Azores Situation Report Wednesday 28th February 2024

Portuguese courses for foreigners with open applications

The Regional Directorate for Communities has the application period for the organization of Portuguese Courses for Speakers of Other Languages ​​running until March 31st, the Government of the Azores announced recently.

The courses are an initiative promoted by the Azorean executive through the regional directorates of Communities and Education, which aim to contribute to the full integration of foreign citizens residing in the archipelago, through their personal and professional development.

Public educational establishments and entities of a public, private or cooperative nature are eligible to be training entities, namely local authorities, companies or business associations, unions and associations at a local, regional or national level.

Passenger arrested on Terceira with drugs in his system.

A passenger on a transatlantic flight was admitted to Hospital da Terceira due to alleged intoxication and later detained by the Judiciary Police (PJ), after drugs were detected inside his body.

In a statement, the PJ explained that the 36-year-old man was traveling on Wednesday on a flight from Europe to the Caribbean when the plane was forced to land at Lajes airport, on the island of Terceira, “due to disturbances caused by the suspect.”

“After it landed, the man developed symptoms of acute intoxication, which led to his admission to the Hospital de Santo Espírito on the island of Terceira, where it was discovered that the symptoms resulted from the existence of drug packaging inside his body. , namely resin and cannabis leaves”, indicated the PJ.

After being discharged from hospital, the man was detained and will undergo the first judicial interrogation to apply coercive measures, according to the PJ.

Camellias from the Azores return to beautify the Furnas valley this weekend.

Hundreds of camellias produced in the Furnas valley, in the Azores, including a unique species in the world, will be on display over the weekend, in an exhibition that marks two decades this year.

The camellia exhibition, which will take place at the Pavilhão Multiusos das Furnas, organized by the Povoação Municipal Council, in collaboration with the Terra Nostra Garden Hotel and the Furnas Parish Council, has as one of the main promoters Fernando Costa, head of the Botanical Park Terra Nostra, and its team.

Fernando Costa said that there are currently around 800 varieties of camellias in the Terra Nostra Botanical Park, some of which multiply through cuttings, while others are grafted.

Terra Nostra Park contains one of the largest collections of camellias in the world, having been distinguished in 2014 with the “Camellia Garden of Excellence” award by the International Camellia Society.

The camellia collection was introduced by Fernando Costa in 1994, bringing together more than 45 species of 800 different varieties and cultivars.

According to Fernando Costa, “there is a camellia in the park that is unique in the world”, which he named Patrícia Bensaúde, after “having been recognized by the competent international bodies”.

The 20th edition of the camellia exhibition features more than two hundred varieties that “will be on display in this space, which is larger and has greater capacity to accommodate more artisans and local producers, with the best that is made in the municipality of Povoação for tasting and sale”.

According to the Povoação Municipal Council, the Furnas camellia exhibition is “an unavoidable icon of the tourist offers on the island of São Miguel in the low season and, with each passing edition, a winning bet is consolidated, fulfilling the function of its creation.”

In addition to gardens and parks, camellias are also cultivated by individuals in their gardens, existing in various colours, not only in the Azores, but also in the north of the country.

 

Azores Situation Report Wednesday 14th February 2024

Azorean government monitors the situation of parishes affected by bad weather in Ponta Delgada

The Regional Government of the Azores is monitoring the situation in the parishes of Ponta Delgada affected by the bad weather and defining “the beginning of several interventions”, with priority for Arrifes and Capelas

The Azorean executive has been monitoring the situation in the various parishes in the municipality of Ponta Delgada affected, this winter, by bad weather, working closely with local authorities.  The parishes of Arrifes, Feteiras, Candelária, Ginetes, Mosteiros, Sete Cidades, Pilar da Bretanha, Ajuda da Bretanha, Remédios, Santa Bárbara, Santo António and Capelas were affected by the weather.

The Government of the Azores is defining the beginning of several interventions, with priority for the parishes of Arrifes and Capelas, for the next few days.

The remaining parishes in the municipality of Ponta Delgada affected by the bad weather are in the recovery phase and are requiring small interventions to restore cleanliness and safety conditions.

Elements from the regional directorates of Public Works, Forestry Resources, Territorial Planning and Water Resources, the Agrarian Development Service of São Miguel, the Regional Institute of Planning of the Azores and the Municipal Civil Protection Service have been on the ground, “in a joint work with Ponta Delgada City Council.

Police hold new protest with vigil at Ponta Delgada airport.

Agents from the Public Security Police (PSP) and the National Republican Guard (GNR), to be joined by prison guards, will return to the protests in São Miguel, this time through a vigil to take place in the middle of the month, at the Airport John Paul II, which should be a few hundred elements.

The choice of the airport follows the option followed at national level by the platform of PSP unions and GNR associations, having been made strategically to reinforce the “media coverage” around the fight for a supplement identical to that attributed to the Judiciary Police (PJ).

The vigil could bring hundreds of unhappy people to Ponta Delgada airport, like what happened with the day of struggle that took place at the end of January, therefore admitting “constraints” in terms of traffic and parking, in addition to passenger movement being affected.

