Approximately 400 elderly individuals in Ecuador are surviving with the help of neighbors and the solidarity of local authorities in the Andean province of Chimborazo after being abandoned by their families when they migrated abroad.
The phenomenon of migration, common in the area, has evolved, as previously it was only one family member – usually the head of the household – who would migrate and send remittances, but now entire families are leaving in search of better living conditions abroad.
Hermel Tayupanda Cuvi, the prefect of Chimborazo, told EFE that many people, especially from the municipalities of Alausí, Chunchi, Guamote, Colta, and Riobamba, are migrating to North America, leaving with their respective children or spouses.
“There are no longer voters,” he said, noting that while Colta’s voter registry lists 45,000 voters, only about 30,000 actually turn out to vote: “the remaining 15,000 have not passed away but are no longer here.”
Although remittances are not flowing as they did before, according to the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE), in the second quarter of 2023, Chimborazo received $51.88 million in remittances, marking a 16.28% increase from the first quarter of 2023 and a 42.79% increase compared to the same period in 2022.
With 62.75%, Riobamba, the provincial capital, accounted for the majority of remittance inflows, with the remainder distributed among Alausí, Chunchi, Guamote, Pallatanga, Cumandá, and other cities.
Solidarity
Tayupanda emphasized that with the decline in remittance money, “only the elderly remain, the very elderly parents.”
“And here, we have to do a small fundraiser. We also have small projects to take food, home visits, and phone calls to children to send money because the elderly are being left abandoned, without the care of their children,” he warned.
The prefect estimated that relatives of between 2,000 and 3,000 elderly individuals transfer money to taxi drivers to purchase groceries and deliver them to their homes.
Additionally, these elderly individuals care for their sheep and guinea pigs during the week and sell them at the market on weekends or send someone to do so.
“But there are a few who are completely abandoned, whose children do not return, perhaps there are about 300 or 400 people,” Tayupanda estimated, noting that the community helps them.
Furthermore, the Prefecture is seeking ways to support them. “We have gone to deliver any kind of food purchases with our own funds. What we earn as directors and coordinators, we contribute in some way, a little salary from the year, from our own pocket, and we create a common fund to go and deliver these food items to the elderly,” the prefect said.
Patronage and Ministries in Ecuador
Through the Patronage, the elderly receive medical attention in the communities, said Tayupanda, within the framework of a visit by diplomats from European countries, led by the Ambassador of the European Union (EU), Charles-Michel Geurts, to Chimborazo to analyze, in the area, possibilities of assistance in different areas.
“As there are 1,800 communities in the province of Chimborazo, it is impossible to reach everyone,” Tayupanda acknowledged, noting that they also receive support from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES).
Most of the completely abandoned elderly are in Colta, Guamote, Alausí, Chunchi, and “they have already started to increase here in Riobamba, Guano… the young people are no longer seeking the countryside, they are more looking for the city,” he added.
Precisely, the mayor of Alausí, Remigio Roldán, told EFE that from his municipality, “complete families have left” for the United States and Spain “because the governments have not addressed solving problems.”
“The children have emigrated to the United States, generally, and the parents, the elderly, have been left alone at home,” he noted, explaining that with the MIES, he has a gerontology center, and they also visit homes and develop social projects for the elderly.
“Many have forgotten about their parents, the elderly,” he lamented, noting that there are around 200 elderly individuals “completely alone” in his municipality, and neighbors help them as much as they can and collect donations to provide clothing and food.
The Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas on Thursday of creating a “last-minute crisis” after allegedly trying to modify details of the draft ceasefire in Gaza announced yesterday by Qatar, and assured that the Israeli government will not approve its implementation until the disagreements are clarified.
“Hamas violates parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last-minute concessions,” the Israeli president’s office denounced today. “The cabinet will not meet until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all the elements of the agreement.”
In a statement in response, Hamas said that “it is committed to the ceasefire agreement, announced by the mediators.” For his part, Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told EFE that he did not know what Netanyahu’s words about new demands meant.
One of the spokesmen of the Islamist organization, Sami Abu Zuhri, blamed Israel on Thursday for seeking to “create tension at a critical moment” and demanded that the US administration force compliance with the agreement.
