Miércoles, 24/5/2017: Quickie divorces, IVA headed down, Tram consortium closes shop, Correa gives town to Azuay Province

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Exposición – “El arte desde la mirada infantil” (Art from a child’s viewpoint) will open Thurs. at 18:30 in the Centro Cultural Quinta Bolívar.

Presentation – “Avida Vida” (Life Time) poetry by Fernando Moreno Ortiz, will be presented Thurs. at 19:00 in the Auditorio del Museo de la Ciudad.

Cine – The Ciclo de Cine El Prohibido will screen “Underground The Julian Assange Story” el viernes at 19:00.  It’s about the early years of Assange’s career.  Cost: $1.00.

Articles about –

Festival de la Lira – The Cuencano poet Alfonso Moreno Mora will be honored in the 6th Edition of this festival which will take place from the 6-9/11.

Festival de Guitarras – The festival opened Wed. in CIDAP, and will run until el domingo.  The first of 5 concerts will be today at 20:00 in the auditorium at the Abraham Lincoln center.  The ruta de las guitarras will be el domingo in the San Bartolomé parrish.

Drum making workshop – Salvador Villalobos, an ancestral artist, is giving a workshop on drum making.  It started Wed. in the Hogar Infantil Miguel Léon (Bolívar y Coronel Tálbot). The second part is el sábado from 10-15:00.  The drums are made from goat or cow hide, noble woods such as nogal or sauce (walnut and willow – let these be your words for the day), and catgut.  <No vegans or PETA members need apply.>

Research – “Coronaciones” was presented Wed. in the Museo Remigio Crespo Toral and is about the history of two Cuencanos who were “crowned” for literary achievement.

Otras cosas – 

Titular – Hoy inicia la era Moreno (Moreno’s era starts today)  <A person would have to be coming out of a 4 month bender to not know that there was a presidential inaugural today.>

Tranvía – The consorcio that was building the Tranvía “se fue” (left – your phrase for the day.)  <You’ll hear this a lot – like at the market.  You might ask for cherries and the vendor will tell you “se fue,” meaning they’re gone and the season’s over.>

Workers who have been going to the CCRC headquarters hoping to be paid back wages found the building on Gran Colombia y Unidad Nacional empty and for sale.

Boundaries – By decree, Pres. Correa determined that the Abdón Calderón community in Molleturo parish is in Azuay, putting aside the request from the prefecturas of Azuay and Guayas for a referendum.  <He can do this.  Anyone who’s upset is going to have to complain to him in Belgium.>  It was the last community in question after a definitive boundary agreement was signed between Azuay and Guayas in 2015.

IVA – The 14% IVA, put in place last year to raise money to rebuild after the April 2016 earthquake, will go back to 12% on 1/6.  Merchants can continue to use preprinted sales slips as long as they calculate 12%.  Various agencies will be making surprise checks to see that merchants are complying with the reduced IVA.

Cabinet appointees – See CHL for more details.  <I find it ironic that Paúl Granda, the mayor of Cuenca who signed the Tranvía contract, was appointed Minister of Transportation and Public Works. At least he should have a good idea of what can go wrong which isn’t a bad place to start.>

Quickie divorces – Changes to the Ley Notarial last year allowed notarios to execute divorces and terminate “common-law” marriages by mutual consent when there are no minor children or other dependents, and the wife is not pregnant.  The number of divorces has gone up as the amount of paperwork has gone down.  In Cuenca, the 21 notarios have done 525 divorces so far this year.  In contrast, there were 1,099 marriages registered between enero and mayo.  <Statistically half of the marriages end in divorce, but you know Mark Twain’s quote about lies, damned lies, and statistics.>  The process can take as little a 24 hours if all the paperwork is complete at a cost of about $200.00.  Fill out the form at www.funcionjudicial.gob.ec. or get a signed petition from a lawyer.

Macizo del Cajas – 4 years after the declaration of the Área Biosfera Macizo del Cajas, there is a management plan.  <CP time is also Cuenca Peoples’ time.>  The area has about a million hectares and includes parts of the provinces of Azuay, Cañar, Guayas and El Oro.

Concierto – Rondalla Cañari will play a concert el jueves, 25/5 at 20:00 in the Teatro Sucre.

Internacional –

Brazil – Pres. Temer is losing support.  A member of his own party is calling for his resignation so that the Congress can designate a new president as soon as possible.  <That’s a train that needs to leave the station in the US as well.>

Venezuela – Pres. Maduro signed a decree to elect a new Assembly which would draw up a new Constitution.  This was sent to the National Electoral Council for its review.  <This guy takes hanging on to power to real extremes.>

Discuentos y compras –

Chery Tiggo White, limited edition <it’s a small SUV> – $19,990 with the lower  IVA – 5 yr or 100,000 km guarantee – Cuencauto – Av. España 8-31 y Barcelona – (07) 280 3861 or 286 3035.

El Mercurio – Set of 3 ceramic, “nada se pega” (non-stick) frying pans with 2 glass lids – $26.50 – at all El Mercurio offices.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne