Scam alert for seniors and expats; Ecuador earns its sixth Olympic medal and its fourth gold; Cuenca presents climate change mitigation awards

Viernes, 2/8/2024

Hola, Todos –

Titular –

Pintado entra al Olimpo (Pintado enters Olympus) – See today’s (viernes) article in CHL for the story. Ecuador has had 6 medalists in the Olympics starting with Jefferson Pérez in Atlanta, 1996, when he won the gold in the 20 km. speed walk. He also won a silver in Beijing, 2008, for the same event. The next medalist was Richard Carapaz in Tokyo, 2021, with a gold in road cycling. Also in Tokyo, 2021, Neisi Dajomes won a gold in weightlifting and Tamara Salazar won a silver in weightlifting. Brian Daniel PIntado won a gold in Paris, 2024, in the 20 km. speed walk. <Go Ecuador!>

Cuenca Mayor Cristian Zamora (top row, center) poses with young people who received environmental awards from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Foundation for projects aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change. Cuenca was the only city in Ecuador to receive the Bloomberg funding. (El Mercurio)

Cuenca –

Alerta de estafas (Scam Alert) – The Ministerio de Inclusión Económica y Social (MIES) is warning citizens that unidentified people are visiting houses of senior citizens, passing themselves off as MIES employees. According to complaints, they are asking for cédulas to verify if the resident might be qualified to be a beneficiary of the Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH – Human Development Bonus). MIES clarified that the ministry is not doing any kind of house visits, and recommends the you don’t give out personal information. <My guess is nobody is going to pick on gringos. First of all, the demographic is way too rich to qualify for those bonos, and second, the scammers have to break the language barrier. Hard to scam someone who doesn’t understand (or pretends to not understand) a word you’re saying. Amazing how fast I forget every Spanish word I’ve learned when a beggar comes to the door.>

Speaking of scams (and this was not in the newspaper), several expats report receiving visits from people claiming to be agents of either the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (Census Institute) or the Ministro del Interior (Interior Ministry) who say they are gathering information about foreign residents. These people wear clothing with government logos, carry laptop computers and present official-looking letterheads and documents. They speak decent English and ask for various personal information, including passport and cedula numbers and bank account information. Because they appear to be official, some condominium guards are letting them into buildings and providing them with unit numbers where expats live. Beware! These are not real agents. Do not let them into your apartment or house!

De El Mercurio del jueves, 1/8 (1 article):
Premian 9 ideas ambientales (Awards for 9 environmental ideas) – The city of Cuenca awarded between $3,800 and $5,000 to 9 projects, selected from 55 submittals from youth aged 15 to 24. The awards were for the Primera Edición del Fondo de Acción Climática Juvenil (First Edition of the Youth Climate Action Fund). The money was from a fund of $150,000 the city received to implement innovative initiatives to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Cuenca was the only city in Ecuador and one of 26 in Latin America to receive these funds from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Foundation.

One winning project was “Recuperación de plantas autótonas de la región interandina centro-sur, del Ecuador, través de la innovación del Jardín Gerontológico del Museo de la Medicina de Cuenca” (Recovery of autochthonous plants from the central-southern inter-Andean region of Ecuador, through the innovation of the Gerontological Garden of the Museum of Medicine of Cuenca). This included the production of composting urban gardens promoting the consumption and use of species grown for medical use.

Another project also dealt with the circuit of medicinal gardens in the headquarters of different institutions in the city including the Museum of the History of Medicine of Azuay, the department of Medical Sciences and the Center for Medical Specialties, the U. of Cuenca, and the “José Carrasco Arteaga” hospital. Pedro Abril, a student who was part of this proposal said that they were looking to generate a circuit of botanical conservation to rescue autochthonous medicinal plants in the region and for seniors and youth to exchange knowledge. Another project dealt with collecting rainwater, using it for domestic activities such as laundry, treating it with phyto-purification, and then using the gray water in the agricultural sector.

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne