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Changes in the military announced President Hipolito Mejia appointed aging Mayor General Luis M. Perez Bello, late President Joaquin Balaguer’s long-time military aide, as deputy minister of the Armed Forces yesterday. The President also appointed Rafael Bueno Vasquez and Luis Humeau Hidalgo, the former chiefs of the Air Force and the Navy to the same post. The law establishes a two-year limit for the military chiefs. The new chiefs of the Armed Forces are Mayor General Carlos Luciano Diaz Morfa, Army; Luis Rafael Betances Nivar, Presidency Military Corps; Virgilio Sierra Perez, Air Force; and Euripides Uribe Peguero, Navy. President Mejia kept Minister of the Armed Forces Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez in his post. The President also chose new regional police commanders. These are Juan Deño, Cibao Central; Maximo Peralta, North; Jose Betances Ureña, Southwest; Luciano Sanchez, Northwest; Luis Rodriguez Florimon, Santo Domingo Oriental. |
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Other appointments President Mejia appointed Ginette Bournigal, the former senator for Puerto Plata, governor of Puerto Plata. Carlos Gabriel Garcia was appointed director of the Departamento Aeroportuario. Eladio Infante was named deputy director of the Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, a government low income housing department. Journalist Ramon Colombo is the new director of Radio Television Dominicana, the state television network. Colombo is the co-producer of the weekly Una Vez por Semana TV, a RTVD show in which President Hipolito Mejia answers to questions on select topics every Sunday. Sixto Manuel Bisono Perez was appointed director of the Normas y Sistemas de Calidad (Digenor) quality control department. Enrique Rivera is the new deputy Minister of Interior and Police. Marcos Medina is the new deputy director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET). Danilo Rosario, director of OPI-RD, the investment promotion department, was sent to direct Cedopex, replacing Alfredo Bordas who recently was appointed consul general in Miami. A new director of OPI-RD has not been appointed. There is a plan to unite the two departments. |
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New consul general for Haiti President Hipolito Mejia appointed Julio Nolasco as the new consul general in Haiti. Ultima Hora yesterday reported that in the past 11 months, the five Dominican consulates in Haiti had issued a record 117,000 tourist visas for Haitians. The newspaper says that 34,839 stayed on as illegal aliens. The visas primarily favor middle class Haitians, as most indigent Haitians just sneak across the border without passports or any identification documents. In May of this year, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, in an apparent effort to slash corruption, had ordered the five Dominican consuls in neighboring Haiti to process just 3,000 visas monthly, instead of the previous 7,000. According to the new visa distribution, the Port-au-Prince consulate are authorized to issue 1,700 visas, and in other major cities, Cap Haitien 500, Juana Mendez 350, Belladere 225 and Anse-a-Pitre 225. A recent Armed Forces report shows that despite the existence of a quota, the consulates disregarded the limits. |
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The case of the caught consul A Dajabon judge is hearing the case against former Cap Haitien consul, Guillermo Radhames Garcia, for personally transporting a group of Chinese citizens that made an irregular crossing from Haiti to Santiago. Garcia was elected deputy for La Vega province. An assistant to President Mejia, Julio Rafael Aneles Tapia, swore Garcia in on 16 August in the patio of the Dajabon hospital where he is confined. The Mejia government officer invoked Article 106 of the Constitution. If the swearing in is validated, Garcia’s case would now have to be heard by the Supreme Court of Justice. Garcia’s lawyers have already taken the case to a Court of Appeals in Monte Cristi on grounds that the Dajabon judge does not have jurisdiction over his case now that their client is a legislator. Garcia was fired from his post as consul after the Department of Migration accused him of trafficking the 16 Chinese. The case was subsequently taken to court in Dajabon. |
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City government appointments New Santo Domingo Mayor, TV producer Roberto Salcedo named Domingo Contreras city hall secretary general. Salcedo also appointed Juan Cedano the new legal advisor and Andres Navarro was appointed urban planning director. Ignacio Ditren is the new director of Ornato, the department in charge of cleanliness and landscaping of the city. William Francisco Espinosa will head the community relations department. The city government headquarters are swamped by PLD political party followers that now want the the jobs held by PRD employees. Salcedo won the position running for the PLD. |
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Luxury home tax ceiling raised In a record 48 hours before the expiration of the 1998-2002 legislative term, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies passed a bill that modifies Law 18-88 that taxes luxury housing and vacant lots. The bill was passed on the last day of the legislature after being submitted the day before. The amendment raises the value of property taxable with the 1% luxury tax from RD$1.3 million to RD$3 million. The luxury tax on properties appraised over that value is 1% over the appraised value in excess of RD$3 million. The law establishes that the RD$3 million ceiling will be annually adjusted for inflation. The bill also incorporates a clause whereby homeowners 65 years of age or older that have not sold their home in the past 15 years are exempt from paying the luxury tax, regardless of the appraised value. PRD senators César Augusto Díaz Filpo, Vicente Castillo and president of the Senate Andrés Bautista are the authors of the amendments to the law. |
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Duquesa garbage dump conflict Mayor Daniel Lois Carvajal of the newly created Santo Domingo North Municipality of the Province of Santo Domingo ordered the military and police to guard the Duquesa waste disposal site to stop trucks entering that do not have the authorization of his office. The situation is one of the first of many conflicts that are expected to explode as a consequence of the expedite passing of Law 163-01 that ordered the division of the National District. Early last year, Congress passed the law that split the National District into the Province of Santo Domingo (and its four municipalities – Santo Domingo North, Santo Domingo East, Santo Domingo West and Boca Chica) and the National District and Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. Hoy newspaper editorial today explains that the PRD ruling party insisted on the split in time for the 16 May congressional election to be able to open new plazas for aspiring senators, deputies, mayors and aldermen. They were successful, but now is the time to tackle the many property jurisdiction problems and others that adequate planning could have prevented. Meanwhile, the Duquesa dump has two managing teams. On Monday, 19 August, Mayor Daniel Lois Carvajal swore in Leopoldo Michel Santana as general manager of the dump on Monday. The dump is physically located in his jurisdiction. On Friday, 16 August, in one of his first moves as Mayor of the National District , Roberto Salcedo had confirmed William R. Castellanos and the company, Doamsa, would continue to manage the landfill and garbage dump. Salcedo had instructed Castellanos to continue offering the service to the four municipalities of the newly created Province of Santo Domingo (East, North, West, Boca Chica) and to the National District and the city of Santo Domingo. Castellanos says that the company he directs signed a contract with the Municipality of the National District on 2 March 1998. He said that Mayor Carvajal is violating the Constitution with his forceful taking of the installations, as the law cannot be retroactive. Salcedo said he will meet with the mayors of the new municipalities, and if necessary with the secretary of the Dominican Municipal League and Commission for the Reform of the State (Conare), the government institution that is behind the division of the National District. “Our position is that we all participate in the dump because it is the only one capable of receiving the tons of garbage collected in the National District and the Province of Santo Domingo,” he told Listin Diario. Hoy newspaper says that Conare had proposed that all the municipalities operate the dump. The Doamsa contract was signed with the Municipality of the National District on 2 March 1998 establishing RD$3.3 million a month for the handling of the landfill. In an addendum to the contract signed in 15 April 2002, the Municipality of Santo Domingo increased the payment to RD$6.1 million per month. |
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Carvajal defends his keeping the dump Santo Domingo North Mayor Daniel Lois Carvajal told Hoy newspaper that he would hire a new company to professionally operate the Duquesa dump. He mentioned that hospital wastes and other toxic wastes will be handled separately, and garbage will be weighed. He says that the municipalities that use the services of the Duquesa dump need to pay the city government of Santo Domingo North for the services. He says a technical team will determine the contribution that will be charged for the service. In his opinion, when the municipalities were divided, everything that within the territory of the municipality is property of that municipality. He argues that why should Duquesa be shared with the other municipalities if other facilities such as La Feria Ganadera, the Quisqueya Ball Park, the Modelo Market, the Los Mina Market or the Beach of Boca Chica will not be operated under this modality. |
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AA passenger released Nelson Taveras Ceballos, whose unfortunate comment to two fellow passengers resulted in an emergency landing in Puerto Plata of an American Airlines jet, was released yesterday after questioning by security officers in Santo Domingo. Taveras was on board a flight bound from Santo Domingo to Miami. But on board he expressed opinions on lax security at the Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo that turned him into a suspect airplane hijacker in the eyes of two fellow passengers. The passengers passed his comment on to the crew, and the pilot decided to land in Puerto Plata and hand the man to the security forces before the flight continued on to Miami. |
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On the whereabouts of Villa Cartagena Claudio Caamaño told the Listin Diario that he spoke on Friday, 16 August with Rafael Villa Cartagena, the suspect mastermind behind the kidnapping of Santiago businessman Juan Fernando Capellan and offered to mediate for his turning himself in. Caamaño knows him from the days they made a guerilla landing in Bani seeking to overturn the Balaguer government. The communication was interrupted and he said he has not heard from Villa Cartagena again. He said that Villa Cartagena is hiding with a two-year old boy. Claudio Caamaño was interviewed in his farm in El Carretón de Baní. Caamaño said he was questioned from 10 am to 7 pm in the Bani office of General William Duran Jerez, in charge of the south region. Caamaño told the Listin he believes Villa Cartagena was involved in the kidnapping and used his tranquil lifestyle as a façade for his criminal activities. |
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Calle 54 music at the National Theater Critics have unanimously praised the musical score of 54th Street film by Academy Award winning director Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque). Thus the idea, to turn it into a musical show. Several of the musicians that performed the very successful musical score in the film last year will now go on stage together at the National Theater this coming 25-26 October. El Caribe reports that already Michel Camilo, Giovanny Hidalgo, Paquito D’Rivera, David Valentine, Mike Johnson, Eliane Elias and Chano Domínguez have confirmed their participation. Overall, 22 artists from five groups have already been contracted. Dominican percussionist Guarionex Aquino will also participate. In Calle 54, Trueba honors the leading Latin jazz musicians of the present and older generations and the incredible diversity of Latino jazz. Dominican Michel Camilo got rave reviews for his number “From Within.” |
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