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Put your house in order, says European ambassador The European Union ambassador to the Dominican Republic Miguel Amado has expressed his concern at what he calls “worrying signs” in the state of Dominican democracy. The recent events in the Chamber of Deputies are causing European nations some “unease”, said Amado, and called for acceleration in the process of modernization and reform of the Dominican state, explaining that the success of this progress was a requirement for continued European support. “Fulfillment of this strategy is fundamental if we are to continue our cooperation.” Nepotism, political patronage and corruption were the three main opponents of democracy, according to Amado, who described the Dominican people as “victims of the unpatriotic and undemocratic disease of corruption,” in common with many other Latin American nations. The ambassador was speaking yesterday at the launch of an international seminar called “Coordination and Efficiency: Key Elements of Good Governance”, attended by Foreign Minister Frank Guerrero Prats, substituting for President Hipólito Mejía, who was due to attend but bowed out at the last minute. According to Miguel Amado, the altercations in Congress have received media coverage in Europe, and the government must keep to its commitment with the European Union Development Fund to effect reform and build a modern and institutionalized political system. Directing his address to the absent President, Amado warned that the Dominican Republic is at a crucial crossroads. “Mr. President, no democratic, modern, fair society which respects human rights can allow corruption,” said Amado, and he warned that legislation was not enough and that enforcement and effective follow-up mechanisms were what were needed. “You have to put your house in order,” he said in conclusion. Prats read a message from President Hipólito Mejía that said corruption in both private and public sectors were a threat to good governance. “Every reform initiative should be aimed at bringing corruption to an end, in public and private administration, which does such harm to the nation’s progress.” Sonia Chirinos, director of PARME (Program for Reform and Modernization of the State, a government agency financed by international donations), said that co-ordination was a key part of good governance. According to her, the President ought to be relieved of some of his responsibilities to better concentrate on “governing, with a capital G.” |
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Mejía promises to rethink 5% export tax Following petitions from the cacao production and export industry received yesterday, President Hipólito Mejía has promised to look into ways of lessening the impact of the newly introduced 5% surcharge on exports to agricultural exporters. “I agree that some percentage, whether it be five or two or one, should be erased from the map of the agricultural producer who is generating dollars for the economy.” Mejía also claimed to be an opponent on taxing exports, saying, “The only thing I added to this 5% was that it should be a transitional measure, for four, five or six months, but I am still thinking about it and may correct it.” He said that it was not his decision but a consequence of the IMF agreement. José Antonio Martínez, president of the national cacao committee, had objected at a meeting at the Presidential Palace to the fact that his producers were being made to pay for the “Baninter void” when it was not they who had “drunk, eaten or danced,” a reference to those who benefited from the massive banking fiasco. Cacao growers were in danger of ruin, said Martínez. “To send part of the bill for the ‘party’ to the traditional export producers is an injustice.” |
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More protests to 5% tax In addition to the cacao producers’ protest, other exporters are considering not paying the 5% tax, pending a decision by the Supreme Court of Justice on the legality of the controversial measure. Hoteliers have already made that decision, and Lisandro Macarulla of AIRD (Dominican industrialists’ association) explained that his members so far have been paying the tax on existing export commitments, but that the AIRD supports the private sector association CONEP’s attempts to have the measure ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. El Caribe reports that the president of Coral Hotels and Resorts, Julio Llibre, has described the introduction of the 5% levy as a “heavy blow” to the tourist industry, just as it is beginning to recover from the slump of 2001/2002. Speaking on TV channel TeleAntillas’ morning show “Uno + Uno”, Llibre said that the tourist sector should be given more recognition as a central part of the economy, and that the sovereign bonds only served to postpone the crisis in the exchange market, masking the contribution to the economy from the tourist industry. |
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CONEP optimism for swift recovery The Listín Diario reports that all the conditions are in place for the Dominican economy to make a full recovery in the short term, according to private sector association CONEP. The association committed itself to tirelessly fight to strengthen Dominican democracy and provide an optimal environment for business. CONEP president Elena Viyella de Paliza said that the business sector is offering all its support to the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to guarantee this end. “We will be watching the process of planning and organization of the elections in the spirit of support, so that the elections are clean and transparent – something we all deserve.” Viyella de Paliza also expressed confidence in the foundations of the Dominican economy, describing them as “solid”. Former CONEP president Marino Ginebra said that although this was the case, in his opinion it would take about three years for the country to return to the conditions of 1999. At the same time, he disagreed with Central Bank governor José Lois Malkum’s statement that it would take five months for the recovery to take off. Ginebra believes that, providing the measures are imposed in the next 60 days, a recovery could begin immediately. |