The Directorate of Kidnapped, Repatriate and Disappeared of the Netanyahu Office informed the families of the kidnapped early of the setback in the negotiations.
The Government meeting, which was scheduled for this Thursday at 11:00 am (9:00 GMT), is thus postponed indefinitely until the discrepancies are resolved, but Israeli local media say that it could be held this afternoon.
In addition to all this, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that his party would leave the coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he does not commit to resuming the war in Gaza “immediately after” the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
This morning, Netanyahu’s Office reported, in a first statement, that the prime minister had spoken by phone with the Doha mediators, who informed him that Hamas was trying to move away from what was already agreed on May 27, by wanting to choose who will be the prisoners released in an exchange for hostages.
“Among other things, contrary to an explicit clause that grants Israel the right to veto the release of mass murderers who are symbols of terrorism, Hamas wants to dictate the identity of those terrorists,” the text denounces, in what it describes as “blackmail attempts.”
However, Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told EFE that he did not know what Netanyahu’s words about new demands referred to.
According to the public broadcaster Kan, the sudden delay of the government vote could in turn be due to “the ongoing deliberations” of the Religious Zionism party, chaired by the Minister of Finance and far-right settler Bezalel Smotrich, on whether or not to leave the Executive once the ceasefire is approved.
Both Smotrich and the also settler and Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, oppose what they consider a “surrender” agreement before Hamas, which would also prevent their longings for Jewish settlers to reoccupy the post-war Palestinian enclave.
But even if this happened, Netanyahu would have the majority support to give the green light to the ceasefire, which would come into force this Sunday after more than 15 months of massacres and about 47,000 Gazans dead.
According to leaks, in a first phase Hamas will gradually release, and in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, 33 hostages (alive and dead) giving priority to women still captive – including soldiers -, people over 50 years old, children under nineteen and the sick.
The Arab League, made up of 22 states, also demanded to prioritize the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza as soon as the agreement between Israel and Hamas enters into force, and that the war be “completely ended”.
On the other hand, the United States, Qatar and Egypt, the mediators and guarantors of the truce agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, confirmed in a joint statement that they will ensure the implementation of the pact by both parties “in all its phases.”
“Egypt, the State of Qatar and the United States of America affirm that their policy as guarantors of the agreement is to ensure that both parties fully implement their three phases,” underlined a joint statement made public in the last few hours by the Egyptian Presidency.
In addition, after the agreement, the Israeli Army killed at least 71 Gazati between the night and early hours of Thursday, according to local sources in the Gaza Strip.
The Australian Police have filed charges against a 34-year-old woman for allegedly poisoning her one-year-old baby to gain followers and raise money from donations, according to a statement released this Thursday by the Australian authorities.
The Child Protection and Investigation Unit has accused the woman of torture, claiming that she “filmed and published videos of the girl while she was suffering anguish and immense pain,” a content that exploited the child “and was used to attract monetary donations and online followers,” says the Queensland state department, northeast of the country.
In the statement, the Police explain that, between August 6 and October 15, 2024, the woman administered several prescription and unauthorized medications to the baby and tried to hide this behavior.
However, the medical staff of a hospital in southern Brisbane, capital of Queensland, detected what happened and informed the police while the girl was admitted last October, when they did some tests with which they detected unauthorized medications in the blood.
The woman was arrested this Thursday and is accused of crimes such as poisoning and premeditation of the facts, including torture, manufacture of child exploitation material and fraud.
An explosion shook the center of Kiev this Thursday around noon when the city’s air defenses were activated to repel a Russian attack in the middle of a visit to the Ukrainian capital of the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, who arrived hours before this bombing.
“Air defense forces operate in the center of the capital. Go to the shelters!”, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klichkó, wrote on his Telegram account, just after the rumble of the explosion was heard.
The Ukrainian Air Force had previously warned that attack drones launched by Russia were heading towards the Kiev region and towards the capital itself.
Russia usually carries out its suicide drone attacks at night or in the early hours of the morning, although it has also launched numerous missile and drone bombings against Kiev and other cities in Ukraine in broad daylight.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published in the Polish press that “Europe, without the Ukrainian army, will not be able to face the Russian army, because it is more numerous” and also “Russia has more weapons, more people and is more cruel than the Europeans.”
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