DR1 Daily News - Monday, 27 March 2017

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President Danilo Medina visits Los Dajaos on Sunday
Cracking down on illegal charcoal
Indotel announces new conflict resolution ruling
Soon fresh fish at Merca Santo Domingo
Santiago anti-impunity march bigger than that of Santo Domingo
Haitian president tours Codevi in Ouanaminthe
Haiti votes to pass Convention to Reduce Statelessness
Camacho twins prepare to return to DR
One dead in student council election at UASD
US citizen accused of sexual exploitation in Puerto Plata
Rita Indiana is back for 1 April performance



President Danilo Medina visits Los Dajaos on Sunday
As part of his Sunday “surprise visits” program, President Danilo Medina was in Los Dajaos near Jarabacoa in La Vega province on Sunday, 26 March 2017. There he offered low cost financing to 57-members of a strawberry-planting cooperative and the donation of a delivery truck to transport their produce. 

President Medina met with members of the Association of Farmers of Los Dajaos (Asada). The strawberries are produced in nurseries. The Specialized Fund for Farm Development (FEDA) would channel the government loans.   
The visit to La Vega coincided with the large protest that would be simultaneously taking place in Santiago against corruption and impunity in government. 

https://presidencia.gob.do/noticias...sueno-de-mejorar-produccion-y-calidad-de-vida


Cracking down on illegal charcoal
The Ministry of Environment announced the seizing of thousands of bags of illegally-produced charcoal. The confiscations were in coordination with the Environmental Specialized Procurement Service and the National Environmental Protection Service, both units of the Ministry of Environment, and took place simultaneously at storage points in several provinces, following several months of intelligence work. 

Minister of Environment Francisco Domínguez Brito insisted that those involved in illegal production and sale of charcoal should be vigorously prosecuted. He said the government needs to deal with charcoal traffickers as it does with traffickers in cocaine to stop the charcoal traffic networks from functioning in the country.  

The Ministry of Environment said that in one business alone, in Mercado Nuevo (Av. Duarte) in the National District, 2,000 sacks of charcoal were seized. In Jimaní, 224 sacks were confiscated by the authorities, while another 115 sacks were impounded in Pedernales.

http://ambiente.gob.do/medio-ambien...on-en-operativos-realizados-a-nivel-nacional/


Indotel announces new conflict resolution ruling
The Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) announced changes in the ruling that deals with the resolution of disputes between users and telecom companies. The new ruling outlines the norms and procedures customers and telecom companies should follow to deal with disagreement in products or services.  

The ruling clarifies regulatory issues, such as billing procedures, the structure of service contracts and the installation, activation and cancellation of telecom services. The ruling also spells out the regulations concerning service transfer, suspension and cancellation. In addition, guidelines have been issued for reclamation of service failures, problems of quality in the services and the delivery of invoices to electronic addresses (if the user authorizes the procedure).

http://www.7dias.com.do/portada/201...solucion-controversias-usuarios-empresas.html


Soon fresh fish at Merca Santo Domingo
The Dominican Fishing and Aquiculture Council (Codopesca) announced ongoing talks for the opening of a warehouse at Merca Santo Domingo, off Duarte Highway, where fishermen can store their fish and seafood products for later sale to buyers. 

Milton Ginebra, Codopesca director, said meetings are taking place to reach an agreement with the government wholesale market facility. He said that the fishers are very interested in using the facility because of the increase of supply of fish and seafood as a result of the government support given to 23 fishermen cooperative projects during the surprise visits by President Danilo Medina. He says the cooperatives have been equipped with delivery trucks. 

http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2017/03/26/459458/abriran- centro-de-acopio-para-pescadores-en-el-merca-santo-domingo


Santiago anti-impunity march bigger than that of Santo Domingo
Santiago went green all over on Sunday, 26 March 2017. Reports on the Sunday march against corruption and impunity in government held in Santiago are that it could have even been larger than the also spontaneous demonstrations on 22 January in Santo Domingo. The organizers said that the growing popularity of the protests is a spontaneous expression of support to eliminating impunity and corruption in government.    
 
The Green March Santiago Committee for the End to Impunity is calling for the authorities to carry out an independent investigation into the Odebrecht construction contracts. 

Nevertheless, in an interview for Diario Libre, speaking for the government, legal advisor to the President Flavio Darío Espinal said that Dominican legislation does not contemplate that the government request independent prosecutors from the United Nations. He said the Dominican Criminal Procedures Code does authorize that when a case is declared as complex, the Attorney General can be assisted by lawyers that are not part of the Public Ministry in the role of “co-accusers.”