 

Azores Situation Report Wednesday 7th February 2024

Reduction in Ryanair flights impacted the business of tourist companies.

CCIPD survey of businesspeople reveals that 46% declare that turnover in January 2024 was lower than the same period last year.

The reduction in the number of seats for Ryanair impacted the sales volume of Oriental Group companies, with business people revealing a reduction in business of around 46% in January 2024, when compared to the same period last year.

This is one of the conclusions of the survey on tourism in the low season, carried out by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ponta Delgada (CCIPD) between the 22nd and 29th of January, to companies on the islands of São Miguel and Santa Maria.

The CCIPD intended to “identify the current situation of companies and future perspectives according to activity indicators”, having received responses mainly from companies linked to tourism (local accommodation, hotels and restaurants) from four municipalities on the islands: Ponta Delgada, Vila do Porto, Ribeira Grande and Nordeste.

And of the responses received, 68% of companies point to the reduction in the number of seats offered by Ryanair (88 thousand fewer seats, round trip, between Ponta Delgada and Porto and Lisbon) as a factor impacting the volume of sales, which worsened in recent months.

 

Reserve contingent prepared for Cup game.

The PSP Regional Command and the GNR Azores Territorial Command are preparing reserve contingents for the Portuguese Cup game between Santa Clara and FC Porto, scheduled for tomorrow, February 7th, on the island of São Miguel, at 3pm.

Meetings at the regional command centres of the two security forces have intensified in recent days, due to what happened at national level over the weekend, when three meetings were postponed due to lack of policing, namely the 1st League game between Famalicão and Sporting, and the 2nd League games between Feirense and Académico de Viseu and between Leixões and Nacional.

The issue is ensuring that the Portuguese Cup quarter-final match takes place with the necessary presence of security forces at the São Miguel Stadium.

 

Three arrested for qualified homicide on Terceira Island

The Judiciary Police detained two women, aged 43 and 46, and a man, aged 25, due to strong evidence of the crime of qualified homicide, in the city of Praia da Vitória, Terceira Island, as part of a police operation, in which 14 searches were carried out on January 24th and 25th.

According to a statement from the Judiciary Police, the investigation, conducted by the Azores Criminal Investigation Department, “began on December 20, 2023, when the victim, aged 77, was found dead inside his residence”.

The evidence collected indicates that the two women “were co-authors of the crime, with the complicity of the first woman’s husband and that the younger woman, who maintained a loving relationship with the victim, planned, together with the 46-year-old woman, the appropriation of large sums of money. amounts of money and other goods, which the deceased kept at his residence”, says the Judicial Police.

To do this, “they went to the victim’s home, when there, they inflicted injuries on the man’s cranial region, using a blunt object”.

Present at the first judicial interrogation, the two women were placed in pre-trial detention. As for the 25-year-old man, the measure of coercion of identity and residence was applied to him.

 

Azores Situation Report Wednesday 31st January 2024

35 incidents recorded on four islands in the Azores. 

Bad weather in the Azores caused 35 incidents on four islands on Monday, the majority in the municipality of Ponta Delgada, in São Miguel, Civil Protection said, detailing that the situations included flooding in homes, roads and landslides.

According to a statement from the Azores Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service (SRPCBA), 25 of the incidents were in São Miguel, all in the municipality of Ponta Delgada.

The rest were in Faial (five), Graciosa (four) and Terceira (one).

“The reported situations were related to flooding in homes, flooding on roads and road obstructions”, further detailed the SRPCBA.

Firefighters, the Regional Directorate of Public Works, Forestry Services, Municipal Civil Protection Services, parish councils and the Public Security Police were on the ground.

150 tons of seaweed collected on two beaches in Ponta Delgada 

The municipality of Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, collected 150 tons of algae on the beaches of Milícias and Pópulo, with the aim of “mitigating the concentration” of the species on the municipality’s beaches.

according to the municipality on the Island of São Miguel, the operation took place between January 17th and 23rd, with the support of a tractor, a trailer and a backhoe.

“Despite not posing a danger to human health or affecting water quality, this invasive species, which is abundant between the American coast and the African coast, reproduces easily, especially in deep, rocky and water-rich underwater areas. nutrients”, explains the municipality.

We were aiming to “mitigate the concentration of this species on the municipality’s beaches, the municipality immediately proceeded to clean the affected area”, the Ponta Delgada City Council also states in a press release.

The municipality recalls that the accumulation of seaweed in the coastal area “is a natural and cyclical phenomenon, usually derived from sea currents or meteorological conditions favourable to its development and movement”.

Although this phenomenon “occurs in the Atlantic in pelagic masses, in the Azores they occur in reduced size and quantity”.

Azores reduce tourist overnight stays in December to 120.5 thousand 

The Azores recorded around 120,500 overnight stays in tourist accommodation in December 2023, 5.5% less than in the same period last year, according to estimates from the Regional Statistics Service (SREA)