Two specialty coffee crops from Risaralda made international news the week that just ended. The information platform Infobae, based in Argentina, highlighted the well-deserved fame that the “Tomeguín y Colibrí Specialty Coffee Roaster” business set up by the Muñoz family in the municipality of Chinchón (Spain) has achieved for the high-quality coffee it offers to your customers and product traceability. The business, which opened during Easter 2022, is a specialized roasting center in charge of the entire production chain of original coffee and fine aroma cocoa, forged with tradition from generation to generation, in the heart of the coffee landscape. Colombian. In charge of him in Spain are the sisters Natalia and Alejandra Muñoz, while his father Luis Fernando Muñoz sends them the coffee from the Alto de Plumas farm in Santuario (Risaralda) where he has 120 hectares of coffee on a hillside.
Export coffee (2)
The second episode featured coffee grown and produced by the Flor de Apía company, located in the municipality that bears its name. The audiovisual space “Madrid, improve your life” dedicated a special chapter to talking about the benefits of coffee and disproving some myths about this drink, which was carried out in the Café Raizal store located in Sebastián de los Reyes in Spain. The journalist was attended to at the scene by Alexander Grajales who told his audience that the coffee sold there is grown, pulped, washed and selected in Apía (Risaralda) by the Flor de Apía company. In turn, roasting and packaging is done at Café Raizal. Very good international press for two coffee-growing municipalities in our department.
The Ukraine case
Catalina Gómez Angel, a journalist from Pereira who specializes in covering war conflicts, was invited by the Gabo Foundation to direct the in-person workshop: “Unraveling the complexity: journalism in the face of coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine”, which will be held in Bogotá del July 1st to July 4th, sponsored by Open Society Foundations. Interested people can register until April 22 at the Gabo Foundation, but only 18 places will be granted. Catalina Gómez has extensive experience in this field and has received countless recognitions for her work, including the Simón Bolívar Award in 2017 for her coverage of the battle of Mosul, Iraq. In addition, she survived the Russian attack on the RIA Pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk (Ukraine) along with Héctor Abad Faciolince and Sergio Jaramillo. In that event, which occurred in June 2023, 13 people died, including the writer Victoria Amelina.
UTP in the towns
The rector e) of the Technological University of Pereira, Francisco Uribe Gómez, delivered excellent news this week for the young high school graduates of the municipalities. The UTP will open its own offices in seven of the 14 towns in Risaralda starting this year so that graduates can advance their careers in their own environment. Initially it will be in Guatica, Apía, Pueblo Rico, Santuario, La Virginia, Quinchía and Marsella with the program of the Ministry of National Education “University in its territory”. Initially, seven academic programs will be offered, including agricultural, electrical, mechanical, and pharmacy regency technologies. The UTP is advancing agreements with the schools in those municipalities to enable their corresponding classrooms there.
on a walk
The former presidents of the Pereira Council, Carlos Hernán Muñoz of Cambio Radical and Camilo Montoya of the liberal party, decided to go on a tour of Europe taking advantage of the recess period of that corporation. Muñoz and Montoya toured several countries on the old continent and took advantage of their stay to attend the match between the Colombian and Romanian national teams at the Cívitas Metropolitano stadium in Madrid. It is necessary to clarify that these vacations are at the expense and risk of the budget of both councilors, no official travel expenses.
The pre-candidates
The bouquet of possible candidates for the House of Representatives for Risaralda in each of next year’s parliamentary elections is increasingly broader. In this group of pre-candidates, names appear such as Juan Carlos Rivera, Diego Ramos, Diego Naranjo, Jaime Duque, Freddy Arias, Carlos Mario Trejos, one of the two sons of former governor Víctor Manuel Tamayo, Daniel Silva, Carolina Bustamante, Óscar Mauricio Toro and Tatiana López Saldarriaga. We should also add the current representatives Aníbal Hoyos, Carolina Giraldo and Alejandro García. For his part, Diego Patiño will not run for the Chamber again.
Cross Management
Former councilor Oscar Cruz, who obtained around 6,000 votes for mayor of Pereira in the last elections, was visiting the region and assured a regional TV news program that he is the true link between the administration of President Gustavo Petro and the communities. in Risaralda. This allows him, Cruz said, to promote and manage housing projects, attention to community leaders and initiatives for organized social groups that fill the agenda of petitions before the National Government of President Gustavo Petro.
Hundred days
The recently inaugurated rulers are preparing to present a first accountability report to the respective communities. The first to do so will be the governor of Risaralda, Juan Diego Patiño Ochoa, who will deliver a balance of the progress and achievements made in the first 100 days of his mandate next Monday, April 8, at 8:30 in the morning, in the Government square. His report is titled: “Risaralda, this is how we go.” In his turn, the mayor of Pereira, Mauricio Salazar Peláez, will do so on Saturday, April 13 at 10:00 in the morning at the Coliseo Menor.
The eye of the Prosecutor’s Office
Many local news media were unaware that the Attorney General’s Office had for some time been targeting the questioned Avenida de los Colibrís road project promoted by former mayor Carlos Maya. As is known, the work was left unfinished and with cost overruns of almost 50%, the technical specifications were not met, property management was left half-finished and even payments to the workers were not met. The case was opened by the Prosecutor’s Office in January of this year and progress is being made in collecting all the technical elements related to contract 4812 of 2021. We will continue to report.
SOS without service
Through a brief statement, Comfamiliar Risaralda announced last Friday that the institution has ceased to be part of the EPS SOS (Western Health Service) network. Consequently, members of this EPS will no longer be able to access the Comfamiliar clinic. hospitalization services, specialized outpatient consultation and specialized examinations. The irony of this story is that if a public hospital takes the same measure due to non-payment by an EPS, the Health Superintendency immediately falls upon it and forces it to continue paying that attention, even if there is no certainty about who is going to be responsible for the payments: either everyone in bed or everyone on the floor.
Hospital managers
Since last April 1, the list of managers of the hospitals of the municipalities in Risaralda was formed. In San Vicente de Paúl de Apía, Johana Paola Posada was ratified. Juan Carlos Marín came to the management of the Santa Mónica de Dosquebradas hospital; to Santa Rosa de Cabal, John Freddy Montoya; to Belén of Umbría, Miguel Fernando Gallego; to Guatica, Luz Marina Ossa; to Pueblo Rico, Alexandra Castillejo Orozco; to La Celia, Alejandro Monsalve Henao; to Quinchía, Carlos Andrés Posada Buitrago; to Mistrató, Olga Patricia Puerta; to ESE Salud Pereira, Diana Milena Castañeda; to Santuario, Beatriz Echeverri and to Balboa, Jorge Hernán Vélez. The managers of the La Virginia and Marsella hospitals remain to be named.
hurricane eye
The former senator of the Democratic Center and coffee leader, Alejandro Corrales Escobar, has been in the eye of the hurricane these days due to a series of contracts he has received from the municipal administration of Pereira. The situation was highlighted by Julio Sánchez Cristo’s W Radio newscast, given that although Corrales is an agronomist, he received a contract for “Provision of professional support services and administrative and technical advice to the Matecaña International Airport related to issues that affect the airport community.” and its area of influence.” But, among all of these, it turned out that it was not the only contract that Alejandro Corrales has in force with the local government, given that there is another with the company Aguas y Aguas de Pereira for the provision of advisory services on environmental issues in strategic projects.
Ingenio or colombianada?
It occurred to this driver to adapt the cap of his private vehicle to transport cargo, as evidenced by this graph. On that platform, for example, he managed to move 16 tires around the city without any problems. And with the advantage that the places for passenger transportation were free. What ingenuity.