Disagreement regarding the Child Traveler Pass in Cuenca, a few hours after the activity

Cuenca

The completion of the Child Traveler Pass generates criteria opposed to two days of its completion. On the one hand, the Archdiocesan authorities announced a vehicular tour of the historic center for biosafety issues, and on the other, a group of cultural managers ratified that they will take Simón Bolívar Street as it was until before the pandemic, under the argument of keeping the tradition.

The Passage of the Traveler Child is a religious-cultural procession that every December 24 brings together thousands of people from Cuenca, Catholic believers or not, in the same space.

Since it began in 1961, the usual thing is to take Simón Bolívar street in the opposite direction with allegorical cars, people who represent biblical characters, animals and musicians.

The Child Traveler Pass will be carried out with a motorized caravan in Cuenca

This brought together about 100,000 citizens without problems throughout the day.

And although this year the Child Pass was going to be carried out with people and on public roads, the latest provision of the national Emergency Operations Committee (COE) modified everything and had to be changed for a vehicular caravan as it was last year .

Joffre Astudillo, Communications Secretary of the Archdiocese, explained that to maintain order, only 8 official vehicles and 50 previously registered parishioners will participate.

It will start at 10:00 from the Cathedral of the Immaculate and then they will take the following streets: Simón Bolívar, Coronel Tálbot, Mariscal Sucre, Manuel Vega, and they will return to Bolívar until they return to the Cathedral.

People on foot will not be allowed to avoid possible infections of COVID-19 and the omicron variant.

On this occasion, the priest said, only private cars authorized by the curia will be allowed to accompany the official route.

They will be able to park from the night before, but they will join on Sucre and Coronel Tálbot ​​streets, they will only allow access to Luis Cordero and Bolívar because they are “exhaust and evacuation streets.”

One difference with the motorized pass of 2020 is that they will not visit remote neighborhoods, they will only stay in the center, “because that implied accelerating a little, increasing speed and that is not so convenient,” said Astudillo.

Although the Archdiocese organizes the event every year, one of its characteristics is the spontaneous participation of the people without the need to be registered previously, they are only moved by faith.

In this context, Martín Sánchez, president of the Casa de la Cultura nucleus of Azuay, called for people to go out on foot to the streets and help preserve this event that was classified as Intangible Heritage of the Nation.

It does not speak of a contempt but of an “appropriation of public space and a call to the conscience of the authorities about those decisions that are taken in Quito without considering the patrimonial space.”

In Cuenca they analyze alternatives to carry out the Child Traveler Pass

In this sense, he added that their participation will be organized, with self-care and supported by the high percentage of vaccination in the city (70%, according to official figures from the Ministry of Health), all without generating crowds.

For his part, Pablo Coronel, representative of the cultural managers in the organization of the Child Traveler Pass, confirmed that their concentration will be from 09:30 in the Corazón de Jesús sector and from there they will go down Calle Bolívar in the opposite direction until they reach the Calderón park. They hope to finish after an hour and a half.

Finally, the Mayor of Azuay Police, Andrés Vicuña, said that the only authorized religious event was the Pase del Niño in the Gualaceo canton, no other. (I)