Wildfires popping up all over; Prefectura lays off 41 employees; Bus fares are unregulated; Political pollsters must register; Bar reopenings pending

Oct 16, 2020 | 1 comment

Jueves, 15/10/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Casas patrimoniales abren sus puertas a obras de cuencanos (Heritage houses open their doors to works by cuencanos) – There are currently 5 exhibits by Cuencano artists in historic houses. “Gritos inaudibles” by Santiago Guillermo opened yesterday at the Casa de Chaguarchimbana and will run until 20/11. “Heteropías: performance y arte visual” is at the Casa del Artista, and “Que gara” by graphic artist COMO is at the Casa Bolívar. Heteropías and Que gara can be seen from lunes a viernes from 8:30 to 12:30. “Encerrados” by Marcela Orellana and Santiago Espinoza is at the Casa de Las Posadas and “Tiempos diluidos,” works by 14 students in the Department of Arts at the U. of Cuenca is showing in the ex Escuela Central. <Museo de la Ciudad>.

Otras cosas –

Bus companies are currently allowed to set their own fares. (El Mercurio)

Titular – Evalúan daños de incendio forestal (Forest fire damage evaluated) – After 5 days of work, 30 firefighters and 80 community members put out a forest fire that started in the Gullanzhapa sector of Tarqui in Cuenca. They used picos (picks) and batefuegos (firebats – which can look like a rubber snow shovel – your word for the day even if you don’t know what it looks like.) <But if you see a weird show shovel at Kywi, it’s probably a batefuego. If you’re from the South, and have no idea what a snow shovel looks like, better google them both.> The fire started on 10/10 in a mountainous zone with difficult access and winds that complicated controlling the fire. Water trucks were used where there was road access, but most of the fire was fought by hand.

There were 17 other fires during the weekend in Santa Isabel, Oña, Curenca, Sígsig, Chordeleg, Girón, Pucará, Gualaceo y Nabón which burned 17.06 hectares. So far this year, 507.78 hectares have been burned by forest fires with 99% of them caused by people. <God might play with lightning, but I bet you’ve never seen a deer or bear playing with matches.> Starting a forest fire will get you 3-6 years in jail, and the penalty goes up to 13-16 years if there is loss of human life. The rash of fires is the result of a prolonged period of dry weather, firefighters say.

Bares esperan reabrirse pronto (Bars hope to reopen soon) – The tourism sector wants to reopen bars and night life centers with biosecurity protocols. Positive data from the feria in octubre, opens up the opportunity to provide this type of service in noviembre. The hope is that tourists will stay in Cuenca for more days, a good thing for the local economy. The cities of Ibarra and Daule have opened up night life venues at 30% and 50% of capacity. Restaurants with bars that have the Insignia Cuenca Biosegura which guarantees anti-virus measures have successfully reopened in Cuenca.

Revisarán pasajes a las zonas rurales (Fares to rural zones to be revised ) – Cuenca has no regulation that would allow interparish bus cooperatives to establish new fares after the confinement to reduce the effects of the capacity limits. Councilman Cristian Zamora said that is a good thing because in a legal vacuum, cooperatives could set their own fares which could lead to abuses in fare collections. Members of mobility commissions and rural development met this week to talk about proposing a fare model. This would go to the Consejo Cantonal which could pass it in one meeting with a resolution.

The interparish bus system fares depend on the distance between the passenger’s start and end points. The Comisión de Movilidad proposed using fares that applied before the pandemic with a medium range project including technical studies that would permit establishing fares. <Now would medium range be in weeks, months, years or decades? Time obeys different laws here.>

Encuestadoras deben en CNE registrarse (Pollsters must register with CNE) – Only businesses, organizations, and individuals who have registered with the CNE will be allowed to officially transmit results of surveys, polls, projections, and predictions for the elections. Qualifications to register include academic training and professional experience. So far only Centroinvest Cía Ltda from Quito has qualified. An expert in electoral studies reminded the public not to give credence to electoral surveys published on social media, especially Facebook and Twitter because they do not show actual results and are too easily manipulated by people with an interest in the results.

65 personas votaráran en sus casas (65 people will vote at home) – Voto en Casa will be held el 5/2 for voters who are not able to go to the polls in Azuay due to mobility problems. There will be 14 mobile Juntas Receptoras del Voto (Vote Receiving Boards) accompanied by members of the Armed Forces who will have custody of the completed ballots until they are counted along with the ballots from the election on the 7th. Most of the at-home voters are seniors with 46 in Cuenca, 7 in Paute, and 12 in Santa Isabel.

Crece venta de libros usados (Used book sales grow) – During the health emergency, more people are reading used books. Books for purchase and book exchanges are available at multiple sites on social media. With readers having more limited budgets due to the economic slowdown, used books are more accessible than new. Enter “libros usados” on Facebook for innumerable options. For book exchanges, go to Duende Trueque or Truque Cuenca. <My guess is those of you who read Spanish will have a better selection.>

Despiden a personal del GAD-Azuay (GAD-Azuay staff let go) – Employees of the Gobierno Provincial who were let go last week complained to the Defensoría del Pueblo. A defender with the office said she has asked to meet with prefectura Cecilia Méndez to find out the reasons for the firings before starting an investigation to see if they complied with legal requirements. The prefectura said that the provincial government is overstaffed and the firings (layoffs? – Ecuadorian labor law is way over my head.) were done after an analysis, rationally and with consideration for the province.

And that´s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne

CuencaHighLife

Dani News

Google ad

Fund Grace News

Google ad

Property 3br News

The Cuenca Dispatch

Week of March 24

“They are pressuring me to resign so they can remove me from office,” denounced Verónica Abad, Vice President of the Republic.

Read more

Ecuador Navigates Economic Challenges with IMF Agreement Looming.

Read more

“Since when does thinking differently mean being a traitor?” Pierina Correa questions in reference to the Tourism Law.

Read more

Hogar Esperanza News