Power shortages causing massive losses as gov’t considers remedies; Quito assembly plant to close; Nationwide kidnapping and extortion ring busted

Domingo, 28/4/2024

Hola, Todos –

Sucesos –

En Cuenca investigan a una agrupación delictiva (Criminal group investigated in Cuenca) – Between el 23 & 24/4, there were armed assaults of 2 commercial locations in Cuenca. A man and woman entered a restaurant at Los Álamos y Paseo Tres de Noviembre la noche de miércoles. They threatened customers with a gun and took cellphones and cash then fled in a gray car. Last martes, 6 armed delinquents surprised the owner of a fast food establishment on Remigio Crespo y Juan Iñiguez. They tied the owner up and took cash and valuable objects. <Makes me nervous about going out to eat.> Police recommended that as much as possible, witnesses should observe features of the criminals such as accents <Right – they were speaking Spanish, what more can I say.>, tattoos, tone of voice, and car color and license plates. <All this presence of mind while you’re thinking, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.>

Nacional –

De El Mercurio del sábado, 28/4 (4 articles):

Two weeks of power blackouts have cost the Ecuadorian economy more than a billion dollars in losses, according to the Energy Ministry. (El Mercurio)

15 días de cortes de luz dejan pérdida millonaria (15 days of power outages leave millions of dollars in losses) – After 15 days of power outages, Roberto Luque, ministre de Energía, said that for each hour without electricity, the productive sector lost $12 million. Therefore a daily outage of 6 hours caused losses of $72 million a day or $1.080 billion in 15 days. These losses impacted the 3 sectors that generate the most employment, for about 3 million people. The most affected sector is commercial where the lack of sales caused losses of $5 million per hour, $30 million per day, and $450 over 15 days. The industrial sector lost $2.4 million per hour, $14.1 million per day, and $211.4 million in 15 days. Exporters lost $2.1 million per hour, $12.6 million per day, and $189 million over 15 days. <And it probably isn’t over yet.>

The Government is managing solutions for the short, medium and long term. For the short term it is contracting for barges to deliver energy in 30, 60, & 90 days; but the proposal received previously are unclear as to costs and time of service. <That would be important – you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for something left over from WW2 that sinks or breaks the first week in operation which I’m sure large multinational corporations would be only too happy to provide.> The medium term proposal is to enable and maintain thermal power plants. Only those that have parts in the market since some are muy antiguas (very old – your words for the day) <for an example of very old, I only need to look in a mirror> and which have high generating capacities will be put into service. The long term option is to build new hydroelectric plants, but the Government doesn’t have the money, and investors view the country as more trouble that it’s worth.

Statistics: 65% of electrical generation in the country is hydroelectric and the rest thermal, but there hasn’t been investment in the thermal plants which have not been maintained. $80 million is the cost to subsidize half of the consumption of Ecuadorians during abril, which was proposed by Pres. Naboa. <Better to use that money for plant maintenance.> $1,080 billion is what the productive sector has lost during the power outages.

‘Bombardeo’ de nubes se implementa (Cloud ‘bombing’ implemented) – Even though the energy deficit in the country has fallen from 27 to 10 gigawatts, thanks to the increase in rain, the Minister of Energy said it was impossible to give a date for the end of the outages. He said that a program for cloud seeding with silver iodide will start el miércoles. This was done in 1992 during the Government of Sixto Durán Ballén when the lack of rain obligated an advance of 1 hour to take advantage of more daylight. This was known as Sixto’s hour. US citizens know it as Daylight Savings Time.

General Motors cerrará su fábrica en el Ecuador (General Motors to close its plant in Ecuador) – El viernes, GM announced “key changes” in its operations in Ecuador which will result the cessation of the manufacturing of vehicles in Ecuador after agosto. This will lead to massive layoffs. The plant is under-utilized and only operating at 13%. The company manufactured Chevrolet models but will now will make the transition to a national marketing company model.

Cae una banda dedicada al sequestro y extorsión (Gang dedicated to kidnapping and extortion is busted) – The operation “Gran Libertad 4” was carried out la madrugada de viernes. There were 14 simultaneous raids in Quito and Guayaquil as well as in the provinces of Guayas (Playas), Los Ríos, Manabí (Manta), and Santa Elena which resulted in the capture of 41 people and breaking up 6 gangs specializing in kidnapping and extorsion (vacunas – vaccinations). 1 victim was rescued. Since el 17/3, this operation has succeeded in capturing 328 people of whom 90 were members of organized crime groups categorized as terrorists. 26 kidnapped citizens were freed. <I wonder what makes people a target? Do the gangs know if the kidnapees’ families have money? Or are they business owners? Scary if ordinary people are getting snatched off the street.>

Descuentos y compras –

Superstock – Promotions for Mother’s (or is it Mothers’) Day? – Cookware, small appliances, bedding and linens, lamps and decoration, dish and glassware, shoes and clothing. <I don’t know about you, but I’d rather get jewelry than something that hints I ought to be spending more time in the kitchen.>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne