Ok so i found an issue:
Error 60 on perform =
const kError_SSL_CACERT = 60 problem with the CA cert (path?)
So the CA cert is timing out. Since i don’t have the cacert.pem i am unable to test this.
If i uncomment (like so):
// This works:
'theCurl.OptionSSLVerifyPeer = 1 // proofs certificate is authentic
everything works normally, and i get downloads.