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Free trade talks with Venezuela Venezuela and the Dominican Republic formally initiated yesterday the first technical talks that would lead to the signing of a free trade agreement. Santiago Tejada, who is in charge of trade negotiations for the Dominican Republic, expects the talks to advance rapidly and that the treaty be ready for signing by January 2003. The first meetings took place at the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Santo Domingo and discussions are scheduled to continue in Venezuela. |
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Exporting rice to Venezuela Minister of Agriculture Eligio Jaquez announced that the Dominican Republic would export 1.5 million quintals of rice to Venezuela in shipments of 10, 15 and 20,000 tons per month, as reported in El Dia newspaper. Producers have a surplus of rice estimated at 2.3 million quintals. Meanwhile, there are complaints of contraband of lower cost rice entering through various border crossings with Haiti. |
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Haitian foreign affairs minister visits Minister of Foreign Relations of Haiti Antonio Phillipe Joseph met in Santo Domingo with his colleague, Minister Hugo Tolentino Dipp, to discuss items on the bilateral agenda of both countries. These issues include migration, health, the economy and tourism. The two are meeting ahead of the upcoming Dominican-Haitian Bilateral Commission meeting scheduled for next year. During the conference, Haitian Chief of Police Ravel Jean-Baptiste also expressed his concern that Haitian exiles living in the Dominican Republic could be conspiring against the government of Jean Bertrand Aristide from Dominican soil. |
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Superintendence broadens consumer assistance The Superintendence of Power announced the opening of four mobile offices, where residents can present claims for what they consider are abuses made by their power distributors, such as overbilling. The Superintendence says that by next week, an additional six mobile offices will be available to serve power distributor customers nationwide. Superintendent Julio Cross is encouraging consumers to complain if they feel their bills are excessive. He said his department handled 1,000 claims in September and secured RD$1.3-million in credits for errors committed. This month, he says they have been handling an average of 270 claims per day and expect to award credits of RD$6-million. The main Protecom office for placing claims is located in the Plaza Metropolitana on John F. Kennedy Avenue. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Cross said that they will be distributing booklets to consumers that outline the 30 key points of the Power Law so that consumers become more aware of their rights. Minister of Finance Jose Lois Malkum was also present during the press conference and said that they would begin accepting proposals on Monday in order to select a firm to carry out a legal and financial audit on the operations of the power distributors and the generators. The government is 50% owner of the companies. Malkum and Cross both complained that the power distributors had increased the hours of power outages under the guise of a programmed maintenance plan. Malkum and Cross said they will be increasingly vigilant regarding the large number of hours during which the companies are suspending service for reasons of maintenance or technical breakdown. Studies show that the companies’ revenues increase in accordance to the proportion of power outages. Consumers suffer, however, because recent experience shows that, despite long hours of power outages, power bills do not drop. |
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Protests against Edenorte The press conference held by the Minister of Finance, Jose Lois Malkum, and Superintendent of Power, Julio Cross, coincided with a protest that turned violent at the Santiago office of power distributor Edenorte, the Union Fenosa affiliate. Glass windows of the offices were broken and a man injured when protestors were repelled by police acting on behalf of Edenorte. Edenorte executives refused to meet with the protest spokesmen. Hoy newspaper reports that several consumers in Santiago have complained of having received increases of up to 300% in their monthly billing. Also reported is the municipality of Bonao and its declaration that Edenorte is persona non grata in the city for its application of arbitrary rates and long power outages. The vice president of the Bonao city hall, Ramona Coste, said that the company is a menace to development, social peace and Bonao itself and requested that the government open a Protecom office in Monseñor Nouel. Protecom is the bureau that the Superintendent of Power has established so that consumers may file the claims that are not attended to by the power distributors. |
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Defending the new protected area bill Minister of Environment Frank Moya Pons is visiting local newspapers to defend the Ley Sectorial de Areas Protegidas, or the bill that establishes the use for parks and other protected areas. This law complements Law 64-00 and was created by the Ministry of Environment. Minister Moya Pons is responding to the criticism of the bill made by the Academy of Sciences’ ecologists. Moya Pons called the ecologists “ecoterrorirsts” and said the Ministry is making available printed copies of the bill requesting that those interested in debating the bill do so in the Congress. After the bill is sent to Congress, it is up to the legislators to make changes. Moya Pons says that the bill increases the protected areas from 19 to 25% of the national territory, but uses a practical approach regarding some areas in which old rulings had set off-limits for development. He said that sophisticated GPS technology was used to establish these protected area limits. According to Moya Pons, the bill releases the ministry of all responsibility for the sea-bordering Malecon and the Las Americas Highway park areas, and other city parks that he feels should instead be the responsibility of the city governments. He is also proposing that historic park areas be managed by the Cultural Heritage Department or the Ministry of Culture and not by his department. The revision also excludes urban centers that on old maps appeared as green areas. Moya Pons explained that the bill will see the creation of new protected areas, such as large hardwood forest areas and the dry forests of the southwest. It also encompasses new areas such as the Damajagua falls in Puerto Plata, Los Cacheos in Jimani, Cabo Samana, La Loma La Enea, and Hoyo Claro in La Altagracia, among others. Being contemplated at the moment is the creation of the Underwater Park of Punta Cana. Those interested in a copy of the bill may request one from the Ministry of Environment, Tel. 809 567-4300 |