The peaceful protest began at 10am at Av. Circunvalacion with Hermanas Mirabal and wound its way along Avenida Guzmán Fernández, Calle del Sol, Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration, ending at the intersection of Francia and Las Carreras avenues. 

The group is demanding that an audit of the payments, contributions made by Odebrecht and its local partners to the electoral campaigns of President Danilo Medina in 2012 and 2016 be presented and the installation of a commission that can act with full independence to investigate of Odebrecht contract work in the Dominican Republic. 

In the Cibao Manifest, read by Altagracia Kubinyi, in the name of the movement, she spoke of concern for prevailing of impunity and lack of controls and accountability for public spending and concentration of powers of government in a single political party. The Manifest expressed concern on the complicity of government and part of the political class in scandals of corruption, overvaluation and bribes as in the cases of Odebrecht, Embraer (Super Tucanos), Sunland, OISOE, Punta Catalina coal-fired power plant, and others. 

One DR1 reader who participated in the Santiago march observed: 
“I was a participant in the march in Santiago today against corruption and impunity because of the Odebrecht scandal.....in my estimation it was another successful march.....large crowds like in Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and other places....many people are sick and tired of these politicians who have no ethics...the country is waking up.”

In an editorial today, Diario Libre writes about the widespread support by the middle class to the protest: “The passivity of the authorities to crime and corruption in this and past administrations is unsustainable, where increases in taxes and bureaucracy affect only one part of society.”

http://www.elcaribe.com.do/2017/03/26/marcha-verde-contra-impunidad-convoca-miles-santiago
http://www.listindiario.com/la-repu...-la-corrupcion-e-impunidad-en-la-marcha-verde
http://eldia.com.do/organizadores-ven-marcha-verde-en-santiago-mayor-que-la-del-22-de-enero-capital/
http://eldia.com.do/cibao-se-viste-de-verde-contra-la-impunidad-y-la-corrupcion/
http://elnacional.com.do/video-miles-exigen-fin-de-la-impunidad-en-marcha-de-santiago/
http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.ph...3-5-Billion-in-Global-P?p=1773941#post1773941
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/...-no-estan-contemplados-en-las-leyes-YE6666274
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/editorial/santiago-se-viste-de-verde-MF6667934


Haitian president tours Codevi in Ouanaminthe
President of Haiti Jovenel Moïse visited the installations of the border free zone company Codevi of Grupo M in the Dominican Republic to personally get to know job creation opportunities under the bi-national initiative promoted by the Quisqueya Binational Economic Council. He met with Fernando Capellán of Grupo M and businessman Juan Vicini. The group stresses that job creation in Haiti is the best way to reduce Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic and therefore the program is a win-win for both countries. As reported in Diario Libre, Moïse demonstrated his satisfaction on the impact Codevi has had in the Haitian population in Ouanaminthe and said his government would back the public-private initiative. 

Also participating in the meeting were Ouanaminthe mayor Luma Demetrus, senator Wanique Pierre, Dajabón senator Sonia Mateo, Dajabón governor Ramona Rodriguez, and Anibal Capellán, Cristian Capellán and Victor Thomas of the Codevi management. 

http://www.diariolibre.com/economia...sa-en-proyecto-binacional-quisqueya-DC6664261


Haiti votes to pass Convention to Reduce Statelessness
As reported, the Parliament in Haiti has voted in favor of the Convention to Reduce Statelessness 1961. As reported, the ruling could exempt the government of Haiti from responsibility in granting Haitian nationality to its citizens born abroad. 

The international conventions have the goal of reducing the stateless status that many Haitians endure, primarily due to deficiencies within the Haitian government in providing identity documentation. Most people in Haiti do not have legal identity. 

The convention indicates that if the children cannot obtain the nationality of their parents they may acquire the nationality of the country where they are born.

Thousands of Haitians have sought to regularize their status in the Dominican Republic under the National Foreigner Legalization Plan (PNRE) but have not been able to complete the process because the government of Haiti has delayed issuing Haitian identity documents. 

http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/statelessness.pdf
http://www.7dias.com.do/portada/201...-leyes-para-acabar-con-estatuto-apatrida.html


Camacho twins prepare to return to DR
The Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Westchester announced that the Camacho Twins have celebrated their first birthday and are preparing to return their home in the Dominican Republic. The twins Ballenie and Bellanie Camacho were born conjoined and were successfully separated after a 21-hour surgery at the hospital in January 2017. 

