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DR1 takes a break for the holidays DR1 Daily News will not be publishing updates on Tuesday, 24 December nor on Wednesday, 25 December. The news for those two days will be compiled in the Thursday, 26 December edition, with the last edition of the year to be published on Friday, 27 December. DR1 Daily News will not publish updates over the New Year holidays, either. The news for Monday, 30 December through Friday, 3 January will be compiled for the 6 January edition. Those interested in keeping abreast with current events in the DR over the holidays may do so by checking in on the DR1 Forums, where readers usually post the most important developments. |
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Tragedy-free holidays The National Police has announced that 10,000 officers will be patrolling the streets and highways to prevent crime and increase safety. Last year, 31 people died during Christmas and New Year festivities. The police also seek to reduce the number of victims of petty thieves, out to steal the extra money people have for spending during the holidays. Parallel to the operation by the police, Civil Defense Director Radhames Lora announced that the National Emergency Commission (COE) will be on duty throughout the holidays. Some 100,000 individuals, including the military and thousands of volunteers, will participate in the COE Safe Christmas Operation from 23-25 December and again from 30 December -1 January. Approximately 2,000 aid posts have been set up nationwide. In addition, the COE has set up a telephone hotline (809-472-0909) to field calls from those in need of assistance in the Dominican Republic during the holidays. |
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Jimmy Carter coming for the holidays President Hipolito Mejia announced that former US President (1977-1981) and winner of the 2002 Noble Peace Prize, Jimmy Carter, will visit the country on 30 December. He is expected to arrive on Monday and will spend the holidays in Punta Cana accompanied by 26 family members, assistants and friends. He is also scheduled to participate in a bird-watching tour during his stay. The President’s press office also said that President Mejia would also host former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former President of Argentina Fernando de la Rua early next year. The President’s press office also announced the visit in January of the Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chrétien. |
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Government lobbies for sovereign bonds Diario Libre reports that the economic team of the government, headed by the Central Bank’s Governor, Frank Guerrero, and the Minister of Finance, Jose Lois Malkum, will meet at 10am with the Finance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies. Diario Libre says that the economic team will explain today to the deputies the specific uses to be given to the first US$500 million in sovereign bonds. The Senate passed the bill to allow the issuance of the sovereign bonds on 11 December. The government is now lobbying to get the deputies’ votes for the US$600 million sovereign bond placement. The opposition deputies had conditioned their votes to the Senate approving the electoral law modifications as originally submitted by the Chamber of Deputies. On Saturday, the Senate chose to not proceed with the reforms to the electoral law, the result of a consensus reached among the parties and the Executive Branch. |
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Senate returns powers to JCE president The PRD-majority Senate made changes to the bill received from the Chamber of Deputies regarding electoral reform in order to expand the powers of the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Ramon Morel Cerda, reports El Caribe newspaper. The bill originally sought, however, to do exactly the contrary: reduce the powers of controversial JCE president, who the Senate has chosen to continue to control all matters of the JCE for another four years. In addition to rejecting Morel Cerda’s continued reign over the JCE, opposition parties also object to the other judges chosen by the PRD-majority Senate, on the grounds of their bias to the PRD. Following lengthy talks, the political forces of the nation agreed to split the JCE, delegating the appointment of two new judges to neutral sectors. Ten senators of the PRD, headed by Tonty Rutinel, refuted the changes approved by their colleagues. There are only two opposition party senators in the Senate: one for the PLD and one for the PRSC. Both also oppose the changes. |
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Where are the attachments? The Ministry of Public Works says that it has sent to Congress a detailed description of the road signage that forms part of a US$17.2 million Spanish loan in need of congressional approval. The Senate passed the bill, but opposition party deputies rejected the project on grounds of lack of information and conflict with the borrowing policies announced by President Hipolito Mejia in a 27 February 2002 address to the nation. The deputies deny that the Ministry included any attachments providing the specific details of how the money would be used. The Ministry of Public Works says it also sent the attachments to El Caribe newspaper but the newspaper says it, like the Chamber of Deputies, never received the detailed report on where the signs would be located. According to a press release from the Ministry of Public Works, the US$17.2 million would be used to install 223,722 meters of signage along 11,467 kilometers of highways and secondary roads. The signage would cost approximately RD$1,564 per meter of signage, which Alejandro Montas of the PLD, and president of the construction commission of the Chamber of Deputies, says is excessive. Montas said that signs vary from RD$600 to RD$800 per meter, depending on their type. El Caribe newspaper broke the story on the irregularities surrounding the loan and the road signage project to be carried out by a newly-formed Spanish company that is unknown to have done any construction work in the past. |