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Mining Department audit shows irregularities Ubaldo Guzman, of Hoy newspaper, sent director of the Department of Mining Pedro Vasquez Chavez a written inquiry regarding an audit conducted by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Vasquez Chavez denies he was aware of the audit, which reveals serious abnormalities in the financial management of his department, and was ordered when Hugo Guiliani Cury was Minister of Industry and Commerce. The same audit concludes that Engineer Miguel Peña de los Santos, director of the Corporate Mining Unit, also committed serious abnormalities. Peña has not responded to the press inquiry. The Audit No. 3171 was carried out by Generoso Perdomo, financial advisor to Minister Guiliani Cury, who is today the Dominican Republic’s ambassador to the United States. The audit focused on the management of the 010-241654-0 bank account, known as the mining tender account, that was opened without due authorization of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Reportedly, deposits totaling approximately RD$3-million, and made over a period of time between 12 December, 2000 and 31 December, 2001, were managed at the sole discretion of engineers Vasquez Chavez and Peña de los Santos. It appears that Chavez and Peña controlled these funds without regard for the normal procedures or control by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The audit also scrutinized the irregular use by the Mining Department of funds generated from mining contracts with Mobile Exploration Dominicana, Once Once and the Maleno Oil Company. |
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Alburquerque says she retained the per diem President of the Chamber of Deputies Rafaela Alburquerque said that it was her decision to retain the approximately RD$4-million in per diem allotments that deputies receive. The 150 deputies are accustomed to receive RD$1,500 per work-session attended. The PRSC and PLD deputies have not been attending the sessions in protest of the PRD-majority senate having chosen the judges that will oversee the 2004 presidential elections without political consensus. Alburquerque denied that the Executive Branch had retained the monies although President Mejia had threatened to do so. Meanwhile, the deputies of the PRD complain that their stipends should not be retained because they are not boycotting the sessions. |
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Redondo Llenas case to Supreme Court Lawyer Artagnan Perez Mendez is moving a step up and asking the Supreme Court of Justice to review the judgment issued by the Santo Domingo Court of Appeals on the case of Mario Redondo Llenas. The Appeals Court of Santo Domingo confirmed an earlier court judgment that handed out a sentence of 30 years imprisonment to Redondo Llenas, who is accused of murdering his 12-year old cousin, Jose Rafael Llenas Aybar in 1996. Redondo was 18 years old at the time. The Appeals Court cut 10 years off the 30-year sentence received by the co-accused, Juan Manuel Moline Rodriguez. The Appeals Court said that Moline should not have been tried as on the same grounds as Redondo Llenas, but rather as an accomplice, Hoy newspaper explains that if the Appeals Court judgment holds, Moline Rodriguez would be released on bail in four years time and Redondo Llenas in nine years. |
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National Debate postponed for Tuesday After three days of debates, the three leading political parties decided to suspend the talks on Thursday in order to allow time for each party to meet among its own members. The talks are supposed to resume on Tuesday and Monsignor Agripino Nuñez says he expects that politicians will eventually come up with a propitious solution, given the demands of the moment. |
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US tourist visas to cost more Effective November 1, 2002, the U.S. Department of State is raising the worldwide non-immigrant visa fee to US$100. The processing of the visa currently costs US$65 and is charged for all non-immigrant applications for visa and border crossing cards. The adjustment is being made to cover the increased costs of administering the non-immigrant visa services in the post-9/11 environment and is the second increase in a space of six months. On 1 June, 2002, the fee had been adjusted to US$65 based on total costs of worldwide non-immigrant visa operations and an anticipated applicant volume of approximately 10.5 million per year. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, visa demand has dropped by approximately 20% and the trend continues downward. In August, non-immigrant visa demand was down by approximately 33%. There has been no corresponding decline in the costs of running non-immigrant visa operations, because the processing of each application is more time consuming and labor intensive as a result of enhanced security screening requirements instituted since 9/11. For more information, see http://www.travel.state.gov./MRVincrease.html and http://www.usemb.gov.do |
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Organization of Pan Am transport advances Salvador Pou Boix, president of Auding Latinoamericana, promises that the transportation services during the Santo Domingo Panamerican Games in August 2003 will be as good or even better than those offered during the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 - one of the best organized ever. Auding is the official contractor for the games’ ground transportation. Diario Libre reports that the company has already carried out transit studies in Santo Domingo to optimize its transport service. Most of the games’ activities will focus on the Las Americas International Airport, the Olympic Village (about 10 minutes from the airport), the Mirador del Este Park (about 15 minutes from the village), and the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center (about half an hour from the village). |
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