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AIRD, CONEP optimistic for economic recovery Lisandro Macarulla, president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD), expressed his faith in a recovery for the Dominican economy as a result of the stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Macarulla projected that the accord would particularly aid the productive sector, increase confidence in the banking sector, reduce inflation and interest rates and improve the country’s balance of payments. The positive effects would begin to be felt by the winter, he said. The National Council of Business (CONEP) shares these views. Speaking at a regional meeting of business leaders in Santiago, CONEP president Elena Viyella de Paliza has said that there is less uncertainty now that the dollar rate is going down and that the IMF agreement will have positive effects on the Dominican economy. |
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Traders call for price reductions The Traders Federation (FDC) has called on manufacturers and producers to reduce their prices in light of the recent fall in the dollar-peso exchange rate. FDC president Iván García told Listín Diario that if the dollar reaches a projected stable rate of RD$25 or RD$26, “there is no reason why the public should continue to pay high prices for basic goods and miscellaneous items.” García explained that although the dollar-peso rate had declined from RD$35 to RD$30 in the last week, traders were still waiting for it to stabilize. “We hope the downward trend continues and that it settles at a realistic level, because when this takes place we will exhort manufacturers to reduce their prices so that we can pass it on to the consumers.” García also said that he has called on his members to buy minimum quantities of supplies in anticipation of cost reductions in the near future. When questioned about the practice of raising prices and keeping them high, he assured that the prices “would go down”. Meanwhile, the president of the FAI (Industrial Associations Federation) Ignacio Méndez has announced that the group’s members plan to carry out a pricing review with adjustments in mind, depending on the dollar rate. Ignacio Méndez said that importers were looking forward to lower customs charges, which in turn would lead to lower prices for Dominican consumers. Today’s papers report that the dollar’s downward trend was stalled yesterday at a rate of RD$31 to US$1. |
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Venezuela suspends fuel shipments The Dominican Petroleum Refinery confirmed the fact that Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. has suspended its fuel dispatches to the Dominican Republic. The president of the Refinery, Amaury Justo Duarte, said that there will not be a scarcity in supply, however, because the country is sourcing petroleum in other markets. News sources indicate that the real reason behind the stoppage is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ repeated complaint that former Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez is conspiring against him from his residence in Santo Domingo. |
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Baninter latest Judge Eduardo Sánchez Ortíz has begun to look into the allegation that Baninter was operating a parallel bank to defraud depositors of their money. Lawyers for Baninter vice-president Vivián Lubrano de Castillo, one of those in police custody and implicated in the RD$55-billion fraud and asset laundering, is seeking her release from detention. She has been held for three months, 40 days of which were spent in a private clinic. Lubrano’s lawyers are claiming that her health is being affected, as they seek release for both her and disgraced Baninter president Ramón Báez Figueroa. Lawyers for Báez Figueroa have complained about the slow progress of the case. A third key suspect accused of complicity in the Baninter charges, businessman Luis Alvarez Renta, has already been released from custody for health reasons. The decision to release Lubrano now lies in the hands of Attorney General Victor Céspedes Martínez, according to Santo Domingo District Attorney Máximo Artisty Caraballo. The practice of releasing high-profile prisoners on supposed health grounds is common in the Dominican Republic, although has recently been subject to some criticism. |
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Bus route dispute ends in tragedy The latest eruption of violence between rival bus operators Conatra and Fenatrano on the Santo Domingo-San Cristobal route has left one man dead and one seriously injured and caused around 100 people, including Fenatrano transport union leader Juan Hubieres, to be taken into police custody yesterday. Félix Manuel Cosme Navarro, 64, burned to death inside a minibus on the San Cristobal highway, while bus driver Juan Antonio Rodríguez suffered a life-threatening bullet wound at the 27 de Febrero/Av. Isabel Aguiar intersection in Herrera. Cosme Navarro’s son, a Fenatrano driver who was also injured in the incident, is accusing the police of causing his father’s death. The disturbances caused serious traffic delays in the area and many commuters had to remain overnight in the capital as no buses would take them back to San Cristobal for the rest of the day. Dozens of Conatra and Fenatrano transport buses were destroyed in the disputes. Hoy newspaper reports that shared taxis took advantage of the situation by tripling their fares for passengers wishing to travel between San Cristobal and the capital. The Listín Diario reports that later in the day, following a five-hour meeting, Conatra and Fenatrano were able to reach an agreement on sharing the route. But Sonia Monegro, wife to Juan Hubieres of Fenatrano, said on the CDN talk show this morning, that they were not aware of any such agreement. News commentators say the root of the problem is the surplus of bus seats that resulted from the millions spent by the government to outfit the politicized, unionized bus companies with newer units. These contributions were made with an eye on forestalling any protests that could stem from the increases to the price of fuel and other cost of living issues. Given the excess capacity, the traditionally anti-competition unions are battling to defend their exclusive rights to bus routes and members. |
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Law-makers or law-breakers? The main editorial in El Caribe sees irony in the fact that the Chamber of Deputies is processing legislation obliging all public officials to declare the totality of their assets upon taking office, the paradox being that most of the deputies themselves have not done this, in direct contravention of Law 82. A year after taking up their posts, only 2 of the 32 senators, and 23 of the 150 deputies, have made such declarations. “It is inconceivable that the institution for legislation should also be an arena to disrespect the very same laws establish there,” observes the writer, adding that legislation is of no use when it ends up on the shelf gathering dust. This situation does not do much to abet the public’s confidence in politicians. What is needed is an “ethical commitment” to pursue these goals. Concludes the editorial, “We should not applaud law-breakers who live as though they were honorable. Let us create, through the family and through education, a new type of citizen. Maybe then we will have better politicians.” |
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PRD on the verge of a solution? PRD president and Presidential pre-candidate Hatuey Decamps has predicted that an end to the party’s internal crisis is in sight. Although the seven Presidential pre-candidates contesting Hipólito Mejía’s re-election bid have not yet reached a definite agreement, they are due to meet on Monday to finalize their plans for the proposed plebiscite on re-election, on which they agree in principle. According to Henry Mejía, the party’s electoral director, practical preparations are already underway and the plebiscite could take place in the next month. Vice-President and PRD Presidential pre-candidate Milagros Ortíz Bosch is claiming that Hipólito Mejía’s popularity rating is lower than some of the other PRD Presidential pre-candidates. She described the Agriculture Minister’s announcement of new social programs as evidence of the Mejía camp’s “desperation”. Speaking in a TV interview on the Telesistema (Channel 11) “El Día” program she repeated her belief in the proposed polling of party members to determine their opinion on the re-election issue. She added, however, that if the plebiscite result should favor re-election, then “we will all be re-electionists” and she would join the President’s campaign. Ortíz Bosch also declared that political patronage would halt once Dominicans had secure access to health care, education and food and the country was on the track to balanced development. Pre-candidates Ramón Alburquerque, Rafael Flores Estrella and Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero expressed their fear that the recently announced proposal to transfer funds from different government ministries, including that of education, to the Presidential office meant that the funds could be made available to support the President’s re-election ambitions. Flores Estrella described the move as “unscrupulous and abusive”, stating that “when the PPH [internal PRD campaign promoting the President’s re-election bid] gets hold of public funds and resources… it is a crime.” |
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More on the transferred funds Hoy newspaper reports on statements by Administrative Secretary of the Presidency Alberto Atallah on the use of funds to be shuffled within the Ministry of Education and other cabinets. Atallah was promoted last year to his current post after being Superintendent of Banks and overseeing the development of the banking crisis in the Dominican Republic. According to Atallah, of the RD$950.4 million that will be transferred to be managed by the Presidency, RD$137 million will be delivered to OMSA to subsidize the transport of its passengers. OMSA has already announced that its service will be free of charge on Sundays. Speaking at the Presidential Palace, Attalah gave more details of the reallocation of the RD$109 million within the Ministry of Education. He said the money that would have been used for teaching programs and for school breakfast programs would now go to support the payment of pensions and retirement plans for teachers and to fund the RD$300 a month social-assistance payments to mothers with children in the school system. Furthermore, Atallah explained that RD$139 million will go to the Ministry of Armed Forces to cover expenditures for security matters taken on by the department on occasion of the two-week long Pan American Games. According to him, another RD$5 million was allotted to the Ministry of Public Health to cover a fumigation program during the Pan Am Games. |