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Deputy could be arrested PRD deputy Radhames Garcia could be arrested once the Chamber of Deputies ends its extraordinary session this week, according to Supreme Court Chief Justice, Jorge Subero. Prior to being sworn in as deputy, Garcia had been arrested for trafficking illegal Chinese immigrants while he was a Dominican consul in Haiti. Alfredo Pacheco, spokesman for the PRD block in the Chamber of Deputies, said the party deputies would not vote to revoke his immunity and PRSC deputy and president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rafaela Alburquerque, has also said that Garcia is due the privileged treatment granted to deputies by law. The case against him is pending in the judiciary and Garcia skirted his arrest by upholding his congressional immunity. President of the Supreme Court of Justice Jorge Subero Isa declared, however, that he could be arrested once the session closes for the holidays. |
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Symbolic human chain to protect the dunes Bishop Freddy Breton of the Bani said that he is coordinating a visit of ecology-minded people of Bani to the dunes to protest the irregular trucking of sand from the protected area. He said the protestors would form a symbolic human chain to defend this natural resource, which is considered to be a form of protection against natural disasters. The Listin Diario has denounced the extraction of the material and has urged the people of Bani to protest. Miguel Franjul, executive editor of the Listin Diario, will lead this civic activity. |
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Conflict of interest in CDE audit? Former president of the Association of Industries, Nazir Alemany, questioned the ethics of allowing the firm of Grant Thornton Dominicana, which audits the operations of the Union Fenosa power distributors, to similarly audit the CDE. Alemany is a member of the board of the Fondo Patrimonial de las Empresas Reformadas and was involved in organizing the tender for the selection of the auditing firm, in which Price Waterhouse Cooper also competed for the contract. Grant Thornton reportedly won the contract due to its lesser bid. El Caribe newspaper reports that prior to the finalization of the selection of the auditing firm, Superintendent of Power Julio Cross abandoned the session and was visibly bothered. |
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Pilot admits to having made 19 trips this year Pilot Luis Madera, who is on trial in the US for drug trafficking, told Rumbo newsweekly magazine that in 2001 he traveled to the United States 19 times while accompanying pilot Rafael de la Cruz. The pilots together flew a plane that for many months was identified as an aircraft for the use of the advance team of President Hipolito Mejia. The chief of the advance team, Pedro Julio (Pepe) Goico is currently being detained for investigation at the Ministry of Armed Forces. Madera and De la Cruz were arrested in Fort Lauderdale with a shipment of 455 kilos of cocaine in the Caribair airplane. Statements made during the trial implicate various unnamed high-ranking Dominican government officials. |
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Dinner for 5,000 Santo Domingo Mayor Roberto Salcedo will be hosting 5,000 poor Dominicans at an open-air dinner to take place on the Malecon of the capital. A 1.5-kilometer table will run from Maximo Gomez to the Obelisco and a special chapel has been set up, where Cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez will bless the dinner. The city government has distributed the invitations through neighborhood groups, community organizations and churches. Father Rogelio Cruz criticized the political motives of the dinner and said that nobody would attend from his Cristo Rey community. The dinner starts at 8 pm tonight. Reportedly, 98 percent of the food to be distributed was donated by private companies. |
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Befriending the son of the President In an open letter to his two boys published in El Caribe, former District Attorney Francisco Dominguez Brito tells them about Ramon Hipolito Mejia Gomez, son of President Hipolito Mejia. Recently, Ramon Hipolito’s name was linked to a contraband scandal along the border. This motivated him to write an open letter defending his innocence to his daughter, Rosalia, which was published in the press. Dominguez Brito, who became known for his outstanding performance as attorney general during the second half of the government of Leonel Fernandez, ran for senator of Santiago for the PLD but did not win the seat. Subsequent news reports showed that many of the voting station elections had been rigged against him. Regardless, Dominguez Brito defends his friend, Ramon Hipolito Mejia Gomez, and tells his sons that he would like them to grow up to be like his friend and university classmate. “Just as was true 20 years ago when I met him, he is a good example to follow, because he is the same person and because above all he has what is missing so much in this nation, which is a sense of honor.” |
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Dominican-American dies in Afghanistan El Caribe newspaper reports that 22-year-old Steven Checo, son of Dominican immigrants, is one of the first 17 casualties of the US war in Afghanistan. Checo’s parents are Arelis and Nelson Checo, originally from San Jose de las Matas, Santiago, now living in Elizabeth, New Jersey after emigrating to the US 34 years ago. Checo is the second soldier of Dominican descent to have died in the Afghanistan war. Sargent Checo was a parachutist in the US army and is the second soldier of Dominican descent to have died in the troubled region of Afghanistan. The first, 19-year-old Geovanny Maria, died in November of last year. |
