Tranvía cards on sale at 5 locations; Face mask enforcement intensifies; Ex-president Bucaram under house arrest; Lasso picks Cuencano as VP

Jueves, 13/8/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

School – School will start el 1/9 with classes continuing on line. Teaching will be done on radio, TV, on-line, and students without internet will receive printed material. Parents will not need to buy uniforms or the list of school supplies.

OSC – The Orquesta Sinfónico de Cuenca will share their vigésimo (20th) concert on YouTube and Facebook mañana (viernes) a las 20:00 with Mozart’s concert for French horn which was recorded el 22/11/2019 in the Teatro Pumapungo.

Ciclo de documentales – The Art Department of the U. of Cuenca will show its series of micro-documentaries that were made by students in the School of Visual Arts during the pandemic. The films will be shared on the Facebook page of Sebastián Martínez Roldán.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Comercio informal en aceras (Informal commerce on sidewalks) – <And no, the article is not about drug sales.> Informal sales of fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood and cheese – the last 3 without refrigeration – has increased during the health emergency. Vendors are setting up on sidewalks, garages and hallways. They apparently do not know they need to get permits to work and that they can’t just set up anywhere. The last regulations were set up 25 years ago and the fines are laughable. The council is working to replace the ordinance and would call for fines from 50 to 100 times the salario básico. <Whoo! That would get your attention.>

The trees in Parque Calderon are suffering. (El Mercurio)

Hearing for ex-president Bucaram – <I have to specify which Bucaram because so many of them are in the criminal justice system.> The hearing to bring charges against Abdalá Bucaram was held in Guayaquil and not in Quito due to his health problems. The charges are for organized crime. Preventive prison for Bucaram is prohibited due his tercera edad and health status. María Paula Romo sent a letter to the police commander asking for sanctions against the arresting officers who took videos of the arrest which happened yesterday in the early morning hours. The videos were all over the morning news. <Would you want to be on camera if you got hauled out of bed at 2 am? Definitely not when you look your best.>

Araucarias starting to die – The historic trees in Parque Calderón were planted by Luis Cordero Crespo in 1875 before the park had its current name. The trees are receiving podas (pruning – your word for the day) to lengthen their lives which is estimated to be 10-25 more years. <With luck, I may outlive those trees. If not, you’ve got a few years to learn enough Spanish to read the paper on your own.> Eventually they will need to be removed before they die and fall down. The trees are sensitive to pollution and climate change. If pollution levels remain the same, they could live for 25 more years, but if pollution and climate change worsen, they won’t last more than 10 years. In the wild the trees can live up to 1000 years, but they are being threatened by fungus and bacteria due to climate change.

Urban bus routes to be longer – Starting this próximo lunes, the 475 urban buses will resume their normal routes with some extending their routes to serve a larger number of riders. Routes were changed el 13/7 due to the health emergency. The first 12 lines to change back will be 1,3,4,7,11,13,16,17,20,27,28, y 41. The week after, lines 5,8,10,14,15,18,22,24,26,29, y 100 will go back to their previous routes. Some lines will be extended to serve more people. Line 3, Bellavista-Kennedy will be lengthened to go the Buenos Aires, Cruz Blanca y San Miguel de Putusi sectors. Line 7, Trigales Alto-Mall del Río will go to Los Capulíes; line 8, Trigales Alto-San Joaquín will go to La Dolorosa; line 9, Pan de Azúcar-María Auxiliadora will go to the Feria Libre at El Arenal. Line 11, Turi-colegio Benigno Malo will be extended to San Pedro y Agua Santa; Line 12, Quinta Chica-Baños will go to Minas; line 13, IESS-Mutualista Azuay will be extended to Rayoloma y Ucubamba. Line 4 which starts in the Plataforma de Narancay sector in the south will run along the Circunvalación Sur and continue on De Las Américas, passing the ciudadela Jacarandá, av. Gil Ramírez Dávalos to the back side of the Terminal Terrestre next to the transfer station.

Tranvía cards – There will be 5 locations where students up to 18 years, disabled and tercera edad can get their personalized Movilizate cards. The locations are in the Feria Libre tunnel, ETAPA offices at Gran Colombia y Tarqui, the shopping center at 9 de Octubre, the Terminal Terrestre, and the airport. Initially, only 3 of those will be enabled. <You get to ride around and find out which ones are open.> The card will cost $1.75, and rides from 17 cents to $1.00.

Controls for mask use – The Guardia Ciudadana is intensifying controls for observing bio-security regulations in public spaces. To date, 430 people have been cited with 403 of those tickets for not using a mask or facial protection. Fines are $100.00.

VP – Guillermo Lasso, who is running for president for the 3rd time, picked Alfredo Borrero Vega as his running mate. Borrero is a Cuencano doctor with 40 years of experience in medicine and health administration. <I’m guessing having a doctor on board will give him credibility for dealing with Covid.>

Internacional –

México – Ex-presidents Enrique Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón will need to appear in court after the exdirector of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) reported they took money from Odebrecht to fund their political compaigns. <Doesn’t that political news sound a little too familiar?>

Venezuela – Venezuela is reporting an inflation rate of 843.44% for the first 7 months of the year with 483.5 and 326.4% coming in the junio y julio.

And that´s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne