Sunday's El Caribe reported that half the country was without electrical power and questioned whether the blackouts were the fault of mechanical failures or lack of payment. According to Daniel Garcia, a reporter for El Caribe, huge areas of Santo Domingo, even in the Colonial Zone, were blacked out. He emphasized that the Colonial Zone, due to its importance as a tourist area, is usually free from blackouts. Santiago also felt the effects of an 800-megawatt deficit in electricity generation, with 8- to 16-hour blackouts. While some government representatives are citing mechanical problems, reliable sources within the energy sector are saying that non-payment issues are the problem. Superintendent of Power George Reinoso is saying that a problem in the natural gas system of AES Andres and Los Mina caused these two units to go off-line. AES general manager Steve Dahan, however, said that his units were still undergoing testing and that the system would not officially be on-line for three more weeks. Reinoso blames AES Andres for causing a loss of 500 megawatts from the power system. Other sources are saying that lack of payment to the generators is causing many of them to turn off the electricity. Cogentrix, in San Pedro de Macoris, has halted its production "by administrative order" and claims that the government owes them US$18 million. The term, "by administrative order", means, in plain English, "We have not been paid." While the authorities blame technical defects, but according to El Caribe the problems are financial and generation is down to 700 megawatts from the 1,600-megawatt capacity. Jaime Javier, of Edesur, said that most of their circuits were not in operation because of lack of diesel. Meanwhile, the reality is that the generation companies are unwilling to dish out power until their accounts are settled. Furthermore, power generation companies are concerned over who will pay their bills - that they allege add up to US$100 million - now that the government has negotiated a deal to buyback the Union Fenosa shares in the power distributors and has authorized the Spanish company to deduct the agreed upon price of the buyback from the revenues generated by power consumption of the biggest consumers. The deal authorizes a Union Fenosa affiliate, Didoel, to usufruct the revenues produced by the better paying power distributor clients for 12 years. The agreement calls for the governmental CDEEE to take over the distribution as of 30 September. An audit is pending to determine the finalized state of the accounts. An earlier Grant Thornton audit has revealed major irregularities in the power distributor company finances.
Today's papers are reporting that President Mejia has reaffirmed his intention to acquire the 50% share of the two distribution companies held by Union Fenosa, quoting him as saying that the purchase agreement is "irreversible." The government has defended the deal as a way to restructure the power system. He said he preferred to come to a "friendly" deal with Union Fenosa better than sustain a conflict that would end up in court. He acknowledged the World Bank (IMF) and the IDB have expressed their concern over the deal.
Economist Bernardo Vega, today's El Caribe op-ed piece, points out, as he did last week, that the IMF is objecting to the buy-back for two reasons. The first is that the purchase will push the public foreign debt to new heights, in blatant disregard for the IMF letter of intention. Meanwhile, it will also reduce the level of foreign reserves below the agreed upon "floor", as also set out in the IMF letter of intention. Vega says that the monies from the World Bank are meant to be used for reforming the energy sector, not for a counter-reformation by re-nationalizing the distributors. The former ambassador to the United States warns that the conversion of the short-term private debts of EdeNorte and EdeSur, while bringing additional cash flow, will probably not be sufficient to offset the reduction in paying clients, as the "people" will consider the electricity to be "theirs". As a solution, the economist suggests that the Congressional approval process include the acquisition of the two distributors, not by the government, but rather by a separate private entity, such as AES, ENDESA or any of the several Canadian companies that are interested in the business. According to Vega, this solution would not violate the IMF agreements and thus would prevent any further devaluation of the Dominican peso.
While the government removes control of the electric system from the much-despised and inefficient Spanish operators, analysts say there were better ways out. Business consultant Federico Martinez, in an interview with Hoy, said, "I would have let them continue operating and when they could not sustain themselves under market conditions and the interests of the nation, then let them go." By taking over before the companies went forcefully bankrupt, he added, the government assumes a massive amount of debt, after having delivered a completely debt-free company to Union Fenosa at the moment of privatization. The government has agreed to pay back more than US$700 million over a 12-year period, and has guaranteed the revenues on collections of the best-paying clients to Didoel, another Union Fenosa affiliate. Martinez told the newspaper that privatization in Ecuador and Peru worked because the companies did their job and invested, contrary to what has happened here. Martinez says that the Madrid Accord, as negotiated by the Mejia government and which fixes high prices for the purchase of power, stimulates inefficiency among generators. As a result, companies only think short term when investing in power production. According to Martinez, this has led to a proliferation of power generation plants that use expensive bunker c fuel, which causes instability in the service. At the time of capitalization in 1997, bunker generators made up 15% of the supply, while today they generate 40%. He said that AES has been the exception, investing in natural gas plants. He believes the whole idea behind capitalization is to have generators install low-cost power plants and the investment recovered long term. This, however, did not happen here with rare exceptions. Martinez would like to see the installation of a transmission line to deliver the power to the north, or an electrical superhighway. Martinez also says that the government needs to call a tender with one whole year's advance warning. He says no important international company is going to get involved in a tender called a mere three months in advance. For his overview of what's with the power situation, see http://www.dr1.com/news/2003/082803_electricity.shtml
The president of EGTT Edominicana, Ives Garnier, told Diario Libre that Major Domingo Batista of Santo Domingo Este obliged him to endorse 50% of the shares in the garbage collection company to Batista's representative, Marino Feliz, in order for the city government to make payments on its debts. Both Feliz and Batista have denied their involvement in the supposed bribery. Feliz described his relationship with Batista as that of father and son, and earned a monthly salary of RD$73,000 in the garbage collection company. According to Diario Libre, he began as legal counsel, moving on to the post of operations manager in just three weeks, and eventually holding 90 of the 180 shares of the company, or 40%. Batista also confirmed that his son and sister were employees in EGTT, but said that it was no crime. After Batista recently rescinded the service contract with EGTT, the city government of Santo Domingo Este picked up the full responsibility for collecting the garbage, by which Batista says the city government will have savings of RD$11 million. He said the EGTT Dominicana company was billing RD$16 million a month, and the municipality itself can collect the garbage for RD$5 million. Garnier has since left the country, but his lawyers embargoed the accounts of the Santo Domingo Este municipality in an effort to claim their payments.
President Hipolito Mejia has asked that the Central Electoral Board (JCE) recognize the upcoming PRD convention as the legitimate mechanism for settling his party's candidacy for the Presidential elections of 2004. Mejia said that the PPH group, which is pushing for his re-election, will proceed to request the JCE's sanction of the convention. Mejia was speaking from Bonao, as part of his tour through Santiago, Cotui and La Vega.
Gerrymandering, a term now included in most dictionaries, derives from the political antics of Governor Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts in 1812, when he shuffled electoral districts around to best suit his political party. The term comes from his surname "Gerry" and the word "salamander", and means to divide a state or country so as to give one party special electoral advantages. Hoy reports that the Dominican Congress has created 21 municipalities and 65 municipal districts over the past few years, and many projected creations are still in the legislature. These formations create new bureaucracies that can be of use to the party in power, as part of the political patronage needed to win elections. See the full article on Page 20 of Hoy.
The use of credit cards has risen to new heights in the Dominican Republic, in spite of the fact that some companies charge as much as 9% per month on unpaid balances. According to Candida Acosta, an economic reporter for the Listin Diario, as of 31 July, 2002, the average interest rate charged by the 13 various credit institutions issuing cards in the DR was 5.96%. This year, the rate had risen to 9% per month. Credit card operations are one of the most profitable of commercial banks. Over the weekend, gasoline and diesel prices dropped considerably. Over the past month, premium gasoline has gone down by RD$10 and regular gasoline has fallen RD$8.82. Diesel has not fallen as much, but it is still RD$1.75 cheaper than it was at the beginning of the month.
Over the weekend, 12 houses in Puerto Plata crumbled to the ground and others were more noticeably damaged as aftershocks shook the region. The erosion of Isabel de Torres Mountain has increased, according to eye witness reports. The EGE-Haina generating facility in Puerto Plata will be out of service for at least one month, with repairs needed to anchoring bolts and the supports to the water pumps. President Mejia toured the damaged areas and promised immediate assistance to the people who had lost their homes. Today's El Caribe is reporting that over 200 aftershocks have occurred, the latest taking place yesterday morning and registering 4.6 on the Richter Scale. This followed another strong one on Friday, reported to be a 3.7 magnitude. In Tubagua, on the Gregorio Luperon Highway, six houses fell as a result of the aftershocks. Tubagua is very near the epicenter of the 6.5 quake, and the highway is visibly split. The recent aftershocks have also caused the bell tower structures of San Felipe Cathedral in Puerto Plata to weaken even further, with many fearing that the bells may fall at any moment. Mass is being heard outside the church.
Dominican geologist Eduardo Verdeja questions the report that quantified the depth of the epicenter of last week's earthquake at 10 km. Verdeja studied earthquakes in Japan, where he lived for many years and bore witness in 1995 to the 7.2 quake that shook Kobe. He says the fact that the earthquake was felt in so many distant places leads him to believe it was deeper than 10km. He also says that Puerto Plata does not have hard soils, and if the measurements were as described the destruction on the ground would have been greater. He also forecast that a bigger earthquake could be coming and urged that lessons be learned from the past, with better preparations made by the authorities.
El Caribe reports that 3,000 Dominican children were treated at the Robert Reid Cabral public children's hospitals for burns last year. Most of these injuries were caused in the kitchen and were due to parent's negligence.
Senator Celeste Gomez (Santiago Rodriguez-PRD) says that Friday's murder of 61-year-old Carlos Enrique Everstz Fournier clearly indicates there were sinister forces at play in the death of her brother, the late senator Dario Gomez. "The death of Carlos Everstz is evidence that behind the killing of Dario there are intellectual authors and the information he held is key to solving the crime… If this were not true, he would not have been killed," said Gomez. On 28 June 2002, Everstz Fournier appeared on a TV program and alleged the complicity of high-ranking military officers in the murder of the senator. He named former police chief of homicide, General Rafael Oscar Bencosme Candelier, who he said offered him RD$1 million and an instatement to the police force as a major if he accepted the job of murdering Dario Gomez. Everstz declared that Bencosme was chief of the paramilitary group, Grupo Cobra, created to carry out covert work for the police. During the TV interview, Everstz said his life was being threatened and several others with key information were also in danger of being silenced. Evertsz said the Grupo Cobra was the invention of an army soldier, a nephew of Colonel Espiritusanto, a university student (Carlos Rodriguez) and two other civilians he identified as Raul Martinez Acosta and a woman named Elizabeth. So far, his predictions have been coming true. The first victim was Carlos Rodriguez, who was shot in the head near Avenida Espana, although authorities claimed it was a suicide. One of those arrested by the police and accused of murdering the senator, Carlos Manuel Geronimo Alfonseca (Collares), was killed during a supposed fight in the Monte Plata jail where he was being held. His assassin was Liborio Hernandez, a man serving a 30-year sentence for killing his pregnant wife. Alfonseca's death occurred shortly after another of the five the police had accused of the homicide, Domingo Daniel Minaya, claimed his life was in jeopardy. The government sent Collares, Minaya, Ernesto Melendez Vasquez (El Chino), Ramon Antonio Rosario Taveras (El Gringo) and Pedro Urbano Pina (Kelly) to jail for Gomez' murder. After having been released from jail less than a year ago, Everstz was shot to death by a passing motorcycle rider in Santiago, as he waited for the bus on his way to his security job in a Puerto Plata free zone. Last week, El Nacional newspaper published an account that Everstz had repeated on a TV program that he would be murdered and that he had plans to seek asylum at an embassy. The police appointed Colonel Esteban Roa Castillo, deputy director of investigations criminal, and Major Amin Tejada Vantroi, homicide inspector, to investigate the murder. Everstz worked for many years as an intelligence agent for the army and had bragged of killing 30 to 40 men and women during his career as a secret agent. The son of a Dutch father and a mother of US citizenship, he is also linked to the Servicio de Inteligencia Militar during the Trujillo dictatorship and the Central Intelligence Agency of the USA and trained in Virginia and Panama. On 3 July 2002, the National Drug Control Department (DNCD) acknowledged in a press release that Everstz was on their payroll as an informant, according to a report in El Caribe newspaper.