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Eye clinic The eye clinic at the Elias Santana Hospital, better known as the Clinica Los Americanos, inaugurated a modern cataract surgery pavilion with high technology and specialized personnel. First Lady Rosa Gomez de Mejia attended the event in Los Alcarrizos and was accompanied by the director of the hosptial, leading Dominican eye surgeon Juan Batlle, and missionaries William and Janice Hunter, the founders and administrators of the center. The new installations cost more than RD$6 million and the center is designed so that a poor person from the interior of the country affected by cataracts can arrive at the clinic, get a diagnosis and be operated on the same day. The center assists more than 3,500 patients every year, with half of those patients coming from Santo Domingo and the other half from towns of the interior. About 350 to 400 patients are seen every day by the nearly 40 physicians working at the center, including 18 eye doctors. The cost for a first consultation is RD$129 and RD$100 for subsequent follow-ups. This compares to a range of RD$700 to RD$1,200 in a private clinic. The center at Elias Santana also serves as a training hospital for physicians from around the world. Hunter said that physicians from Uruguay, Paraguay, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Haiti, Venezuela, Mexico, Kurdistan, Ecuador and other countries are on their staff. |
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Green light for the Sans Souci development? El Caribe newspaper reports that a Spanish company identified as Grupo Barcelona would begin the development of an ambitious tourist project at Sans Souci. According to reports, Grupo Barcelona will invest US$525 million in the project, which would include the construction of a bridge linking the area to the Colonial City. Minister of Tourism Rafael Subervi Bonilla said that the project is currently pending the approval of the President for its immediate implementation. A tender to choose the developer was not held. President Hipolito Mejia made the announcement when boarding the M/S Mistral (Festival Cruises) that docked at Sans Souci over the weekend, to ring in the start of the winter cruise ship season. Describing the project, Minsiter Subervi said that there are plans for a luxury hotel with convention hall, casino, golf course, cruise ship terminal, apart-hotel, shopping mall and entertainment centers. The Naval Academy and other Navy facilities will need to be relocated. |
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Discussing incentive travel in Punta Cana The Society of Incentive Travel Executives (SITE) will host SITE University next 10-13 June in Punta Cana. The event will take place at the Melia Caribe Tropical and promises to deliver new insights, techniques and information to travel executives booking incentive travel. Brenda Anderson, president of SITE was in the Dominican Republic last week to coordinate the meeting. For more information, email hq@site-intl.org or call 312-321-5148. |
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Puerto Plata booked for the holidays Puerto Plata hotels are fully booked for the New Year holidays, according to Hans Dannenberg, the new director of the Puerto Plata Hotel Association. He forecast a record winter season for the Puerto Plata region. Dannenberg said that new charter flights from Air Canada Vacations and Columbus Air began flying into Puerto Plata International Airport as of last week. To mark the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Puerto Plata last week, 40 journalists arrived on the inaugural flight of Columbus Air. The journalists participated in the city park celebrations as well as a cultural tour of the Victorian houses of Puerto Plata. Dannenberg explained that the Puerto Plata Hotel Association is working to integrate the people of Puerto Plata with the tourism industry, and the 500th anniversary celebrations proved how successful this effort could be. 31-year-old Dannenberg was appointed to the post of Director of the Hotel Association this past November on the merits of his vast experience working with the aviation and hotel industries in the Dominican Republic. He has held prestigious posts in Dominican tourism offices in Florida, Texas, Paraguay, Colombia and Turks & Caicos. The new offices of the Puerto Plata Association of Hotels are located at Casa Olivares, Calle Beller 72, esq. Villanueva. The association comprises 20 hotels, of which 14 are located in Playa Dorada. The association will also be working closely with the hotel associations of Sosua, Cabarete, Rio San Juan and Luperon, in order to establish a great federation that will work to consolidate and increase all travel to the north coast. To contact the association, call 809-261-1335 or 809-261-4441 - Fax 809-320-0872 - or mobile phone 809 879-5008. Email is hansahpp@hotmail.com |
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Christmas Concert The gala concert of the Cathedral Choir is again slated for Christmas Day, 25 December. The choir will be accompanied by members of the National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Maestro Jose Delmonte. Delmonte announced that Dominican folklore songs have been included in this year’s program of 24 Christmas carols. The concert is free and will begin at 8pm, however, those interested in obtaining a good seat should arrive no later than 7pm. The Santo Domingo Cathedral is located in front of Columbus Park in the Colonial City. |
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Baseball Standings Teams W L Diff. Aguilas 31 17 --- Estrellas 27 21 4 Gigantes 26 22 5 Escogido 25 23 6 Licey 19 29 12 Azucareros 16 32 15 |
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