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Emam Zade sees opportunity in crisis Writing today in El Caribe, economist Frederic Emam Zade says that Dominicans can make the most of the present crisis if costs are minimized and benefits maximized. He explains that while it is too late to reverse the chaos of the past three years of unwise economic policies, some good may come of it. He mentions that the recent disorder has cut the value of the Dominican peso in half, “but that effect has eclipsed the fact that the devaluation doubled the number of pesos per dollar and transferred RD$325 billion to two million Dominicans that have or generate dollars.” He says that this redistribution of wealth is the way the invisible hand of the market is guiding us so we can take advantage of the chaos. He writes that a new government should instate a program to promote our exports, thereby exorcising the anti-exporter slant of our system, eliminating the distortions and differences between free zones and the rest of our economy, and turning the entire territory into one great free zone, with taxes charged to all, but at lower-than-present rates. “We could apply a formula of 10-10-10,” he says, explaining that this would mean a 10% tax on net income of all companies and individuals without exception, 10% ITBIS on all goods and services without exception, and 10% on finished imported goods. To consolidate the relaunch of our exports of tourism services, we could discount 90% of the ITBIS for six months to all hotels, restaurants and suppliers of goods and services. Emam Zade goes one step further, in saying that to really attract more remittances and lure back the capital and new investments, he would expel the traditional anti-capitalist devils and eliminate taxes on capital in the form of interests, dividends, capital gain, transfers between generations for inheritances and all donations. Emam Zade even goes as far as to focus on the development of a true business stock exchange. He said to stimulate a true stock exchange, the new government could exonerate companies that sell more than 90% of their shares to at least 10,000 shareholders from paying income taxes for a non-renewable period of 10 years. Emam Zade is the director for economic development of the Fundacion Global Democracia y Desarrollo, the think tank center under former President Leonel Fernandez. |
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Malkum favors “drastic measures” for electricity sector El Caribe reports that Central Bank Governor José Lois Malkum has declared the current capitalization strategy in the electricity sector ineffective, saying that the only way of bringing the crisis to an end would through government intervention. “The government is in a position to take on this commitment. It can no longer tolerate the current situation,” said Malkum. A decision to take over the three companies Edesur, Edenorte and Edeeste would be made once a reply is received from the Inter-American Development Bank – Edenorte and Edesur’s main creditor – on the request that they repossess the companies if they show signs of going bankrupt. “While we continue like this, we are going nowhere – and we are not fooling anyone but ourselves,” said Malkum. The accumulation of debts, according to him, means that “one day the system will explode.” The CB governor is of the opinion that it was never viable or sustainable to have a structure in which the power generation companies and the suppliers are separate, and he now advocates “vertical integration” of the companies into one entity. For this to take place changes would have to be made to the law, but Malkum rejected the possibility of the permanent return of power generation and supply to the State sector. |
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Luis Arias distances himself from JCE “irregularities” Central Electoral Board (JCE) president Luis Arias has detached himself from the appointments made during his absence, which provoked cautionary statements from Judge Roberto Rosario, the single PLD representative among the judges. Arias promised to clear up the confusion as soon as possible, and regretted that the JCE’s internal problems should be aired in the public domain. Amid the claims that the appointments of electoral inspectors were made without the required consensus of panel judges, Arias expressed belief that these irregularities were not irremediable and that a solution would be found soon. |
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“Chino” García reappears La Vega Deputy (PRD) Radhamés “Chino” García appeared at Congress yesterday, after several months in hiding. The former consul in the northern Haitian city of Cap Haitien is wanted by authorities for his involvement in the alleged trafficking of illegal Chinese immigrants. García complained that police are harassing his family, including his 80-year-old mother, whose frail health is a result. Although he spoke with reporters off the record, a few details of the outcome of his meeting with new Chamber of Deputies president Alfredo Pacheco and Ovi Saldivar, the speaker for PRD deputies, were gleaned. Hoy newspaper reports that García claimed to be willing to relinquish his parliamentary immunity in order to face justice. Two of his alleged accomplices, both Chinese nationals, have already spent one year in jail for the crime. |
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Tolentino Dipp suggests one candidate option Former Foreign Minister Hugo Tolentino Dipp is suggesting that the PRD field only one candidate against President Hipólito Mejía in the party’s primary election. Tolentino Dipp, as vice-president of the PRD and a strong opponent of re-election, suggested that the Presidential pre-candidates scrap the proposed plebiscite and instead choose the strongest candidate amongst them to challenge Mejía’s Presidential ambitions at a special party convention. He made this suggestion to the eight PRD contenders – Milagros Ortíz Bosch, Hatuey De Camps, Rafael Suberví Bonilla, Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero, José Rafael Abinader, Ramón Alburquerque, Rafael Flores Estrella and José Rodríguez Soldevila – in a six-page letter reprinted in today’s newspapers. The eight pre-candidates favor the plebiscite option, while Mejía and his PPH (Proyecto Presidencial Hipólito - internal party movement campaigning for his re-election) support a party convention. Tolentino Dipp’s letter reads: “It is now time to end the candidacy problems so that the PRD can make confident and constructive proposals to the people”. He also warns that pursuit of individual interests could end up splintering the party and that his “fervent desire” is to preserve the party’s unity, with the aim of “improving social conditions for this great nation of ours.” Hugo Tolentino Dipp served as Hipólito Mejía’s foreign minister until earlier this year, when he resigned over differences of opinion about the President’s decision to support the United States’ position on Iraq. Writing in the Listín Diario, columnist Carlos Márquez lists the obstacles standing in Mejía’s path to re-election: the anti-re-election bloc, the dollar-peso exchange, and the power generation crisis. Márquez writes that the President and his team have to consider the problems and cast them aside if they are to succeed in their ambitions. |
