President Hipolito Mejia said he would veto any bill that proposes to create new provinces. PRD legislators are lobbying for the creation of five more provinces. Newspaper reports indicate the outcome would just be more unproductive government jobs. Mejia speaking on the program "Once a Week" produced on the state television channel, answered questions by Ramon Colombo and Juan Taveras. President Mejia blasted what he called "a Mafia" that is playing with the exchange rates to the detriment of the Dominican people. He was emphatic in saying that this was the next to last time he would talk about the exchange rate. The Listin Diario reports that the President was visibly bothered by the questions regarding the recent rise in the cost of a dollar. He said that the next time he speaks on the subject it would be to announce strong measures. He hinted that what happened to the Edes (electricity distributors recently re-nationalized) could happen to the entire currency exchange system. The President said that while he supports free enterprise, he is against monopolies, oligopolies or the lack of respect for the majority of the citizens.
President Hipolito Mejia tossed away as unimportant the linking of presidential legal advisor to drug trafficking by a US government officer in Puerto Rico. Mejia said the statement was a "disparate" or rubbish. Commenting on the cancellation of the B1/B2 visa of his close aid, President Mejia said: "That is rubbish, rubbish. There are many people who have lost their visa for two or three months and then get it back. I know of hundreds of those cases, that is normal." Gomez Mazara's visa was removed in December, but only now has the US mission confirmed this. He retains his visa as a government officer. So far, the Dominican government has not requested an explanation of the statement from the US government official. Meanwhile, the Matias y Berroa cartoon in El Caribe newspaper today shows a government officer commenting after being told that a call from the US consulate had been received to inform him that his visa had been suspended… "It does not matter… I still have my master-card…!"
When asked by the press to comment on the revoking of the visa of presidential legal advisor Guido Gomez Mazara for supposed drug links, Cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez recommended President Mejia check those who accompany him. He expressed his indignation after the scandal caused by the revoking of the personal visa of Guido Gomez Mazara. He commented on other named government officers that have been killed or involved in criminal acts. Specifically regarding Gomez Mazara, the Cardinal said it is up to the latter to decide whether he resigns or not. "The government needs to question itself if it should keep at high echelons of power a person who not for nothing has had his visa revoked. I think, without doubt, that this is something that calls for concern," he stated. But the Cardinal also blasted past governments. "All have conducted themselves in the same way, this and the past government. Nothing has been done to fight corruption." He said that beyond an economic or political crisis, the country is undergoing a moral crisis. The Cardinal spoke during the graduation of 350 new professionals at the Universidad Nordestana de San Francisco de Macoris. During the graduation, he received a honoris causa degree.
Hoy reports in today's edition that President Mejia has said that "no matter whom it hurts" the government would not pay any more money to the Cogentrix generating facility in San Pedro de Macoris until a new contract is negotiated. Mejia said that his government had paid US$42 million dollars to the Cogentrix people and now these want US$18 million dollars more while maintaining their generators turned off. Mejia said that he didn't know if the British government held shares in the Cogentrix plant but that, to him, this made no difference. "Nobody has the right to do what they have done here," said the President. He said that they are obliging the government to purchase the most expensive electricity in the world. Mejia said that although their fuel tanks are full of diesel, the facility has been shut down for ten months. The Cogentrix contract was negotiated in the Fernandez government and includes several clauses considered very onerous to Dominican consumers.
The Listin Diario reports that judicial embargos on the accounts of the renationalized power distributors EdeNorte and EdeSur are obstacles to the new administration that is trying to gather the money to pay the power generator companies. It seems that all the accounts are frozen by embargos due to problems left by the past Union Fenosa administration. Nonetheless, the new administrators say that today, Monday, they have RD$500 million pesos to put on account with the generators. Even the Santiago Municipal Council has placed an embargo on the accounts of EdeNorte for non-payment of the 3% tax established in the General Law on Electricity, that had reached a total of RD$97 million pesos in favor of the Santiago city government. In Santo Domingo West, the city council has placed an embargo to collect RD$22 million pesos. Private individuals also have placed embargos on the accounts of the electricity distributors for civil cases pending in the courts. Meanwhile, President Mejia warned that he would allow the use of the police force to cut power service to anyone that was not paying for it. He said Cesar Sanchez, the head of the CDEEE, has instructions to cut the service to those who do not pay on time.