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PRSC destined for obscurity? PRSC executive committee member and president of the municipal league (LMD) Amable Aristy Castro has warned that a poor performance for the PRSC in the 2004 Presidential election could result in the demise of his party. He called on the PRSC’s Presidential candidate, Eduardo Estrella, to unite the party by bringing on board the dissenting faction, which includes Jacinto Peynado, Carlos Morales Troncoso, Federico Antún Batlle and Héctor Rodríguez Pimentel. Peynado lost the primary election to Estrella and has claimed since that the election was tainted by fraud. Aristy said that Estrella lacked the nerve (“le faltan pantalones”) to unify the party, but that the PRSC could not afford the luxury of playing a foolish role in next year’s elections, which could ultimately spell its death. Nevertheless, there is ample time, in Aristy’s opinion, to work on a compromise to restore the party’s harmony and avoid a bleak outcome. |
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APD fears election delay tactics Minority party APD (Alliance for Democracy) has issued a statement warning that there are troublesome forces at play in local politics, whose interest is to sabotage or even postpone next year’s Presidential elections. Party leader Max Puig lists a number of events that in his view point to an attempt to undermine the smooth running of the elections, including the recent news that a computer virus had downed the JCE (Central Electoral Board) information systems. This incident led to the disturbing speculation that telecommunications regulator INDOTEL and the police’s special investigation branch (DNI) had intervened in the JCE’s systems. The APD also condemned the use of public money, including international loans, to influence the people’s voting decisions, criticizing that some important decisions in the JCE have been reportedly taken unilaterally, without executing the correct consultation procedures. The party called on the JCE to adhere to the law and to publish its schedule without further delay. |
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A step backwards for electoral organization Aura Celeste Fernández, the lawyer and former judge on the Central Electoral Board (JCE) that proved in 1996 that Dominicans can hold organized, transparent and fraud-free elections, alerted in an El Caribe interview that the DR has reverted to the culture of electoral fraud prevalent during the governments of Joaquín Balaguer (1966-1978 and 1986-1996). Fernández said that the present members of the JCE do not promote transparency and impartiality in the electoral process. The judge told of several delays in the restructuring of the electoral boards and in correcting the fact that numerous citizens have two Ids. She was critical that no action had been taken since the PLD representative judge denounced irregularities in the appointments being made by the JCE. Speaking on “Despierta con CDN” on Channel 37 regarding the preparations being made for the May 2004 elections, she said: “There are going to be opportunities for fraud.” She added that things are not being done when they should and that the recent fracas at the Chamber of Deputies on occasion of the election of its new president was a prelude of what could happen with the elections in 2004. |
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Less child abuse The national police force has released statistics on reported cases of child abuse in the first six months of this year, which show a decline of 13.6% on the figure for the equivalent period last year. The lead story in El Caribe reports that the total number of cases for January to June 2003 was 621, while in 2002 there were 719. The majority of cases involve girls, but there is a growing incidence of cases of boys who bring accusations of abuse. These statistics comprise charges of cruelty, neglect and sexual abuse, but represent accusations, not prosecutions. |
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Dead Haitians victims of trafficking It appears that the 12 Haitians found dead at different points along the Dominican-Haitian border earlier this week were victims of criminal immigration rings, reports Hoy newspaper. Senators for the southern border provinces of Pedernales and Independencia, Angel Dignocrates Perez and Dagoberto Rodriguez Adames, have criticized the inhumane practices of the traffickers, who apparently left the illicit immigrants to die of dehydration and exposure in remote arid areas. The traffickers include Haitians and Dominicans, who charge US$50 to US$100 for their services. The army is not able to cover the entire border area, despite its best efforts, said the senators, who both represent the ruling PRD party. They called on the authorities on both sides of the border to carry out educational work to prevent people from taking these risky offers. |
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Unusual deportation case El Caribe reports that a 19-year-old Dominican man legally residing in the United States has been deported because his mother was found to have contracted a fraudulent matrimony with a Puerto Rican man in order to obtain US citizenship. Juan Diego, who was hoping to enlist in the US armed forces and become a citizen, found himself on a flight to Santo Domingo’s Las Americas airport yesterday. Ironically, his mother and sister remain in the US. Family members insist that the marriage had been genuine, but that it had later failed, and that the woman’s husband had denounced her to the immigration authorities to gain revenge. |
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