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Hatuey calls for return of Listín PRD party President and pre-Presidential candidate Hatuey Decamps has joined the ranks of those advocating the return of Listín Diario, the oldest Dominican daily newspaper, to its former proprietor, Ramón Báez Romano. “I think the judge’s ruling should be respected and implemented,” said Decamps. The authorities impounded the newspaper and its sister publications in May as part of the Baninter group’s assets. Earlier this month a judge ruled that the confiscated publications should be returned to Báez Romano with immediate effect, but the government has since stalled the process. |
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Vandalism and military excess Carlos Eusebio Reyes, 24, died yesterday of gunshot wounds sustained during repression manoeuvers by security forces at a protest in the impoverished El Tamarindo barrio. Hoy newspaper points out the extreme of the protest, in which vandals, who were both armed and masked, destroyed five OMSA public transport buses, in addition to other vehicles. The protest movement was met with violence from the security force authorities. Reyes, a laborer in an auto body shop, appears to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Witnesses say the fatal shot was fired by an AMET agent, although these are usually unarmed and responsible only for directing traffic. |
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Baby cleared from hospital Santo Domingo's UCE private clinic is embroiled in a traumatic dispute with a Puerto Rican couple (Lyanet Lamas and Tomás Ruiz) unable to pay the steep medical bills incurred for the birth and neonatal care of their baby daughter. The parents are accusing the clinic of keeping the 35-day old infant hostage, while the management maintains the parents had been given an estimate of the costs involved, which total RD$400,000. An agreement has now been reached, and the clinic is denying the parents’ version of events. According to reports, the baby was born prematurely at 31 weeks of gestation, with pneumonia and gastric bleeding, and the mother suffering from pre-eclampsia. The baby now weighs just 3lbs 9oz. Diario Libre reports that the infant was released on Wednesday, 20 August after the parents signed a statement relieving the hospital from any complications in the baby’s health. They also paid US$200 and signed documents that oblige them to make two further payments of RD$147,000. The parents secured the assistance of the president of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, Carlos Vizcarrondo, and took their case to the Puerto Rican press to pressure a solution to the case. |
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US researcher focus on deportees A professor at the John Jay College for Criminal Justice and City University of New York has reported to the Listín Diario that Dominican deportees have become a complex political problem for both the Dominican Republic and the United States. Professor David Brotherton said that new legislation is needed to tackle these problems. Brotherton mapped out life histories of 40 deportees (36 men and 4 women) who were forcibly returned to the Dominican Republic under the provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform Act and the United States Act of Illegal Immigrant Responsibility. These laws provide for the immediate deportation of any person convicted and sentenced to a term of more than one year in US federal prisons. In studying the lives of the deportees, the New York-based scholar found that they did not fit the bill of the homogeneous criminal stereotype but rather formed a heterogeneous group of all types. He found strong stigmatization against the deportees in general. Professor Brotherton’s report was given at the Faculty of Legal and Political Science of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD). |
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Decorations for Pan Am execs Hoy newspaper’s page-two “Coctelera” column reports today that President Hipólito Mejía granted the highest decoration possible to two of his government ministers for their participation in the Pan Am Games. Public Works Minister Miguel Vargas and Sports Minister Cesar Cedeño received the Order of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella in the rank of great silver cross. There is only one higher decoration, which protocol establishes can only be granted to heads of state. Vargas managed the budget for the construction of the RD$3-billion venues of the Games, in addition to several billion more for improvements made to roads and accessways. President Mejía also granted the Order of the Discoverer of America to the president of the Pan American Sports Organization, Mario Vásquez Raña, who is also the president of both the Dominican Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee. The Hoy newspaper commentator recommends the three to search out the best available witchcraft to offset the popular belief that medals come with bad luck. |
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Don Enrique de Marchena Don Enrique (Enriquito) de Marchena, one of the legendary pioneers and promoters of tourism in the Dominican Republic, died last night of complications from diabetes in a medical center in Miami. He was one of the founders of the Costambar residential community in Puerto Plata, a former president of the National Hotel & Restaurant Association and People columnist of The Santo Domingo News, predecessor of dr1.com Prior to falling seriously ill, he was co-host with Fernando Rainieri on their Caribbean Travel Network TV program on Channel 30 (Saturdays at 1 pm, Sundays at 11 am, Wednesdays at 6 am and Friday at 11 pm). Don Enriquito is also remembered for his vast culture. Son of a leading Dominican diplomat, early on he developed a mind for classical music matched by few. His son, lawyer Enrique Eduardo de Marchena, followed in his footsteps and is today the president of the Council for the Promotion of Tourism. His wife Aida Kaluche, and his two daughters also survive him. The wake will be held on Friday, 22 August as of 8 pm at the Funeraria Blandino. The burial is set for Saturday 23 August at 4 pm at the Cristo Redentor Cemetery. |
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