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Daily News - 13 April 2000
Rain of ashes blankets the capital
Throughout neighborhoods of Santo Domingo, black ash fell yesterday afternoon due to fires that consumed sugar cane fields east of the city. Clouds of acrid smoke forced the suspension of classes in some schools in SD’s eastern sectors of Sabana Perdida, Los Mina, Ambar, and Ozama, while housewife’s rushed to remove freshly laundered clothes from clotheslines. The fire was extinguished late yesterday thanks to the efforts of four fire companies. On the capital’s eastern fringe, in the sector known as El Almirante, "a sea of smoke" brought transit to a halt.

Newspapers, radio stations and the Office of Civil Defense were deluged with phone calls from puzzled and frightened citizens who had not as yet been given any official explanation of what one little girl was quoted as describing as "black rain." The damaged cane fields belong to the Ozama Sugar Mill, which was privatized earlier this year.
Loans to government are legal, according to bank group
The Association of Commercial Banks (ABCRD) wasted no time in responding to charges by PRD presidential candidate Hipolito Mejia that the government has negotiated more than DR$1 billion in "illegal" loans. Jose Manuel Lopez Valdes, president of the organization, stated that "we are strictly respectful of the law." If we had violated it by making such loans, "the Bank Superintendent would have called it to our attention, because that’s his job," said Lopez Valdes. The only law affecting such loans, he contended, has to do with the length of a public sector loan, which may not exceed seven years.

These contentions were echoed by Celso Marranzini, head of the Private Enterprize Council (CONEP), who also stated that banks who lend to the state do so with the certainty that they will be repaid.
Mejia wants to know where the money went
Speaking at the Wednesday luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce, Hipolito Mejia demanded to know what the Fernandez administration has done with RD$140 billion (around US$8.75 billion) which, he contends, it has collected while in office. "I don’t know what they spent so much money on, " he said to his prestigeous audience of corporate executives and expatriate managers. The PRD standard bearer also charged that the these funds were expended without passing through any budget process. "Do you think its healthy," he inquired, "that a single man, the president of the republic, can spend without accounting to anyone or explaining?"

Mejia went on to outline his party platform, emphasizing agricultural and educational reform, more lower and middle income housing construction, reversing environmental degradation, and creating 500,000 new jobs, mostly for women and young people.
PLD answers detractors
The PLD party, which this week was charged with violating the campaign ethics agreement, has asked for "fairness and balance" from the group that faulted it. Jose Tomas Perez, the party’s Secretary General, said that the report of the Followup Commission of the Electoral Ethics Pact (CSPEE) was one-sided when it attacked the PLD’s lack of respect for the PRD’s presidential candidate. Perez described the PRD’s campaign as "filled with distortions and lies and the manipulation of data."

The CSPEE report, released yesterday, excoriated the PLD for portraying Hipolito Mejia as a man with "emotional problems." But Perez retorted, "isn’t it denigrating when they [the PRD] say that the government is corrupt, and 300 office holders have been charged with corruption, but no proof is offered?"

The PLD’s fiscal management, which has recently come under attack by Mejia, was defended by Temistocles Montas, Technical Secretary to the President, who said that Mejia "continually makes unfounded charges, deceiving public opinion." Montas was responding to the contention that the Fernandez administration will leave a RD$30 million debt when it leaves office in August. The next government will inherit the government in better financial shape than it was received in 1996, said Montas, adding that the Dominican government has the lowest rate of internal debt of any Latin American nation, around 5% of GNP.
Peynado apprehensive about U.S. border defense
The vice-presidential candidate of the PRSC, Jacinto Peynado, has come out against the involvement of U.S. officials in border surveillance. He charged that "other objectives" lie behind the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) participation with Dominican armed forces in the initiative announced this week to stem illegal immigration, smuggling and drug traffic along the border with Haiti.

U.S. ambassador Charles Manatt denied that the presence of U.S. troops on Dominican soil has anything to do with the forthcoming elections, as charged by Peynado. Their only purpose, said Manatt, is "to observe with greater caution the events as they develop in Haiti." A skeptical Peynado has contended that if halting drug traffic is the real motive of the U.S., it ought to guard the Haitian coasts, since no drugs are produced within Haiti. The neighboring nation has been the scene of unrest and sporadic violence in recent weeks, due to the postponement of parliamentary elections and military indiscipline.
New owners find state-run tobacco company has lost value
In less than twenty months, the National Tabacco Company (CAT) consumed over 13% of its assets. As a result, the private firm that purchased CAT from the state has reduced its payment by DR$54 million (around US$3.4 million).

A Spanish company, Cita Caribe, took title to CAT on the fifth of this month, and immediately became aware that between consumption of inventory, and unusable or damaged inventory, the value of the company’s assets had dropped to US$21.6 million, from the US$25 million that was bid by Cita Caribe on July 31, 1998. The director of the Council of State Enterprizes (CORDE), Eduardo Selman, explained that CAT didn’t stop operating just because of the appraisal and bidding process. The privatization process is known in the DR as "capitalization," a concept which provides for the state to retain 50% ownership of former state-owned businesses, but without taking an active role in management.
Castillo renews and enlarges fraud charges
Despite the voices united in opposition to his charges that the Central Elections Board (JCE) is preparing an electoral fraud, attorney Marino Vinicio Castillo has identified the civic group known as the Citizen Participation Movement (MPC), as a JCE collaborator. Castillo presented a deposition to the attorney general yesterday in which he charges the MPC with violating law 4701, which requires national entities receiving funds from foreign governments to register with the attorney general and provide an accounting of how such funds are spent. MPC, according to Castillo, has been receiving funds from the U.S., including a US$1 million grant authorized by the U.S. congress in February. "Dominican society needs to be made aware of the use to which such funds are put within the country," he said.

Alvarez Valdez, the head of MPC dismissed Castillo’s charge that his organization is somehow collaborating with the JCE and the PRD party to deprive thousands of people of their vote. He also stated that MPC is not subject to law 4701 since it doesn’t report anything to the U.S. government. MPC receives financial support from national and international sources who are "interested in the welfare of the nation’s democracy," he said. During the 1996 and 1998 elections, MPC positioned thousands of unsalaried observors at polling stations around the country. A list of 7,500 observors has now been compiled for the elections of 2000.

Castillo, who holds the position of anti-drug czar in the Fernandez government, also heads his own small political party, Progressive Force (FP), and has been its some time presidential candidate. As reported yesterday, spokesmen for all the major political parties, as well a ranking U.S. embassy official and a Roman Catholic bishop have rejected his allegations that the JCE is concocting an electoral fraud.
IFC to build hospitals
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank Group, will invest US$22 million to construct four hospitals. According to a press release, these private facilities will "set new standards of care for the local population" and will also provide a hospital infrastructure to serve tourism. Each of the hospitals will be located in popular tourist destinations, and will accommodate up to 60 beds. Each will also be equipped with 3 operating rooms, an intensive care unit, a dialysis center, consultation rooms, and emergency treatment facility. These are the first internationally financed health care projects in the DR. The hospitals will be run by HOSPITEN, professional management organization from Spain, with 30 years experience in providing healthcare.

The first of the hospitals has been completed and will open shortly in Punta Cana, in the popular Bavaro region.
Dominican air line to be privatized
The national airline, Dominicana de Aviacion (CDA), will be privatized next month. Three foreign firms have been "pre-qualified" in the bidding for the bankrupt carrier. CDA was closed in 1995 because it was mired in debt and had fallen under international sanction for mechanical and safety deficiencies.

Competing for the assets and - more importantly - the routes of the national air line are Friedman Turbidy (American), Aserca (Venezuelan), and Lauda Air (Austrian), A forth firm, Alegro (Mexican) has been declared ineligible.

In preparation for the privatization bidding, the director of the Dominican Corporation of State Enterprizes (CORDE), Eduardo Selman, will soon leave for Brussels to negotiate CDA’s pending debts with "Euro Control." Selman has previously negotiated flexible payments or obtained "considerable reductions" in CDA’s debts with U.S. aviation agencies.

CDA was once a source of pride to Dominicans. In its heyday in the 1970’s it flew to Miami, New York and San Juan, to Baranquilla, the Dutch Antilles, and Milan.
Dominicans in NY want to vote
The estimated 800,000 Dominicans resident in the New York City area follow closely the fortunes of their preferred political parties back home, but unless they are willing to travel 2,000 miles and spend $400, they can’t vote in the presidential elections. Though most other nations have made provision for their citizens living abroad to vote, RD’s Central Elections Board (JCE) has not as yet been able to overcome a variety of problems at home, and so has given scant attention to the claims of voters in the U.S.

Congress approved a bill to create voting rights abroad in 1997, and the JCE even sent a logistical investigate team to NYC as a follow-up. But nothing has resulted to date. Dominican neighborhoods in NYC are replete with election signs and posters. As quoted in Listin Diario, Maximo Padilla, President of the Committee of Dominicans in the Exterior stated, "we’re not asking anyone to give us anything. Rather that they follow-up on the law that’s been approved." In the mean time, the three major parties are organizing voter airlifts home for the May 16th elections.
Government buys excess onions
Once again, the government will bail out another sector of agriculture. The onion producers association of San Juan de la Magauna had announced that its warehouses were stocked with over 50 thousand quintales of onions for which no market could be found. If the onions should be allowed to rot, they claimed, it would be a severe blow to them and the entire onion-producing region.

Agriculture Minister Amilcar Romero stated that the Price Stabilization Institute (INESPRE) would acquire the surplus. INESPRE sells produce at popular prices in poorer neighborhoods.
U.S. expert to discuss virtual commerce
David Rabkin, consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development will address the role of the potential for the internet to create virtual commerce in a seminar open to the public this Friday, April 14. Rabkin, an expert in commercial competition, will discuss the new culture of high tech, as exemplified by the case of Boston, as well as the implications for developing nations. He will also stress the opportunities for e-commerce in the DR. Rabkin will speak at INTEC University’s Ercilia Pepin Building is the location, at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. Admission is free.
Maná performance set
A concert featuring the Mexican group, Maná, will be held in the Quisqueya baseball stadium tomorrow night. The event will bring the young quartet in person before thousands of their Dominican admirers for the first time. The group’s CD’s, especially the most recent one, titled "Unplugged," have become popular here. Tickets for the one night only performance, to begin at 8:30, are available at the stadium box office at DR$500, $400, $350 and $200. The Dominican rock group, Toque Profundo, will open the concert.
Fernandez receives national games torch
In a picturesque ceremony held on the steps of the National Palace, President Fernandez received the torch symbolizing the "National Games 200" event to be staged in La Romana at the end of this month. He received the torch from the hands Katty Acevedo, who won a silver medal at the Winnipeg games in 1998. The torch had been kindled earlier in the day at the National Pantheon, the massive stone mausoleum where an eternal flame burns before the tombs of many of the nation’s most distinguished and heroic figures. In the presence of Sports Minister Juan Marichal, and organizers of the games, Fernandez passed the torch to Ruddy Sanchez, who will carry it all around the country before bringing it to the site of the games’ opening ceremonies in La Romana on April 29th.
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