Home  Message Archive  2007  2006  2005  2004  2003  2002  2001  2000  1999  1998  Premium News Service

Daily News - 16 May 2001
RD$830 million for aqueducts
President Hipolito Mejia announced the government will invest RD$830 million to build three aqueducts in the provinces of Espaillat, Daurte and Salcedo. He made the announcement at the government council held in the city of Moca, Espaillat. He also announced that several schools, highways and rural roads in the area would soon be completed at a cost of RD$225 million. 
Government pays power generators
The government has made payments of RD$150 million on its debt to private generators. One generator, EGE Haina, recently complained that the generators were being discriminated against in favor of the distributors whenever the government makes payments. Following that announcement, the generators shut off several plants, increasing the hours of blackouts. EGE Haina was paid RD$46.98 million, RD$34.7 million went to Itabo and RD$18.5 million to Union Fenosa, among other payments. 
Time to sack Candelier?
The removal of Mayor General Pedro de Jesus Candelier as chief of the Police tops the wish list of Capotillo barrio in Santo Domingo. The slum has been described as no-man's land, a hide out for delinquents and the city's principal center for the sale of drugs. It made headlines after reportedly Police agents killed three residents in unexplained circumstances. 
President Hipolito Mejia appointed a commission to investigate the recent deaths. The chief of Police was on the commission, but declined to participate. Abel Rojas, community leader, said Candelier decided not to be part of the commission due to the pressure of the barrio. He said Candelier is aware he cannot be part of the investigatory board when his force is the one under investigation. 
Rojas say the barrio wants Candelier to be fired. "We understand that he has provoked all this bitterness in our community."
President Hipolito Mejia told the press that he alone would decide when to remove Candelier. 
Yesterday, members of the commission, the Minister of the Armed Forces, the director of the National Department of Investigations and the Minister of Interior and Police visited the barrio to start the investigations. 
The Minister of Interior and Police, Rafael Subervi Bonilla, was very critical of Candelier, who is under his jurisdiction but who in practice only answers to the President. Subervi said that what has happened in Capotillo is a clear indication that the only way the Police know how to control delinquency is by killing. "I think this is the time to insist on a major reform of the Police. We do not want a police force that murders, we want a police force that avoids murder and protects citizens," he said. 
For the second consecutive day, there were violent confrontations between Police and demonstrators. Four persons were injured, five cars were burned as per press reports. The Commission offered the construction of a grade school, a sewage system, to fix the streets, finish the vocational school, medical dispensary and other local demands. The community accepted a truce until today but insists on the removal of Candelier. 
Justice sought above all
The relatives of two of the three victims shot to death by Police in Capotillo demanded justice for the victims. When the investigating commission visited the barrio to offer to pay for funeral costs, grant relatives of the dead a pension and to lobby for new homes for the victims, the community reaction surprised members of the commission. Marisol Perez, wife of the late Jose Alejandro Morales and mother of four, said, "I do not want a house or money. What I want is justice."
The mother of 17-year-old Marcos Ezequiel Olivares Nivar said her son made a living driving a motoconcho. "He was not a delinquent. He never had a gun. In front of my house there was a drug-selling post and many police go there," she said. 
Community leaders frequently have denounced police agents who collect pay offs in exchange for ignoring the drug trafficking operations in the barrio. 
Supreme Court says no judge can order press out of courtroom
Supreme Court of Justice president, Jorge Subero, says that no judge can order the press out of a courtroom. Judge Adrilya Vales Dalmasi of the Camara Civil y Comercial de la Cuarta Circunscripcion del Distrito Nacional ordered Luis Guzman, a journalist for El Siglo, to leave the court alleging that he distorted the case when writing about it. He was covering the case of people who benefitted by receiving vehicles to transport INESPRE food stuffs during the past PLD government. 
Public school teachers on strike again
With only 15 days to go before the scheduled end of classes in public schools, the directors of the National District section of the public school teachers union ordered the closing of schools for the rest of the week. Danilo Caminero, president of the National District division, justified the measure saying the union is tired of all the unfulfilled promises of the government. The union wants the government to double the basic salary of teachers from RD$2,500 per shift to RD$5,000. The union represents 12,000 teachers in the National District. President Mejia recently told the union that he could not raise wages until next school year. 
Hatuey de Camps criticizes government hiring practice
Hatuey de Camps, president of the ruling PRD party, criticized the government practice of appointing individuals to two or three government posts, many times indifferent institutions. El Siglo reports that he criticized ministers and government departments for causing irritation among unfavored party members. He said he would order firings if the practice continued. 
What the poor want most
Padre Jose Luis Aleman writes in El Caribe today about what the poor want most. The priest, who is economic advisor to the government and head of the economics department at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra, said that the poor reject the government's proposal to provide families with children in school RD$300 a month, and to pay for school uniforms, transport and food. "What they most want are job creation centers in the barrios." He explained they want vocational schools, basic education and programs to teach reading and writing. 
He said the poor prefer that the government instead use the money to subsidize the cost of propane gas and the cost of medicine, and to build sport centers and day care centers in the barrios. 
Furthermore, he said that those he interviewed, many of whom voted for the PRD, felt the government should use the money now going to the increased government payroll for these programs instead. 
Free circulation of many currencies versus dollarization
Economist Frederic Emam Zade advocates the free circulation of multiple currencies and not the dollarization of the Dominican economy, which he estimates would cost RD$2,000 million. He felt this would be improductive and would not generate new resources. Emam Zade says the US economy is not necessarily in tune with the economic needs of other countries.
For example, he said, what if the DR needs a monetary expansion of 15-20% per year, and the US only needs 6%, then the DR could suffer a recession if it were tied to the US dollar. He says the DR cannot tie itself to a single currency. He favors legalizing the circulation of the US dollar along with the Euro. 
He said those that favor dollarization feel it will prevent the government from overspending and printing money. "All governments execute the budget as they want, and no one reproaches them. Also, at present there are 110,000 more government jobs than needed and no one is protesting this situation," said Emam Zade. 
IADB wants to channel remittances to productive investments
The Interamerican Development Bank wants to find a way to channel some of the billions of dollars sent home by Latin American and Caribbean immigrants into productive investments. Remittances are estimated to be greater than foreign aid and greater than interest paid on the Latin American foreign debt. 
Experts from the private and public sector, academia and multilateral financial institutions will meet 17-18 May at a conference in Washington, D.C. 
The participants will analyze the remittance phenomenon and examine ways to help reduce the costs of sending money home. 
Dominicans living abroad make up 10% of the total Dominican population. 
Remittances increase 10% despite US economic slowdown
El Caribe newspaper reports that despite the slow down of the United States economy, money transfers have not declined. Rather, they are up 10% on average over the past four months, according to Freddy Ortiz, president of the Association of Remittance Companies. Ortiz estimates Dominicans living abroad send back about US$1,500 million a year. "Dominicans over there prefer to stop eating before letting their family in Santo Domingo go hungry." He said the increase in the cost of living in the DR could be the reason for the increase in the money immigrants are sending back home. 
Victor Mendez Capellan, president of Western Union in the DR, forecasts a 30% increase this month. He said they saw a 20% increase in April. 
Seguros America merges with La Universal
The Superintendent of Insurance has announced the completion of the merger between Grupo Asegurador America and La Universal de Seguros, the insurance unit of the Popular financial group. The Universal thus becomes the largest insurance company to operate in the Dominican market. 
Listin Diario launches El Expreso
Editora Listin Diario yesterday launched El Expreso, a 100,000 circulation free newspaper. El Expreso joins Diario Libre which began last week with a similar distribution. The newspaper was launched at a reception at the Hotel Jaragua. Present were former Presidents Leonel Fernandez, Salvador Jorge Blanco, and former Vice President Jacinto Peynado. The newspaper will be distributed Monday to Friday on public transport buses, in government offices, universities and major shopping areas in Santo Domingo and Santiago. 
Adozona president highlights advances of manufacturing in DR
Jose Clase, president of the Dominican Association of Free Zones, spoke in a TV interview about the advances of clothing manufacturing in the DR. "We no longer just sew pre-cut cloth that is sent out in pieces," he said. "Now we add much value, and in this time of declining orders we are exporting less quantity, but more value." 
He said textile exports are bringing in much more revenue than in the past because of an increase in the use of locally made components. 
"We at many free zones are developing the patterns and while we continue to import cloth the labels, hangers and plastic bags that are used are manufactured here," he said. This means that many companies outside the free zones are getting business and growing thanks to the free zone industry orders. 
He said that what most concerns the free zones are the high interest rates on loans in the DR which affect their local suppliers. 
Samana's gifted child
El Caribe newspaper tells the story of Benjamin Peña, an apparently gifted child who learned to read at four. Little Benjamin's intelligence has not been tested. He is 11 years old now and in 7th grade because the school would not admit him before he was 6. Peña studies at the Centro Educativo Castellalito in Las Galeras, Samana. 
When asked what he would like to be he said, "a computer engineer." He gets to play on a computer occasionally at a sports betting store in town. 
When asked if he would like to be President of the Republic, he responded: "No, no. Because I think to be one you have to be a politician and I do not want to be that. Politicians always forget what they have said and people end up talking bad about them. And I would not like people to talk bad about me and my family."
Home  Message Archive  2007  2006  2005  2004  2003  2002  2001  2000  1999  1998  Premium News Service

The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008.  DR1. All Rights Reserved.