mariscal Sucre was closed Thursday for the Jueves de Compadres and will reopen to light traffic Friday morning.

And that´s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
____________________

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.

CuencaHighLife

Dani News

Google ad

Gran Colombia Suites News

Fund Grace News

The Cuenca Dispatch

Week of March 17

Banks and Cooperatives will pay almost $200 million in taxes to fund the internal armed conflict.

Read more

Illegal mining advances uncontrolled in the Ecuadorian Amazon and threatens protected areas and indigenous communities.

Read more

Foreign Minister Sommerfeld refutes the notion of ‘bukelization’ in Ecuador’s fight against organized crime.

Read more

Google ad

Hogar Esperanza News