The deadline to repair the section of km 49 of the Cuenca-Molleturo road runs, but machinery does not start work due to resistance from community members

Basin

There is a tense relationship between the authorities of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP) and a group of inhabitants of the rural parish of Molleturo due to the repair of kilometer 49 of the Cuenca-Molleturo-El Empalme highway.

Since last March 2, the road has been closed because the works were going to start, but some inhabitants ask that, before intervening on the road, the offer to build a variant in the lower part of the sector be fulfilled so as not to be isolated.

The Ministry responded that the opposition is from a “tiny sector of the population” that does not want to use an alternate route, San Pedro de Yumate-Río Blanco, considering it too extensive.

Getting to kilometer 49 of the aforementioned route is not complex: it starts from the Y de Sayausí and crosses the Cajas National Park. Driving at an average speed of 80 kilometers per hour, it takes about 40 minutes.

At the foot of the road under repair there is a group of inhabitants who have set up camp near a slope. There they remain in resistance 24 hours a day. With plastic and some sticks they erected tents divided into several areas: a bedroom, a living room and a kitchen, all rustic and improvised, but it helps them withstand the cold and hunger.

María Asunción Fárez is 82 years old and is “in the fight”, because she says she is sick and needs to go through this sector to receive medical attention from time to time; and that, if this road is closed, all its neighbors will be isolated from it.

As a way of supporting her people, she looks strong and is willing to cook in the big pots burning on the firewood.

Sandoval Gutama, vice president of the Molleturo Parish Board, maintains that he is not opposed to the closure of the road either, and insists that the MTOP must keep its word to build a 2.5-kilometer bypass in the lower part of the sector in conflict.

With this they indicate that they would not remain isolated, because for them the alternative road offered (San Pedro de Yumate-Río Blanco) does not offer security and is too long.

Four kilometers above this place, in Capillapamba, the machinery of the Sudinco company is parked, waiting to be allowed to enter to proceed with the stabilization of the slope. It is guarded by private security guards, but also by a group of soldiers who monitor everything from public roads.

Second Lieutenant Jordy Aguilar explained that in different areas of Molleturo the combat team, made up of 20 volunteers and one officer, carries out weapons, ammunition and explosives controls on the few drivers and pedestrians who circulate there. Until Tuesday, he said, everything has been calm, without news or confrontations with the residents.

From the community of Cochapamba, Mario Cabrera and his son Mauricio went down the main road looking for a car that would take them to Cuenca. While they waited, they told that there is a group of Molleturenses who yearns for the complete repair of kilometer 49.

As a frequent user of the road that crosses Migüir-Río Blanco, he believes that with “good ballast” it does work. He regrets that other residents prevented the MTOP from completely improving it, because with the rains that fall permanently this winter it becomes slippery and dangerous.

Until the parties agree, the term of the contract awarded to the company Sudinco for $7,301,729 (plus another million dollars for inspection), to stabilize and mitigate kilometer 49, is running. The initial proposal was that from March 2 the entire road would be closed for 40 days, but this has not happened.

The undersecretary of the MTOP, Mario Barsallo, notes that, although the machinery is on point, the opposition to this work comes from a small group of Molleturenses, who “hide behind children, older adults, women to avoid violence”, but also indicates that the beginning of this work is imminent.

For now, the Ministry proposes the Cuenca-Zhud-Cochancay as the only alternate route to travel from Azuay to Guayas. But the inhabitants of Molleturo affirm —and this is observed in the sector— that they do allow transit. (I)