|
| |||
|
|
|||
|
| |||
|
|||
|
Deputies abandon work session The president of the Chamber of Deputies called off yesterday’s work session and closed the Chamber until next Tuesday, 15 October, to allow time for the political parties to come to an agreement. Yesterday, 146 of 150 deputies registered for work. Shortly after though, Victor Bisono, the spokesman for the PRSC, announced that the party’s deputies, with the exception of president of the Chamber, Rafaela Alburquerque (PRSC), would abandon the sessions until the recently elected members of the Central Electoral Board resign. Spokesman for the PLD deputies Julio Cesar Valentin seconded the motion. Both claim that the judges of the Central Electoral Board, the government body that overseas congressional, municipal and presidential elections in the Dominican Republic, were elected without the consensus of the opposition parties. This left only 71 deputies of the PRD and the president of the Chamber of Deputies at the session. Those in attendance were not enough to provide the 50% quorum necessary for the Chamber of Deputies to convene. The PRD has 76 deputies, the PRSC has 36 deputies and the PLD has 42 deputies. Meanwhile, President Hipolito Mejia, who had said earlier that the selection of the Central Electoral Board judges was a closed issue, told the press yesterday that he would be willing to open talks with all political sectors and the civic society to resolve the impasse. Diario Libre reports that President Mejia accepted the proposal for the talks that had been made by PLD Senator Jose Tomas Perez. | |||
|
The man of the Chinese President of the Chamber of Deputies Rafaela Alburquerque swore in as a deputy Guillermo Radhames Garcia (PRD-La Vega) yesterday. Garcia is accused of trafficking illegal Chinese immigrants. Upon being sworn in, several deputies called out, “Where did you leave the Chinese?” Diario Libre reports that most of Garcia’s colleagues ignored his presence in the hall. | |||
|
Ambassador Guiliani Cury presents credentials Ambassador Hugo Guiliani Cury presented his credentials to President George Bush yesterday at the White House. The former governor of the Central Bank and former Minister of Industry and Commerce met with President Bush at the Oval Office of the White House. | |||
|
Hubieres is a happy man Transport strike promoter and Fenatrano union leader Juan Hubieres is all smiles. His union members have received the 432 buses that will very likely be paid with taxpayers’ money, as has happened in the past with public transport vehicles allotted to transport union members. While the buses were contracted with each bus operator, the Banco de Reservas, the government commercial bank, is the guarantor of the loans and is also responsible for the exchange risk. The Mejia government gave the green light to the US$16.2 million loan for the purchase of the 432 Hyundai Country model buses with capacity for 36 passengers each. The agreement was signed during the municipal government of former Mayor Johnny Ventura and then the central government authorized the support of the Banco de Reservas. | |||
|
AES does not cut service to government Despite its threats to do so, Hoy newspaper reveals that AES Ede Este did not carry out its threat to cut the service to government departments in arrears. The publishing of the names of several departments caused many of them to bring their accounts to date, though. The newspaper says that the largest of the power distributors, Union Fenosa’s Edenorte and Edesur, are also preparing a list of government departments reportedly behind in their payments. No services were cut to government departments by these distributors either. Government arrears in paying for their service is one of the reasons the companies lobbied for and were authorized to pass new increases for service on to paying consumers in the private sector. | |||
|
Increases of 90-200% Power distributors seem to have let their imaginations go wild and domestic consumers are receiving increases of 90-200% in their October bills. Diario Libre reports a case in which a consumer’s last bill was RD$334 for a consumption of 279 kwh and the new bill shows an increase to RD$651 for a lower consumption of 201 kwh. The newspaper reveals that the power distributors are now giving only 18 days to remit payments before being assessed penalties, down from 26 days previously. Interestingly, anyone requesting a site inspection on the grounds of irregular billing is told there is a wait of 16 working days - much longer than the two to three days in the past. Of course, the company instructs the consumer to make payment while the matter is investigated. | |||
|
