Peruvian police arrest Petroecuador fugitive; Tech fair in the park; Landslide cuts water

Police in Lima have arrested Carlos “Charlie” Pareja, former Ecuador energy minister. Pareja is the central figure in a corruption scandal at Petroecuador, the government-owned energy company. According to the prosecutor, the scandal involves as many as 80 employees of the company and more than $100 million.

Carlos “Charlie” Pareja

“We have managed to untangled this complicated, disgraceful case and have finally caught the big fish,” President Rafael Correa told journalists Monday.

Pareja and his son, also implicated in the scandal, are being held in a Lima jail. They will appear before a judge on Wednesday and are expected to be extradited to Ecuador.

Tech fair Friday in Parque de la Madre

City-owned public utilities company ETAPA will host a technology fair Friday in Parque del la Madre. The fair will include 20 exhibits by private companies and public institutions.

“If you want a preview of Cuenca’s high-tech future, it will be on display in the park,” said Boris Piedra, ETAPA telecommunications manager. He said that the ETAPA exhibit will have information about the expansion of Wifi zones in the city, transferring land-line phone numbers to cell phones, and new pre-loaded Wifi cell cards.

Other services represented at the fair are “over-the-top” providers such as Netflix, Amazon, Skype, and Spotify.

Landslide cuts water service to 17,000 homes

A Sunday night landslide in Racar ruptured a major pipeline and knocked out water service to more than 17,000 customers.

The landslide destroyed a 40-meter wide section of the Sinincay-Miraflores road, a major artery into the city of Cuenca.

According to utility provider ETAPA, customers will be without water for two days as repair work continues. During repair, ETAPA will deliver water by tanker trucks to homes that request it. Reconstruction of the roadway will take at least two weeks, officials say.