Rivers are near flood stage; Lots of options for paying property taxes; Noboa, Abad, Glas targets of Años Viejos contest winners; Antiques Expo held in El Vado

Jueves, 2/1/2025

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Expo Feria de antiguedades organizan en barrio El Vado (Antiques Expo Fair organized in El Vado neighborhood) – An antiques fair, organized by the Dirección de Cultura de Cuenca, will be held los viernes 3 and sábado 4 from 10-17:00 in the Casa Patrimonial Municipal de la Lira on Calle de La Condomine y Juan Montalvo. Visitors can explore collections. pieces of art, and antiques.

Titular –

Cuenca property owners lined up Thursday to pay their property taxes at the municipal building on Parque Calderon. Those who pay in the first half of January receive a 9% discount on their bill. (El Mercurio)

Gobierno ofrece “verdad” tras el crimen de niños (Government offers “truth” in child crime case) – <Sorry, but I’m too tired to translate this.>

Cuenca –

USD 100 mil recaudan en el día 1 de prediales ($100,000 collected on day 1 of prediales) – It’s time to pay property taxes again. Dozens of taxpayers went in the first few hours of Jan. 1 to pay and get the discount. The discount for urban properties is 10% for payments made in the first half of enero, 9% for payments in the 2nd half, 8% for paying in the first half of febrero, 7% in the 2nd half, and so on until the discount is 2% for payments in the 1st half of junio, and 1% in the 2nd half. This year the City estimates collecting $2,847,463.76 for rural properties and $22,511,779.76 for urban properties plus an additional $13 million in special taxes for infrastructure improvements such as the río Tarqui transfer station, the Isauro Rodríguez bridge, and more.

You can pay at more than 200 locations including the Tesorería Municipal (Benigno Malo y Sucre), Parque de la Libertad, and the airport. There will be extended hours for the first few days of the year: jueves 2 & viernes 3/1 from 8-19:00, sábado 4 & domingo 5 from 8-14:00. Payments can also be made at ETAPA EP, the Registro de la Propiedad, Farmasoles, EMOV EP, and financial institutions such as Banco del Austro, Banco Bolivariano, and Banco del Pacífico. There is an on-line payment option as well on Cuenca en Línea. Go to “Pago de impuestos, tasas, y contribuciones.” <You’re on your own after that. Maybe they have a button to translate the site to English. Maybe they don’t and you’ll have to ask your facilitator to help. Or maybe you read Spanish (hurrah!).>

ETAPA EP alerta sobre el alza en caudales de ríos (ETAPA EP warns about the rise in river flows) – The Hydro-meteorological Network of ETAPA reported on the increase of water levels in the rivers after the rains. The Tomebamba and Machángara are in a pre-alert status due to the increase in the flows which are at 74.3 cubic meters per second (m3/s) and 49.70 m3/s. The Tarqui and Yanuncay rivers are at normal flows although the Tarqui has seen a slight increase in flows to 8.1 m3/s. Authorities are recommending that citizens stay back from the banks. <Remember that the nickname for the Tomebamba is “The Killer.” Also remember the guy who went into the river and was found later – first his head, and then the rest of him.>

Mutualista Azuay, el ganador inédito en los Años Viejos (Mutualista Azuay, the unprecedented winner in Años Viejos) – The winning Año Viejo was titled “Los con y sin camello” (Those with and without camel) and featured figures of Daniel Noboa, Verónica Abad and various Government ministers surrounded by camels. The Verónica Abad figure has a sign “LA VERO (nickname for Verónica) ¡Yaura! ¿Me voy a Israel o Turquía? but the sign in the photo of the figure labeled “Nobita” is too fuzzy to read. <If anyone knows what ¡Yaura! means, let me know.> To make the installation, 10-30 people worked at night for a month and half in spite of the blackouts.