The worst deal of the century Former president of the Dominican Business Council Celso Marranzini complained yesterday in an interview with Hoy newspaper that Dominicans got a very bad deal with the privatization of the power sector. “We have changed everything and received nothing in regards to the power system,” he laments. Dominicans are getting nothing in return for the prices that have increased many times compared to when it was government-owned. Marranzini argues that Minister of Finance Jose Lois Malkum should not authorize the power distributors to violate Energy Law 125-01. The law establishes a procedure and timing for the power rate increases to go into effect. The law establishes that the companies must give consumers 30 days notice before new rates can go into effect. In order to meet the law’s requirements, the announced tariff rate should have started on 20 October, not in September, as authorized by Malkum. In the interview with Hoy, Marranzini says that Haina industries are already beginning to receive the 26% increases in their bills for consumption in September. He said the government had acquiesced to what the companies requested when signing the Madrid Agreement, and now authorizes an open violation of the power law. “Where is the law?” he asked. “I think there has to be order, because if the distributors can apply the law as they want, then we can interpret it as we want,” he warned. He complained that the power outages continue, with the negative effects on their machinery and regardless of this, businesses now have to pay much higher bills. This is in addition to wage increases levied on the industries in order to compensate consumers for the higher domestic electricity bills. He said that if the government allows the companies to violate the law with impunity, they will have to allow consumers do the same as well, thereby causing chaos in the sector. Marranzini called on the President of the Republic and the Superintendence of Power to demand the fulfillment of Energy Law 125-01 or else to convene Congress to change the law. President Hipolito Mejia had announced in his 17 September address that the new rates would go into effect on 1 October. But the companies are applying them to consumption for September. | |||
|
Sports Palace is brand new The Palacio de los Deportes Virgilio Travieso Soto is brand new. The leading basketball arena was recently remodeled in time for the NBA Basketball match set for Friday, 11 October. Tickets are on sale at the Banco de Reservas on Winston Churchill Avenue. The Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves will play an exhibition game at the venue in Santo Domingo. Diario Libre reports that the remodeling brings the Santo Domingo facility up to par with any of the 29 venues used by the NBA in the United States. The leading basketball teams of the Americas will play there during the Santo Domingo Pan American Games this coming August 2003. | |||
|
Llenas Aybar trial Minor Mariluz Garcia Varona, the daughter of a printer, could also have been kidnapped by then 18-year old Mario Redondo Llenas, as part of a plan that ended with the murder of the youth’s own first cousin, 12-year old Jose Rafael Llenas Aybar, on 3 May 1996, as reported in Diario Libre. The case is being heard in the Court of Appeals. Previously, Mario Redondo Llenas and his accomplice Juan Manuel Moline were sentenced to 30 years in jail. The plan was to demand a ransom for the child, while holding him in Jarabacoa. Yesterday in court, Redondo Llenas said he murdered the child on the orders of Luis Martin Palma de la Calzada, the husband of former Argentinean ambassador, Teresa Meccia de Palma. He said he received a 666 code call on his walkie-talkie, instructing him to go ahead and murder the child when things did not go as planned. He said he acquainted himself with the Palma family when he realized the ease with which the father, Luis Palma de la Calzada, made money through his business deals and was impressed. In 1995 he asked his classmate at Colegio Loyola, Martin Palma, to introduce him to his father and find him some work so he too could get rich fast. As reported in Hoy newspaper, Mario Redondo explained that later he would succumb to great terror in the presence of the diplomat. He said his fear was so great that if Palma de la Calzada had asked him to murder his mother, he would have done so. The psychological takeover started when he witnessed the death of a workman, who died with a gunshot to the head at the hand of the diplomat. The worker had verbally challenged the diplomat. Later, he said, Palma had him and his son, Martin, pack the corpse that was later frozen at the Argentinean cultural house in the Colonial City, Casa de Argentina. He also said that he participated in the transshipment of drugs for which Palma promised to pay him RD$60,000, which he says was never paid to him. Instead, Palma de la Calzada invited him to the Hotel Presidente, ostensibly to receive the money, and instead raped him at gunpoint. Another event that contributed to his state of terror was an incident in the Altos de Chavon discotheque, where Martin Palma became involved in a fight with another boy. Palma de la Calzada later investigated the identity of this boy and waited for him at the university where he and Mario Redondo studied. When the boy arrived, he was beaten up - an incident that made headlines at the time. Listin Diario reports that Mario Redondo says that when he was stabbing his cousin, he imagined he was killing Luis Palma de la Calzada. The newspaper also reports that Mario Redondo says he confessed everything to the police, but they did not follow through. He said that Martin Palmas Meccia had once told him his contact in the Police was then Colonel Rafael Bencosme Candelier, who was later to arrest Mario Redondo. | |||
|
|
|||
|
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008. DR1. All Rights Reserved. |