“The multidisciplinary team that cared for Ballenie and Bellanie for months at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital remains optimistic about their continued recovery and the opportunities they now have in front of them,” said Samir Pandya, MD, a pediatric surgeon at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital who, along with Whitney McBride, MD, led the surgical teams.

“The progress Ballenie and Bellanie have made since the separation procedure has been nothing short of remarkable,” said McBride. “More post-surgery care along with further rehabilitation lie ahead for the girls, but they are expected to walk and enjoy full lives, a prospect that wasn’t so promising prior to their stay with us at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital.”

The twins were connected at the sacrum, a triangular bone at the base of the spine. They had gastrointestinal, urinary, neurologic and orthopedic connections as well as a shared branch of the hypogastric artery, which is the main supplier of blood to the pelvic region, hips, thighs and reproductive organs.

Before returning to the Dominican Republic with their parents and reuniting with their sisters Linabel, 2, and Sheily, 10, Ballenie’s and Bellanie’s recovery will continue locally with physical therapy and other services provided in an outpatient capacity, yet another sign of their good health after such a complex procedure.

http://www.westchestermedicalcenter.com/body.cfm?id=1234&action=detail&ref=647


One dead in student council election at UASD
Daniel Castillo died as a result of a gunshot wound he received when the tumultuous student elections at the state university UASD turned violent at noon on Friday, 24 March 2017. Two students, Mauricio Carpio and Bryan Vasquez were injured but released from hospitalization over the weekend. 

The violence caused a suspension of the election. Classes at the university were suspended, but were resumed on Saturday, when few students or teachers showed up, as reported in Listin Diario.  Classes are expected to resume with normalcy on Monday. 

Castillo was killed during the elections of the Federation of Dominican Students taking place at the Medical School of the UASD. He had been employed for five years as inspector of public spaces at the Santo Domingo East municipality and was working on the distribution of food for the group that participated in the FED elections. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said his friend, Esteban Valdivia, president of the PRD in Santo Domingo East. He explained when he and others arrived to the Medicine Faculty of the UASD to deliver the food they encountered a chaotic scene. 

The elections were being held to replace Ambiorix Rosario, president of the FED. The elections should take place every two years, but Rosario had maneuvered to remain in the post. 

Rosario is known as a professional student. Records show that Rosario has been enrolled in the medical school at the university since early 1990s. In 2000, a report in Rumbo Magazine revealed he had been suspended from the university for having a low grade average of 59.7 and had only passed 15 subjects in 10 years in the university. His registration at the UASD dates back to 1991. 

http://www.listindiario.com/la-repu...-incidente-que-dejo-un-muerto-poca-asistencia


US citizen accused of sexual exploitation in Puerto Plata
The National Police announced the arrest of a US citizen accused of sexual exploitation of 13 and 14 year old teenagers in Puerto Plata. The Police accuse 50-year old Theodore William Symonds of violating Law 137-03 on trafficking in migrants and people and Law 136-03 for the Protection of Rights of Children and Teenagers. The Police say that Symonds is a fugitive from US justice where he faces accusations of terrorism and theft. 

He was arrested in a condominium in Sosua in the company of a 13-year old girl. 

The Police said that one of his alleged victims was pregnant and an abortion was carried out in exchange for the repair of the child mother’s home to avoid being reported to authorities. 

A Puerto Plata court ordered three months preventive custody for Symonds. 

Prosecutors accuse Symonds of making pornographic videos of minors that he then sold. 

Puerto Plata Prosecutor, Osvaldo Bonilla, urged that the population report the cases of sexual exploitation of minors at the Unit of Comprehensive Care to Victims of Gender, Intrafamily Violence, and Sexual Crimes under judge Luisa Marmolejos in Puerto Plata. This is the fourth case presented of this kind at the Puerto Plata jurisdiction so far this year. 

http://www.elcaribe.com.do/2017/03/26/apresa-terrorista-eeuu-acusado-prostituir-ninas-puerto-plata
http://elnacional.com.do/dictan-tre...stadounidense-por-violacion-de-menores-en-pp/


Rita Indiana is back for 1 April performance
Sans Souci’s Faro de Punta Torrecilla will be the stage of Isle of Light, with the eclectic music of Rita Indiana, Crystal Castles, Real Estate, Hunters of the Alps, PJ Sin Suela, Original Juan, Millionyoung (DJ) and others on the evening of 1 April 2017. 

Admission to the event can be booked online at Uepa Tickets 

For information on upcoming events:
http://www.dr1.com/calendar