The coming week will be marked by great activity – least expected – in the offices of 5,667 power holders elected in the elections last February 5: next Sunday 23 prefects and deputy prefects, 221 municipal heads, 864 city councilors. , 443 village councilors, 4,109 members of parish councils and 7 members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (SPPCS).

In the case of Cuenca, expectations are focused on what will happen with the main campaign offer of the new mayor, Christian Zamora – elected with 18.56% of the vote, the lowest recorded among the candidates for this position -: the unilateral termination of the contract to install speed cameras on the streets and Cuence avenues.

Former public officials and former leaders of the movement, among the associates of the newly elected mayor of Cuenca

It could be said that the subject of “speed cameras” is the real legacy of Pedro Palacios Ullauri’s passage through the Office of the Mayor of Athens, Ecuador: this is what is being talked about in the media and in the media; the rest (isolation of roads, lack of significant projects, being the first mayor who was not re-elected) speaks for itself about poor management and the lack of political leadership of whoever leaves office this weekend.

photo radars

Zamora is an industrial engineer with a doctorate in administrative sciences. He made his debut as the private secretary of Marcelo Cabrera Palacios in his first term as mayor (2004-2009). In 2014 and 2019, he was elected as a city councilor, in the second term in the Participa-Juntos Podemos alliance, of the current governor, Paul Carrasco Carpio.

In his best Korean style, Zamora appeared on his campaign trail tearing up photocopies of contracts he called “trucho.”

His job—the one that most exposed him—was denouncing and inspecting; one of them—the one that practically led him to the Mayor’s Office—was about the cameras that Palacios had awarded to a private consortium. What are you accusing the contract of? Overvaluation, non-compliance with project tasks, awarding 40% of the collection of fines for twelve years to the private consortium that built them – with a previous return of the total investment -, ideological untruth…

The Crusades on the Austrian highway

In his best Korean style, Zamora appeared in his campaign tearing up photocopies of contracts he called “trucho”. With cheers and cheers, he gathered votes and set deadlines: “If I don’t eliminate that contract in the first six months of my administration, I’m resigning as mayor of Cuenza.” And six months have passed.

But it will not be an easy task. The Movil Technology consortium, made up of five companies from Cuenca and Guayaquil, has already installed cameras at 47 points on streets and avenues; Some of them will punish not only speeding, but also disobeying traffic signs, running a red light, making a wrong turn, not wearing a seat belt and using distractions, such as cell phones. A unilateral termination could cost the city an unspecified amount, though an arbitration process will be set up that goes beyond Zamora’s self-imposed six-month deadline for his resignation.

For sure, all of the above will remain as old stories of political and media debates, and suggestions of recent trinkets will fall on deaf ears. It remains only to insist that he does not die. View on demand. (OR)