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Daily News - 25 January 2000
Haiti and DR to lobby for funding for development projects
A 17-person Dominican government mission traveled to Haiti to discuss joint development projects along the Haiti-DR frontier on 24 and 25 January. The meetings are taking place at El Rancho Hotel in Petionville, Port au Prince. The Dominican delegation met with President Rene Preval for an hour. Projects that are being discussed that already have European Union funding are one for the control and eradication of classic porcine fever, a major transport project calling for the repair of the Masacre River bridge, the highway around Dajabón, the Dajabón-Cap Haitien highway and improvements at Manzanillo port in the DR. The DR mission that is head by Technical Secretary of the Presidency Temístocles Montás and the Haiti mission head by Planning Minister Anthony Dessources also discussed presenting together projects worth US$200 million to the Inter American Development Bank and the World Bank. Among these projects that would have the joint support of the DR and Haitian governments are projects for the installation of electricity to benefit 10,000 homes in the Juana Méndez border area, another to eradicate sicknesses transmitted by mosquitoes, a program for sexual and reproductive health, installation of a frontier telephone system, improvements at the customs house facilities, among others.
Final talks leading to Caribbean-DR free trade agreement
The English-speaking Caribbean (Caricom) and the Dominican Republic are meeting for what is expected to be the last round of negotiations leading to the finalizing of the Caricom-DR free trade agreement. The 13th round is taking place in Santo Domingo (24-25 January 2000).
30 March deadline for La Romana games installations
The Ministry of Public Works gave contractors in charge of building or repairing sports installations in the southeastern city of La Romana a 30 March deadline to complete works pending. These include the construction of an Olympic pool, track and field course, baseball and softball plays, tennis courts, and repairs to major sports installations in La Romana that suffered major damages during Hurricane Georges. In a meeting held on Saturday in La Romana, Minister of Public Works Diandino Peña handed the contractors checks totaling RD$25 million, bringing to RD$109.2 million funds disbursed by the government to contractors. The works had fallen behind schedule due to lack of payment by the government. Originally programmed to take place in February, the National Sports Games are now set to be held 28 April 2000.
PRD senators supported Northwest Aqueduct project
Spokesmen for the Fernández Administration say that senators of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano had conditioned the passing of the World Bank and Inter American Development Bank hurricane loans to the construction of the Northwest Aqueduct, a position that contradicts the present opposition of PRD senators to the project. The PLD government said that the project was an initiative of PRD senators head by Ramón Alburquerque (PRD-Monte Plata) and Darío Gómez (PRD-Santiago Rodríguez) and José González (PRD-Barahona). The Northwest Aqueduct project presented by the Fernández administration has been opposed on grounds that a serious study was not carried out and thus the project as presented to Congress calls for unlimited financing. More so, opponents say that the Brazilian companies that will be building and financing the aqueduct have overvalued it by more than RD$800 million.
President Leonel Fernández has convened the Senate to meet extraordinarily to study the bill. The Senate is in recess until the 27 February legislature.
President of the Senate Ramón Alburquerque, who has not accepted to convene the Senate, told El Siglo newspaper that what there all he only had superficial talks about the project and never agreed to allot the project without a tender being held.
A bloc of PLD senators that support the project says that 16 senators are backing the project and will pass the project without Ramón Alburquerque, if necessary.
PRD presidential candidate Hipólito Mejía opposes the project. He has called for an open tender to choose the contractors of the work.
US$2,000 million in remittances
The Listín Diario reports that a study carried out by the Federation of Dominican-Hispanic Chambers of Commerce shows that Dominicans living in the US sent home more than US$2,028 million last year in remittances. The study estimates that remittances were up 18% when compared to those sent to the DR in 1998. According to the study, the DR received in the first half of the year US$1,407 million and in the second US$621 million. The average remittance is US$215 dollars. The peak months for remittances were May, December, March, and September.
Six European tourists die in airplane crash
Six European tourists who had booked a panoramic tour of Samaná beach area died shortly after noon on Saturday, 23 January when their airplane crashed along Portillo beach. Air Force lieutenant 28-year old Angel Danilo Morel Almonte (who reportedly had more than 1,000 flight hours), also died from trauma in the crash. The passengers were Charles Rodolphe, Marie Anne, Arturs Francois Bernhard and Madeleine Hanisch from France and Germans Marco Leiniger and Sophie Elizabeth Boettcher from Germany. The Cessna was property of Aeronaves Dominicanas.
