International
Alausí, in Ecuador, is still at risk a year after the gigantic avalunc that left 75 dead
A year after 75 people died from an allh in Alausí, this population of the Andes of Ecuador gradually rises with the effort of its inhabitants, who continue to live under the danger of new landslides while waiting for official help for reconstruction.
On the night of March 26, 2023, thousands of tons of land buried more than fifty houses. It took the relief agencies about three months to rescue the bodies in the midst of the pain and anguish of relatives and neighbors, who joined the work.
Now, in the anglum area, some herbs have begun to cover the land that swallowed part of the population.
“With our machinery we have made some stabilization for the protection of the margin of the homes that were left (safe),” the mayor of Alausí, Remigio Roldán, told EFE.
Without a “concrete response from the State,” he said, “Alausí allied with universities and non-governmental organizations” to solve different problems left by the landslide,” such as the destruction of a water conduction system that fed 8,000 inhabitants.
“Thanks to the European Union (EU) we are receiving funding of about two million dollars for the new system of collection, conduction and re-empowering of the drinking water treatment plant for the 8,000 inhabitants,” Roldán reported.
The mayor highlighted the efforts of the inhabitants to rehabilitate an important road, which connects the south with the center of the Andean region of Ecuador, where they opened a path in the middle of the ‘ground zero’ to peak and shovel.
In addition, about 18 million dollars are needed to stabilize the slope of the entire perimeter of the landslide.
“We can’t let it stay as it is. In the upper part of the collapse we have two communities that do not have a sewer system, we still have septic wells, the problem is still latent,” he said.
Therefore, last February, at the visit of a group of diplomats from European countries, headed by the EU ambassador, Charles-Michel Geurts, the situation was exposed, since the representatives visited the province of Chimborazo – of which Alausí is a part – to analyze potential aid in various sectors.
Geurts highlighted the admiration they have for Alausí, for its people, resilience and vision of the future, while his counterpart from France, Frédéric Desagneaux, mentioned the willingness of the EU for accompaniment in the restoration of the dynamism of Alausí.
The mayor numbered 75 people who died in the all. and pointed out that they have not been able to rescue nine “who remained among the rubble” in the area where 163 families lived.
According to the latest official report of the tragedy, published in November by the Secretariat of Risk Management, there are 65 deceased and 10 who are officially listed with the status of “disappeared” after not being able to find their bodies.
The victims reached 800. “Some,” said Roldán, “have had to emigrate, some are renting apartments, rooms, others are where the relatives are.”
By following the area at risk, they have not allowed the return of the inhabitants to the houses that were left standing on the banks of the avalh: “We do not want to lose more lives. We warn that the problem is still latent, we have a part (in the) that continues to give way to the cracks.”
“We demand the Government to give homes,” Roldán stressed, adding that the investment of 1.5 million dollars has been budgeted for the construction of 57 homes and, although they have the land to carry out the works, they have not made progress because the Government has changed, which has been led by President Daniel Noboa since November 23.
In addition, apart from the allanch polygon, there are two schools with 800 students, who cannot return to their classrooms if the slope is not stabilized.
“We are improvising in other infrastructures that were abandoned for the boys to receive classes,” he said.
Roldán comments that they do not have “the concrete support” of the Government in roads and housing. “We have to adjust to living in the middle of this reality, making all our effort, as a small government (mayor’s office), as communities, as organizations,” he noted.
He recalled that in a visit to Alausí hours after the tragedy occurred, then-President Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), offered to invest 8 million dollars, but “not a single penny in immediate actions” has not yet been specified.
He lamented that none of the 186 rural communities of Alausí has drinking water, sewerage or sanitation, and pointed out that the State must disburse the 50% advance of a contract for the construction of a hospital, whose cost is around 23 million dollars, but that does not advance either.
In January, the Secretariat of Risk Management presented the roadmap for the recovery of Alausí, with a budget of 10 million dollars financed mainly by international cooperation to rebuild the road that connects with Riobamba, the provincial capital, as well as housing solutions and the delivery of bonds for vulnerable people, among other actions.
International
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, returned this Thursday to delegate – for the second time – the Presidency to the Secretary of Public Administration and Cabinet of the Presidency Cynthia Gellibert, whom he himself appointed by decree vice president in charge, in the face of the open confrontation he maintains with the vice president, Verónica Abad.
As he did last week, Noboa again issued a decree in which he announces that he is absent from the Presidency from Thursday to Sunday, to make an electoral campaign in search of his re-election in the elections of February 9, and during that period of time it will be Gellibert who will be in charge of the head of the State.
This action of the president of Ecuador is a matter of evaluation by the ordinary and constitutional justice at the request of the vice president, Verónica Abad, who claims to assume the presidential functions during the full period of the electoral campaign, in which according to the Constitution the head of state must ask for leave for being a candidate for re-election.
In his decree, Noboa argues that, although the Constitution determines that the Vice Presidency must assume the head of State in the event of the absence of the president, this “is not limited to the elected vice-president, but to the person who to date is exercising the functions of the Vice Presidency.”
Before appointing Gellibert as vice president in charge by decree, Noboa sent Abad to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Turkey, after a judge annulled the five-month suspension that the same Government had imposed on him. Until now, the vice president remains in Ecuador to claim to be the one who temporarily assumes the Presidency.
The new period of Gellibert with presidential powers began at 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT) this Thursday and is scheduled to end at 22:00 (03:00 GMT) next Sunday, time at which the debate between presidential candidates is expected to end where Noboa is summoned to participate.
After the debate, Noboa plans to travel to Washington to attend Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, according to the Ecuadorian Presidency.
After the first assignment of the Presidency to Gellibert, Abad denounced a “coup d’état” and urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to apply the Democratic Charter, considering that the constitutional order had been broken because it had not received the presidential powers, as contemplated in the Ecuadorian Constitution.
In addition, he filed a protection action with which he seeks that the Justice annul the decrees in which Noboa appointed Gellibert as vice president in charge and delegated the Presidency to him. A court admitted the appeal on Friday, but did not accept some precautionary measures that Abad also asked for to suspend those effects immediately.
Controversies like this will be part of the analysis and evaluation of the electoral observation mission (EOM) of the European Union (EU) for the Ecuadorian elections, as anticipated on Wednesday by its leader, Spanish MEP Gabriel Mato.
The confrontation between Noboa and Abad began in the electoral campaign for the second round of elections for the extraordinary elections of 2023, and was reflected when he assumed the charges, when in one of his first decisions, the president sent the vice president to Israel as ambassador, with the mission of seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Abad has denounced Noboa for alleged political gender violence and has accused her of leading a harassment against her to force her to resign and thus avoid having to delegate the Presidency to her during the electoral campaign period, which runs from January 5 to February 6.
The titular vice president has also accused the Government of being behind the corruption investigation in the offices of the Vice Presidency that involves her son in a case where the Prosecutor’s Office also sought to indict Abad, but the National Assembly (Parliament) voted mostly against lifting the jurisdiction, although the ruling party voted in favor.
The general elections in Ecuador are called for Sunday, February 9 and, according to the polls published so far, Noboa and the candidate of the correismo Luisa González appear as prominent favorites to move on to the second round.
International
Musk’s Starship was lost after a smooth takeoff
The second stage of the Starship spacecraft, the largest and most powerful rocket in the world, was lost this Thursday after a smooth takeoff from the SpaceX base in Boca Chica, in southern Texas (USA), on the border with Mexico.
Before confirming the news, the company of technology tycoon Elon Musk pointed out during the live broadcast that it had lost contact with the rocket, which was supposed to dwell in the Indian Ocean.
However, the takeoff itself had no problems, and even the first stage, the Super Heavy, managed to return to land, to the base, and be caught by the clamps in a spectacular way, for the second time.
“The Starship spacecraft suffered a rapid and unforeseen dismantling during its ascent. The teams will continue to review the data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause,” SpaceX said on the social network X.
He added that in a test like this, “success depends on what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve the reliability of the Starship spacecraft.”
The rocket had been improved for this seventh test flight and the part that was lost was carrying cargo into space for the first time, in this case a dozen replicas of Starlink internet satellites.
The lost spacecraft was to fly in a suborbital trajectory for about an hour, after which it planned to land in the Indian Ocean, as in the last tests.
In these initial test flights, the idea is not to reach orbit but to go around the planet and descend by the tail ahead and propelled by rockets in the Indian Ocean.
The SpaceX company signed up for a new success on Thursday with the launch of the seventh test flight of the Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket in the world, which this time was improved, took cargo into space for the first time and also managed to catch the propeller on the ground for the second time on its return to the base in Texas.
The rocket had taken off today at 16:37 local time (22:37 GMT) powered by the Super Heavy as planned after several delays due to unfavorable weather conditions.
SpaceX proposed in this new Starship test to launch a ship with significant improvements, and attempt the first payload deployment test, the Starlink.
He also wanted to fly multiple reentry experiments aimed at capturing and reusing ships, and launching and returning the Super Heavy thruster to the base in Texas, as he succeeded.
As in the most recent test flights, the first stage propelled the upper one out of the dense lower atmosphere before returning in a controlled manner.
Remains of the Starship ship, the largest and most powerful rocket in the world, passed through the north of the Dominican Republic, according to electronic news pages from the United States and according to images spread on social networks.
International
Mark Carney announces his candidacy to replace Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada
Former Bank of Canada governor (2008-2013) Mark Carney announced on Thursday that he will present his candidacy to lead the Liberal Party and become the country’s prime minister.
Carney, 59, who was also governor of the Bank of England (2013-2020), is the first of the main candidates to publicly communicate his desire to replace Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in December.
In a speech in the city of Edmonton, in the west of the country, he acknowledged that “the system is not working as it should” and that many people do not find affordable housing or a family doctor.
With a centrist and nationalist language, Carney declared that “these are normal times for us” and warned that “in just four days Donald Trump will become the 47th president (of the United States), a man who threatens his closest and most faithful allies, including Canada, with economic strength.”
In this sense, he explained that he wants to be the leader of the Liberal Party and Canadian Prime Minister because Canada faces “unprecedented challenges.”
Carney also referred to the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, whom polls point so far as the winner of the next general elections, and criticized that he is worried “looking for the support of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.”
“Sending Poilievre to negotiate with Trump is the worst possible idea,” he added.
The former governor of the Bank of Canada recalled the seven years he spent at the head of the Bank of England: “In the United Kingdom I saw from the front row what happened there after years in which the conservatives shouted that the country was broken.”
“Conservatives don’t shout that Canada is broken because they want to fix it, what they want is permission to destroy it,” he said.
Carney concluded by pointing out that he will win the next elections to “build a strong economy for all and to defend Canada against Trump.”
The Liberal Party will reveal on March 9 the name of Trudeau’s substitute, who on December 16 announced that he will resign when the political formation chooses his substitute.
Chrystia Freeland, until December vice prime minister of the country, is expected to announce her candidacy next week, which will make her Carney’s main rival.
The opposition parties, which have a majority in Parliament, have already announced that as soon as the sessions of Parliament resume on March 24, they will present a motion of censure to hold early elections.
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
Musk’s Starship was lost after a smooth takeoff
Mark Carney announces his candidacy to replace Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
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