The El Vergel barrio won 2nd prize for the 2nd year in a row with “Con el apagón qué cosas suceden, qúe cosas suceden.” (With the blackout, what things happen, what things happen) Their structure was like a jail in which some prisoners had privileges and others has shortages with the figures of Fito, head of the ‘Los Choneros’ and Jorge Glas. There were other scenes with events from the past years such as Daniel Pintado’s double gold Olympic medals, Trump’s election, the Iberoamerican summit, and others.

El Vado won 3d place with “Ecuador necesita un flautista” (Ecuador needs a flute player -which was a play on the Pied Piper of Hamelin). There was the piper and monigotes with rat faces representing cases of corruption and other bad things such as the deaths of the 4 children in Guayaquil, the drought, forest fires in the Cajas, closures of unsanitary food establishments, and more. The 4th place went to the Ciudadela Tomebamba with their theme of “El jinete del apocalipsis: versículo 2024” (The horseman of the apocalypse: verse 2024). They built 4 riders on horses, one of whom was Rosa Argudo, a union leader, who was accused of irregularities at the IESS hospital.

Sucesos –

De El Mercurio del miércoles, 1/1/2025 (2 articles):

La EMOV EP asume la revisión técnica vehicular (EMOV EP takes over the technical inspection of vehicles) – The contract to conduct the annual technical inspection of vehicles in order to register them was with the Colombian company Dalton. The contract was signed in 2007 for 15 years and extended until el 31/12/2024. This year, EMOV EP, a city business, will take over that role and “absorbe” (absorb) most of Dalton’s employees. Mayor Zamora explained that before, Dalton received 82% of the money collected while EMOV received 18%. Lenin Guzmán, manager of EMOV EP, said that the equipment to continue with the revisión técnica vehicular (RTV – technical vehicle inspection, also known as ‘cuenca aire’ – your abbreviation for the day – you should know this if you own a car.) is in optimum condition. <Let’s see how long this lasts, or if a couple of years from now, RTV’s get delayed because the machines don’t work anymore due to lack of maintenance.>

The process to “matricular” (register) your car requires an annual inspection and you can get an appointment online. First you pay a bunch of fees and taxes, then go to EMOV’s website to “Agendar Turno de R.T.V.” Enter your license plate number and the last 5 digits of the chassis number and pick the inspection station, date and time for the inspection. You can pay online or at a bank. <If you haven’t done this before and/or don’t speak Spanish you might want to get some help.>

En 13 años ECU 911 registró 39 millones de emergencias (In 13 years ECU 911 has registered 39 million emergencies) – This week, the Servicio Integrado de Seguridad SIS ECU 911 commemorated its 13 years of taking calls and dispatching to emergencies in the whole country. It has coordinated more than 39 million alerts nationally through its 16 Zonal Coordinations and Local Centers. <You old timers might remember when you had different 3 digit numbers to call depending if you wanted the police or fire department.> The 1,535 professionals attend to an average of 347 emergencies of different types every hour on a national basis. In its 13 years of service, ECU 911 has attended to 1,118,554 caes of intrafamily violence, 70,079 different kinds of rescues, 126,854 births, 7,109 suicide or self harm interventions, and more.

Nacional –

Noboa y sus candidatos no pedirán licencia (Noboa and his candidates will not ask for a license) – The legislative bench of the Acuero Democrático Nacional (ADN) announced that neither President Noboa nor his assemblymembers will ask for the license (leave of absense) to participate in the electoral campaign which starts domingo. They are basing their action on the Corte Constitucional decision in 2010 that said when there is a death cross, re-election doesn’t exist since it’s treated as the period to complete the previous term.

The announcement also cited article 93 of the Códico de Democracia which says the license is only obligatory for dignitaries who seek immediate re-election to the same office. <Isn’t that what’s happening? He was elected but this isn’t a campaign for re-election? You can tell I’m not a constitutional scholar since I don’t understand this at all.> This decision of Noboa’s was taken to avoid handing over the presidency to VP Verónica Abad during the electoral campaign. <Now, that I can understand. What does he think she’s going to do that would be so injurious to him? Collect large amounts of back taxes or slap the avoiders in jail?>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne