This morning's papers lead with the news that the government is putting the finishing touches on a revised letter of intent to the International Monetary Fund, according to the Central Bank. This statement appears to come in reaction to intense speculation at the beginning of the week over whether the talks had run aground. Negotiations are described as being "advanced by 90%" and the new letter of intent is meant to be ready for delivery to the IMF mission before next weekend. A pre-requisite for this to go ahead, however, is the approval of the 2004 income budget and the legislation on public expenditure. The Central Bank statement said that the IMF mission had returned to the country from the Thanksgiving break on Thursday 4 December, and had since been engaged in permanent negotiations with the Dominican authorities. The CB affirmed that the government was "committed to reaching an agreement with the IMF with the best interests of the country at heart, guaranteeing that for each and every citizen (the agreement) would mean a path to economic stability and growth, rooted in transparency, governance and social justice.
The government is looking into the possibility of increasing the ITBIS (value-added tax) rate, according to a report in Diario Libre. Presidential Technical Secretary Carlos Despradel told interviewers yesterday on the TeleAntillas morning news magazine "Uno + Uno" that certain products could be subject to an increased levy, although he excluded the possibility that it might include medicines and other essential items. Despradel was speaking about the necessary fiscal reform measures the government is considering to comply with the requirements set by the International Monetary Fund. The authorities must raise an additional RD$35 billion in order to bridge the country's quasi-fiscal deficit.
The LPG (liquid propane gas) shortage eased slightly yesterday, although there is still extensive scarcity with many depots closed and long queues at those that remain open. Gas wholesalers, who attribute the shortage to increased demand over recent weeks, estimate it will take about 15 days to normalize supplies. The government's plan to change the way the fuel is subsidized, which has come under attack from the public transport sector, appears to have been amended. It is now expected that drivers will be eligible for subsidized fuel, along with other small-scale consumers such as individual households. President Hipolito Mejia explained that this sector could not be excluded from the proposed subsidy. "We decided to carry out a more detailed study of all the sectors, because, realistically, if I had signed the decree we would have had problems with the drivers, so in this case we had to be more flexible." The President reiterated that large-scale consumers and industries would not receive the subsidy. Many taxi, bus and 'publico' (shared taxi) drivers have converted their vehicles to run on LPG, which is significantly cheaper than gasoline. The new subsidy plan is due to be announced by the President over the next few days. It is not clear how the subsidies will be administered, but the authorities have already said there would be no return to the coupons system that led to widespread corruption when it was implemented at the start of the Mejia government.
According to the Listin Diario, the Department of Customs has announced that starting today importers must deliver all receipts from the purchase of any dollars used to pay for goods being imported. The government now requires that imports be made with foreign exchange that is purchased from one of the agents authorized by the Monetary Board. The Listin Diario publishes today the list of 66 authorized exchange houses and 14 banks. Customs states that in a case where a company that generates its own foreign exchange is making the import, a bank transfer document must be provided.
It was not the military or regular police force, but rather the director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, Major General Pedro de Jesus Candelier, who headed an operation yesterday in which several currency exchange houses in the Los Mina area of Santo Domingo were closed down for allegedly operating illegally. Candelier, who formerly headed the national police force, is known for his tough approach, and his presence in this clampdown is significant in that it denotes the government's intention to send a clear message to the populace that the authorities mean business. While representatives of the Direccion General de Impuestos Internos (the government tax department) took part in the operation, along with members of the army and banking superintendence, according to Hoy newspaper, the manoeuvre did not have the correct authorization from the banking superintendence. The businesses were closed on grounds they had not paid their ITBIS (value-added tax), nor had they presented receipts to the tax authorities. No one was arrested, but the assets of the businesses would be held by the authorities "until their situation was regularized." Candelier told the press that yesterday's action was the first step in a campaign aimed at "targeting the people and the exchange houses operating on the margins of the law." The initiative comes just two days after President Mejia formed a special army unit to halt the peso's devaluation. The dollar rate dropped yesterday to RD$38.
