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Inflation averages 3.52% this year The Central Bank reports that the Consumer Price Index increased 0.89% in August. The accumulated annual inflation from January to August is 3.52%. The annualized inflation from August 2002 to August 2001 was 4.87%. This is the lowest level of inflation in Latin America. |
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Giving in to the power companies Hoy newspaper comments that if the government gives into the demands of the power distributors and passes on to paying consumers consumption of those that do not pay (including government departments and low income barrios), the economy will suffer considerably. The newspaper says that if the government decides in favor of the power companies these will continue to reap high profits and make repatriations that are already affecting the balance of payments. The repatriations have been occurring in non-transparent ways, such as by high-interest internal loans and payments made to affiliate companies. Cesar Sanchez, general manager of the CDEEE, and who in the past has backed measures to maintain the high profitability of the power distributors, announced there will be no reduction in power rates. The argument to sell privatization was that the foreign companies would be more efficient than the government and this would translate in cost reductions in three years time. After three years, power service has not improved, consumers suffer long hours of blackouts and power rates have increased considerably. Hoy newspaper says that those negotiating for the power distributors have been able to focus the talks on financial matters, and the maintenance of the concessions the government has granted in the past. These concessions have increased the government debt with these companies. The newspaper says that today, the power distributors component of the cost of power is 100% of the cost of producing power. The newspaper comments this does not occur in any other country of the world, where normally the commercialization of power, or distribution, is under 60% of the cost of producing power. In the DR, the average generation cost is US$0.07 kilowatts hour, but consumers are billed US$0.142. Hoy newspaper points out that this value is already overrated because,as part of the Madrid Accord negotiations in August 2001, the government agreed to authorized a US$0.07 kilowatts hour rate versus US$0.581 rate, which the power producers had found acceptable. The newspaper says that instead of the government taking the side of the power distributors, it should be seeking to reduce the cost of power generation and distribution prices. The newspaper again highlights the negative effects of the repatriation of the hefty profits of the power companies are having on the exchange market. Julio Cross, Superintendent of Power, and the government officer who is the first to publicly speak up for consumers, has protested that the decision would allow the power distributors to increase the price of power using even the increase in the cost of plaintains as an excuse. |
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Power talk contradictions El Caribe newspaper points out today the contradictions in the talk today of passing on to paying consumers the government subsidies and the announcement of the elimination of this subsidies made upon the announcement of the signing of the Madrid Accord on 14 August 2001. The newspaper says that President Hipolito Mejia himself on that date announced that the subsidies had been eliminated as a result of the negotiations of the power contracts and the signing of the Madrid agreement. On that occasion, President Mejia said that the subsidy cost the state RD$238 million a month, but that as of that moment the government was free from the commitment because it had reduced the cost of power of the generators. Nevertheless, 13 months later, the CDEEE has accumulated a debt of RD$1.6 billion with Edenorte and Edesur, the two affiliates of the Spanish company, Union Fenosa. The debt with AES EdeEste is not accumulated because this company discounts the amount from its monthly billing. At the time, Mejia announced that thanks to the savings it would secure a RD$1.4 billion loan to be paid in 14 months in RD$100 million monthly allotments. At the time, President Mejia announced that part of the savings would be used to guarantee the power service to the low-income barrios. The newspaper says that it is clear that what President Mejia told the nation had been accomplished with the Madrid Agreement never came through and the power distributors continue to accumulate arrears with the government. According to El Caribe, the CDEEE officers that negotiated the Madrid Accord misinformed President Mejia at the time and now are proposing to pass on the subsidies to paying consumers. Last year, President Mejia disallowed a 20% hike on consumer power bills, and then came the Madrid Accord with the announcement that alternate mechanisms were found to benefit the companies so that the government would not longer be responsible for the subsidies. These included the extension of the contracts with the power companies for another 15 years. At the time, there was talk of RD$238 million, and now CDEEE general manager Cesar Sanchez is talking of subsidies of RD$300 million. The subsidies enable the power companies to bill for increases in the dollar, the cost of fuel, and other costs. Now there is talk again that the power bills would have to go up 15-30%. Minister of Finance Jose Lois Malkum, as reported in El Caribe, says the power rate subsidy amounts to RD$400 million a month. He said the cost of fuel has increased 60% and the cost of foreign exchange 17%, while consumer prices have remained the same since 2000. |
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Time to pay bills El Caribe reports the government needs to make a US$23.7 million (approximately RD$443 million) interest payment on sovereign bond funds. National Treasurer Pastora Mendez de Fondeur says the payment is part of an agreement to pay US$47.5 million a year on the placement of US$500 million of sovereign bonds in international capital markets in September 2001 at 9.5% interest over a five-year period. The payment comes due at a time when the Central Bank announced it would not use US$115 million, or 23% of the bonds that is deposited earning less than 2% interest. |
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The 66 kilos of cocaine confiscated in Punta Cana The Navy confiscated 66 kilos of cocaine in the La Altagracia province. This included 16 kilos on board the Lady Liz yacht. The yacht had arrived to a Punta Cana port on 5 September from La Romana. Drug agents also confiscated another 50 kilos in a Nissan SUV in Parador de Punta Cana. |
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Priscilla knows what happened? The family of Victor Augusto Feliz Mendez, kidnapped in Barahona and subsequently murdered in Santo Domingo, supposedly for matteres related to drug trafficking, urged the government to preserve the life of 19-year old Priscilla Diaz Infante, the only civilian survivor of the group of eight held responsible for the murder. Five police members have been arrested in the case. Former senator Augusto Feliz Matos and Edgar Feliz, brother of the victim and a deputy minister of Tourism, deny the versions that Victor Augusto was a drug dealer with ties to Rolando Florian Feliz, who is in jail serving a 20 year sentence for drug trafficking. The Police has said Florian was the mastermind of the kidnapping and murder. The family instead insists that the police is covering for Lieutenant Charlie Rodriguez of the Police. Others involved in the case, Luciano Antonio Matos Diaz and Deiva Giner Castillo died last week, one supposedly having committed suicide and the other in a crossfire with the Police. Diario Libre reports that Feliz was tortured prior to his death at a house in the Urbanizacion Ciudad Satelite Duarte, near where the body was found. The newspaper points out that Priscilla had been accused of fraud by dealer Guzman Auto Import for making a RD$300,000 down payment on the purchase of three Daihatsu trucks that she later sold in Haiti for US$15,000 each. Priscilla had admitted in court at the time that the money for those transactions was delivered to Rolando Florian Feliz in the Monte Plata jail. |
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Feliz’s family wants all the truth out As reported in the Listin Diario, relatives of the late Feliz Mendez insist that the chief of the Drug Control Department in Barahona cannot be exempt of responsibility. They deny the version of the Police that Rolando Florian Feliz was the mastermind. They also dispute the Police version that Victor Augusto Feliz had been deported from the US for having served a drug sentence, again mentioning that he entered the US this year on a US tourist visa. They speculate that robbery was behind the kidnapping. They say that only days before he had sold a car wash in RD$3 million. They point out that a day after the alert of the kidnapping was made public, Charlie Rodriguez Diaz denied having seen Feliz Matos, despite an agent commenting to him that the person that was under arrest in the vehicle with the other police agents was the son of the former Barahona senator, who is also the president of the PRSC in Barahona. He said that Rodriguez only admitted seeing Feliz Matos after he himself told General Rafael Bencosme Candelier, commander of the southern region for the Police, a version whereby his brother had been seen. They accuse Rodriguez of negligence and say that Rodriguez only admitted having seen the deceased almost 48 hours after the disappearance. ‘‘Independently of what my brother could have done, of what Franklin was, this case needs to be clarified and we are going to take it to the final consequences,” Feliz Mendez said in an appearance on the Hoy Mismo talk show on Channel 9, Color Vision. He said that General Bencosme Candelier told him he had to macanear a ese official de narcoticos (Rodriguez Diaz) so he could say all the truth. |
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Disputing the Taino Indian myths Lynn Guitar, an anthropologist who has carried out valuable research into the Taino Indian contributions to Dominican heritage, disputes the myth that Indians were wiped out in Hispaniola Island. She argues that the number of Indians that survived was downplayed because the Spanish colonists wanted to import larger numbers of African slaves. She said the number of Indians appearing in the census carried out by the Spanish government of the time was downplayed. She says the census did not take into consideration the mixing of races and a consequence of the marriages between Indian women and the Spanish male immigrants. New studies show that the biological and cultural heritage of Dominicans is split threeway: Spanish, Indian and African. She says historians hyped the myth of Spanish predominance because these confused their economic prevalence with influence in Dominican society and culture. The Altos de Chavon Museum has also commissioned Adolfo Lopez to research into the real numbers of Taino culture and predominance in Dominican culture providing more data that disputes the myth that the Indian population was wiped out making only minor contributions to Dominican man. |
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Opinion on the political parties The August 2002 Penn, Shoen & Berland poll commissioned by El Caribe newspaper shows that the political parties in the Dominican Republic are losing popularity. The PRSC rated 55% favorable opinion in August, down from 63% in February. The PLD rated 54% favorable opinion, down from 55% in February. The ruling PRD rated 40%, down from 46% in February. The poll shows that the PRD has the largest number of unfavorable opinions of the three leading political parties. |
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Mejia vs. Fernandez The poll shows that the image of President Mejia is deteriorating as the nation confronts new economic difficulties. Economic analysts say a large part of these are caused by government overspending and excessive borrowing at a time international conditions are adverse. In the poll, President Mejia averages a 38% favorable opinion and a 60% unfavorable opinion. Former President Fernandez averages a 60% favorable opinion and a 40% unfavorable opinion, according to the poll. |
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Security upped on September 11th date Security forces announced an increased alert at the airports on occasion of the September 11 anniversary date. General Manuel de Jesus Figuereo Feliz, in charge of airport security, said that US federal authorities alerted that diplomatic passports were missing from the embassies of Kuwait and Venezuela. The US authorities suspect the passports could have been stolen by terrorists who intend to use these to enter the United States via the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, Diario Libre reports that airline reservations have declined sharply for the 10, 11 and 12 September. Bernardo Then told the Listin Diario that the lull in traffic is primarily due to the start of the low season in mid September. |
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ASTA on 9/11 effect on tourism News reports indicate that the 11 September events had a major impact on tourism worldwide, and especially on US travel. American Society of Travel Agent statistics show that 359,000 jobs were lost, and travel expenditures declined US$10 billion. Likewise, the flow of foreigners to the United States declined 5 million from June 2001 and June 2002. Travel revenues were down 25% in Germany, 23% in Brazil, 20% in Italy, 19% in Japan, 18% in Australia, 14% in France, 11% in Great Britain and 7% in Canada. Hoy newspaper reports that the Dominican Republic also suffered heavy losses. According to the Central Bank, travel revenues were down 8.5% in the first semester of this year. The Central Bank report says that travel revenues for the first half of 2002 had declined to US$1.4 billion, down from US$1.6 billion for the same period in 2001. |
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Fog affects Cibao Airport operations Several evening flights have had to be detoured to Puerto Plata International Airport due to the fog that sets on Cibao Airport at nighttime. Diario Libre reports that North Amerian Airlines chose to suspend its evening flights, to avoid the situation. Likewise, the newspaper reports that an Aeromar could not land early morning on Sunday and had to be detroued to Puerto Plata. |
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