The Dominican Civil Aviation Board sent a mission to determine the causes of the accident.
The cadavers were sent to the National Institute of Forensic Pathology. They had on board binoculars, cameras with telephoto lenses and several film cartridges.
Hoy newspaper interviewed Air Force Lieutenant José Vicente Suero for an opinion. He speculated that the crash was caused by the excessive confidence of the pilot who descended too low in order to enable the tourists to take better photographs of the lovely scenery. Apparently the airplane stalled, lost a wing when it crashed into a coconut tree and later advanced 50 meters before crashing on Portillo beach. He said the pilot violated air navigation rules descending below the 1,000 feet level.
Hoy newspaper said that Portillo controller Johnny Almanzar discarded bad weather or a mechanical problem.
Adriana Martínez died, justice still sitting on son's murder case
Adriana Howley de Martínez, 83-year old mother of assassinated journalist Orlando Martínez, was buried yesterday. She spent the last 25 years of her life pushing for justice in the case of her son, columnist of El Nacional newspaper and director of Ahora magazine. Shortly after the death of Orlando, another of her sons, Edmundo Martinez was also murdered. Regardless, Mrs. Martínez always pushed on for justice. Dominican justice has clarified the murder cases of neither of her sons. The case of Orlando Martínez has been especially difficult because it involves high-ranking military and politicians of an early Balaguer administration. Former President, 93-year old Balaguer himself in a book he wrote years ago, "Memorias de un cortesano de la era de Trujillo" said that he knows who killed Martínez, but that this would not be revealed until after his death. The judiciary investigated the case in the administration of Balaguer, that of Salvador Jorge Blanco (PRD) and that of today President Leonel Fernández (PLD) with no conclusions yet.
José Tejada Gómez, president of the Colegio de Periodistas, said that he feels the culprits will be known, even if the case is completed when the guilty are dead.
Record lows this month
Temperatures of four degrees below zero Celsius were registered on Friday, 14 January in the mountain valley of Alto Bandera (2,900 meters above sea level). This is a new record, as the coolest was ­1 Celsius registered in January, 1965, deputy director of the Weather Department, Luis Rodríguez told El Caribe newspaper. Other lows were 14.6 degrees Celsius in Puerto Plata, close to the record for the province that is 14 degrees Celsius registered in 1986. In Santo Domingo, temperatures dropped to 16.6 degrees, versus the 15.4 low registered in 1968. In Santiago, temperatures dropped to 14 degrees versus the 11.2 degree low of 1987.
He forecast an increase in temperatures in the DR as the cold front moves on. More so, he said the country will be affected by heat waves in April and May of this year, as a result of La Niña phenomenon.
67 die over long weekend holidays
The Civil Defense organizations reported 67 persons died and 79 were injured over the long holiday weekend. Of the cases of deaths and injuries, 90% were due to traffic accidents.
Baseball final series
The Aguilas Cibaeñas defeated the Estrellas Orientales in the first game of the Winter Baseball Championship finals. The Aguilas 8-2 won the game, which took place at the Estadio Cibao of Santiago. Most sportscasters favor the Aguilas Cibaeñas, Caribbean Series Champions, to win the 2000 series. The last time the Aguilas-Estrellas met in a final was in 1996, when coincidentally the Caribbean Series would also be held in Santo Domingo. The winner of the Winter Baseball Championship will go on to play the best teams of Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the DR in the Caribbean Baseball Championship that is slated to open in Santo Domingo, 2 February.
The finals continue today at the San Pedro de Macorís Tetelo Vargas Stadium at 8 pm.
Tickets for sale to the Caribbean Baseball Series
The Caribbean Baseball Championship, known as the Caribbean World Series, opens 2 February in Santo Domingo. It will last through 7 February. Games are slated for 4 pm and 8 pm at the Quisqueya Ballpark. The championship winners from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the DR will vie for the regional title. The Aguilas of the Dominican Republic, are the regional champions. Tickets are selling for RD$500 Palcos A, RD$350 Palcos AA, RD$250 preferencias, RD$40 bleachers. Cadena Microondas Nacionales will transmit by Channel 7, Antena Latina and by radio the games. For tickets, call 567-6371 or 540-5772. The series was last played in Santo Domingo in 1996.
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