The Cibao Baseball Stadium was the scene of the investiture ceremony of Santiago's fourth bishop and second archbishop, Ramon Benito de la Rosa y Carpio. Bishop Timothy Broglio, the Papal Nuncio, and Nicolas de Jesus Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez led the ceremonies, which were attended by all Catholic bishops of the Dominican Republic, as well as others from Puerto Rico, Cuba and Panama. Preisident and Mrs. Mejia were also in attendance. De la Rosa y Carpio will take the place of Juan Antonio Flores, who resigned upon turning 75 and requested that Pope John Paul II replace him as archbishop of the province of Santiago. Within the Catholic scheme of ecclesiastic organization, which is based on the old Roman model of parishes, dioceses, and provinces, Santiago encompasses the dioceses of Mao-Montecristi, Puerto Plata, La Vega, San Francisco de Macoris and the city of Santiago. The new archbishop was formerly at the National Sanctuary at the Basilica of La Altagracia, in Higuey. The installation of the new archbishop coincided with the 50th anniversary of the creation of the dioceses of Santiago. The new metropolitan archbishop of Santiago is president of the Conference of the Episcopate, the leading organization of the Roman Catholic Church in the country. De la Rosa y Carpio was ordained a priest in 1965, and studied theology in Rome. He graduated from the Catholic Institute of Paris in 1968 and also studied theology at the Universidad Pontificia Javieriana de Colombia (1984-1987). He was auxiliary bishop of the Diocesis of Santo Domingo, up to when in 1995 he was appointed by Pope John Paul II bisho of La Altagracia in Higuey, his native city. He is secretary general of the Consejo Episcopal Latinamericano (Celam). For more on his background, see http://www.listin.com.do (La Republica, Sunday, 29 September issue)
On Friday, 27 September, Sammy Sosa made baseball history by becoming the first National League baseball player and the third in the Major Leagues to go six consecutive years batting 40 home runs per year. Only Babe Ruth and Alex Rodriguez, who played for the American League, have also accomplished this feat. Sosa scored his 539th homerun, making him the 10th best slugger in Major League baseball history. Sosa also became the player to bat the most homeruns in any 10-year period in the Major Leagues, surpassing the great Babe Ruth. To make matters even better, Sosa's 539th home run was batted in a game in which the Chicago Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the Central Division title - their first in 14 years - making it into the playoffs.
The year 2003 was a great year for Dominican ball players in general. El Caribe reports that 24 Dominicans have made it into the playoffs, including Alex Rodriguez (American League leader in home runs - 47), Pedro Martinez (American League leading pitcher 2.22 average), Alberto Pujols (National League leader in runs batted in - .359 ave.), Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Alfonso Soriano, Angel Berroa, Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, Miguel Tejada, Jose Lima, Jose Guillen, Ramon Ortiz, Rafael Furcal and managers Tony Pena and Felipe Alou. The team with the largest number of Dominican players is the Chicago Cubs, although the highest Dominican concentration can be found at the clubhouse of the San Franciso Giants, who boast the participation of 5 Dominican players in addition to their Dominican manager and coach, Felipe Alou and Luis Pujols, respectively.
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008. DR1. All Rights Reserved.