A former president of the Dominican Refinery, Arturo Martinez Moya, told reporters from the Listin Diario, that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has violated the San Jose Agreement by stopping petrol shipments to the Dominican Republic. Martinez Moya explained that the breakdown in shipments is in no way justified, since the Dominican Republic is up to date in the payments and reception of product. These are the two key elements, according to the former refinery chief, which could justify losing the right to purchase Venezuelan oil, but this has not been the case. Hoy newspaper reported in its Sunday edition that the dispute with Venezuela is costing the Dominican Republic US$12 million a month. The article written by Fausto Adames says that the DR purchased 3.9 million barrels a day of petroleum that Venezuela was pricing at an average of US$25 the barrel. Sources indicate that the country now is buying at US$28 the barrel, sourcing from the US, Trinidad, and Mexico. The source of this information is the Hydrocarbons Department of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Commercial Department of the Venezuelan Embassy in the DR. According to Industry and Commerce, the DR petrol bill from January to February was US$850.2 million. The report forecasts that if petroleum prices continue high and the peso continues to slide against the US$, the gallon of gasoline could cost RD$70 later this year.
On Sunday, the Listin Diario reported that the energy consumers of the country are overpaying by RD$6 billion pesos. The article by Edwin Ruiz says that the sustainability of the financial obligations of the electrical sector depend on a revision of the Madrid Accords. Luis Moreno, of the Institute of Energy at the state-run Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, feels that the negotiations could result in as much as a RD$500 million deduction in consumer billing each month. According to the figures used by the institute, the electricity generators are overpricing their costs by as much as US$0.0125 cents per kilowatt/hour. This figure, combined with the indexing that entered into effect in July of this year, brings the total over-pricing to US$0.02? per kilowatt/hour, which adds up to RD$500 million pesos a month in potential savings. Saturday's edition of the Listin Diario carried the report that "independent" technicians from Latin America would evaluate the recent purchase of the electricity distributors. According to declarations made by Carlos Despradel, this is a necessary step in order for the purchase to permit the Dominican Republic to continue with the IMF standby arrangement. On Sunday, President Mejia promised to cut the electricity to the "deadbeats" that don't pay for energy.
Headlines over the weekend dealt with energy, taxes and the weather. On Saturday, Hoy announced that the dam at Sabaneta in the province of San Juan de la Maguana was overflowing. The Civil Defense authorities issued a warning for the local population to be alert. Rear Admiral Radhames Lora Salcedo, the head of the National Emergency Commission, warned that the flow of the San Juan River could increase over the next few days. El Caribe newspaper reported that the peak reservoir levels had been reached at the Hatillo, Rio Blanco and Sabaneta dams. Tropical Storm Mindy, the cause of the recent downpours, came within 50 miles of the Samana Peninsula.
El Caribe reports that the Group of Seven presidential hopefuls is ready for the national plebiscite this coming Sunday. The ballots are printed. Henry Mejia, the director of elections for the PRD party, says that the logistics are in place and that the Central Electoral Board has nothing to do with the case. The PRD plebiscite will question whether the generality of the party considers presidential re-election to be within the party's doctrine. PRD president Hatuey de Camps declared that the vote will be this Sunday the 19th. The PRD has named 32 commissions to handle the voting in each province. The PRD has 1.7 million persons in its electoral list. Even voters in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Miami will have a chance to express their opinions. Diario Libre focuses on a secondary problem that could become primary. Within the group of Seven, both Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch and Tourism Minister Rafael Subervi Bonilla seek to be the alternative to Hipolito Mejia running for President. The newspaper speculates that if Subervi does not get the support of the seven, he would be swayed to continue to support President Mejia in the latter's interest in re-election, considerably reducing the strength of the Seven and weakening the call for PRD members to participate in the plebiscite.
The entire business community has expressed a very strong negative to x-raying of freight containers in Customs at a cost of US$25 and US$90 dollars per container. They request that President Mejia veto the bill that imposes the service on exporters. Exporters argue this new imposition would take them out of the marketplace. The National Council of Business (Conep) opposes the measure because it considerably increases cost of the product and the competitiveness of Dominican exports. Conep says that the bill violates the Constitution because it creates a monopoly for a private company. "How are we going to talk about judicial security and competitiveness in an environment where the business sector is subject to continuous surprises? The Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic also rejected the mechanism considering it lacks the necessary transparency because it has not been openly discussed with the sectors that will be affected. Lisandro Macarrulla, president of the AIRD, said that a tender was not held, and nevertheless a monopoly was granted to the private company, which is prohibited in the Constitution. He criticized that the contract contains clauses that guarantees the profitability. Who will be cashing the returns is suspect, he said.
The Dominican Association of Exporters (Adoexpo) is warning that the imposition of the 5% tax on all exports of goods and services will cause a sharp rise in unemployment. The tax had been imposed by presidential decree in August, but was rejected by the Supreme Court of Justice that ruled the only Congress can create taxes. To make matters constitutionally right, President Hipolito Mejia sent the tax for approval to Congress. Samir Rizek, the president of Adoexpo, in an interview with Hoy newspaper, pointed out that the tax would directly affect the competitiveness of Dominican products abroad. Other members of the exporter's association said that the government should take a hard look at the currency reserves of the Central Bank, now at an all time low of US$97 million dollars, according to the Hoy report.
Exporter Jose Antonio Martinez Rojas, writing in Hoy's Saturday issue, urges farm producers and exporters to close ranks against the proposed 5% export tax sent by the Executive Branch back to Congress. Martinez points out that the tax would hurt the agricultural producers most of all, since the 5% would be reduced from their sale price, and this would affect the large and smallest producers. Martinez wonders why the farm sector of the country has to pay for the mismanagement and excesses of the banking sector when "it was a crab that someone else ate." He speculates that the government finds it easier to penalize the defenseless and nationally widespread farming sector, instead of going against the compact and powerful banking sector, whose members caused the problems in the first place. Martinez says that the revenues the tax would collect would only serve to continue paying for the "bottles and big bottles" (bottellas y botellones), or the bloated public payroll. He recommends that the President imitate the legislators that have announced the cancellation of a hundred advisors that only showed to collect their checks at the end of the month. "That way, great savings would be had every 15 days and the country would not have to resort to drastic and impopular measures such as those that are being suggested."
Members of the Dominican business community met with members of the Executive Committee on Commercial Policy to express their views on the free trade agreement now in the works between the Dominican Republic and the United States. William Malamud, vice-president of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic, Manuel Enrique Tavares and Manuel Alejandro Grullon, president of the Banco Popular Dominicano met with representatives of the US Office of the United States Trade Representative and expressed their support for the Free Trade Agreement. Malamud said that such an accord would promote a more efficient government and greater transparency in the public and private sectors. Grullon said that stronger commercial and economic ties would result, and Tavares, the head of the Itabo Free Zone said that the Free Zone experiment in the Dominican Republic proved that the country could compete on the world market. Labor representatives from both countries were also at the meeting and so were members of the International Intellectual Property Association. Other special interest groups that were present were the Association of Clothing and Shoe Manufacturers of the US and the Federation of Milk Producers of the US.
The Florida Marlins, facing elimination after losing an 11-inning heartbreaker on Friday night, were able to hold off Sammy Sosa and the powerful Cubs offensive with a complete game, 2 hit, 11-strikeout performance by Josh Beckett. The 4-0 Marlin victory sends the series back to Chicago for the 6th game on Tuesday. Carl Pavano goes for the Marlins and the Cubs counter with Mark Prior.
A full day of rain led to Sunday's game 4 between the Yankees and Red Sox to be postponed until 8 pm. tonight. It was hoped that the weather cooled the tempers on both sides after a very emotional Saturday at Fenway Park. Pedro Martinez, in an extraordinary pitching match up with Roger Clemens struggled mightily and was pounded for 4 runs in 7 innings in a 4-3 loss. Martinez lost his composure in the 4th inning after giving up a walk and two hits. In yet another ugly headhunting incident to add to his record, Pedro threw behind Karim Garcia's head moments after a double by Hideki Matsui gave the Yankees the lead. Martinez's track record for hitting Yankees certainly had some carry over. Earlier this year he hit both Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano, both had to leave the game and missed additional games due to hand injuries. Manny Ramiiez led off in the next frame and his overreaction to a high pitch led to the benches clearing again and more absurdities. Martinez was the last person to come off the bench in the melee, but quickly left his mark after being attacked by Yankee bench coach Don Zimmer, grabbing the 72-year-old by the head and throwing him to the ground.
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