As if by magic, says Pedro Silverio, the President has ordered the peso-dollar exchange down, and in a matter of days the task should be completed, following a 100% depreciation in the value of the peso over the last three years. Of course, explains the prominent economist writing in El Caribe, it is not that simple. He feels that this new "stability by intimidation" mechanism for controlling the exchange market will not have the desired effect, and is an indication of the government's increased desperation - not a measure of its courage. This type of action has failed time and time again, and will fail here, says Silverio, in his weekly column. Even in Cuba, with its "more intelligent intelligence services", exchange-rate control has not been achieved. It is regrettable, continues Silverio, that military personnel using strong-arm tactics have to be brought in to police the currency exchange sector - a fact that begs the question, if there have been breaches in the law, surely it is the justice system that should be dealing with them? The militarization of the currency exchange sector can only lead to more uncertainty, argues Silverio. By the same token, the signing of the IMF agreement is the only development that has had a positive impact on the peso rate, but that was scuppered when the government re-acquired the "Edes". Economic problems cannot be tackled by force, the economist opines, and this latest decision may even put the revised IMF agreement in jeopardy. "This may have been done with good intentions," concludes Pedro Silverio, "but as everyone knows, those are what the road to hell is paved with."
Today should see the start of the Christmas bonus (13th salary) payments to government employees, which will inject RD$2 billion into circulation. Approximately 300,000 checks have already been issued and will be distributed as of today. It is now hoped the authorities will release the funds needed to pay government pensioners.
Former revolutionary and Marxist scholar Regis Debray paid a visit to President Hipolito Mejia at the National Palace yesterday, accompanied by the French ambassador to the Dominican Republic Jean Claude Moyret. Debray is en route to Haiti, having been commissioned by French President Jacques Chirac as a special envoy to carry out a study on Franco-Haitian relations. Debray opined that the Haitian situation could not be analyzed without taking the Dominican Republic into consideration, due to the complex historical relationship between the two countries. For this reason, he sought the opinions of President Mejia and found that "relations between the two countries were more cordial than he had expected," describing the meeting with the Dominican President as "very frank and sincere." As well as his writings, Debray is famous for having fought alongside Che Guevara in Bolivia in the 1960s and was captured in the same ambush in which the Argentinean revolutionary was killed. For his part, the French ambassador expressed hope that the Dominican government and the IMF would reach an agreement, and he regretted that trade between the two countries had suffered in recent months, with a slight decline in imports from France as a result of the economic turmoil. Moyret said he hoped the peso would stabilize and that the economic situation would improve soon.
The general administrator of Bienes Nacionales, the government department in charge of all government property, said that President Hipolito Mejia authorized the controversial 30-year lease of 6,700 square meters of the Mirador Sur Park property adjacent to the Occidental Hotel Embajador group. Hoy newspaper reports that the hotel chain submitted a request on 3 April 2001, indicating they wanted to build a convention center on their property and needed the public area for parking accommodations. Hoy newspaper had reported that the company now has plans to build two residential towers. Bienvenido Brito said on Channel 11 yesterday that the property was leased for RD$8,000 per square meter, many times below market sales value. Angel Cimentada of Remax told Hoy newspaper that commercial property in that area normally goes for US$1,000 per square meter. Bienes Nacionales has already received an initial payment of RD$4.5 million for the first year of the agreement. Brito said that while his department cannot sell the land, it can lease it. The city government of Santo Domingo has stopped construction work on the site on the grounds of its illegality. The construction is also being opposed by the neighborhood board.
Ana Mitila Lora writes in the Listin Diario today that construction of the huge cathedral being erected through taxpayer money on grounds belonging to the Ministry of Armed Forces was resumed two weeks ago. She reports that the temple is in the final phases of construction and comments that the cost of the cathedral has not been made public, leading her to question whether there is so much money available that the country can splurge on works such as this one that no one asked for. "Are not the 116 parishes in Santo Domingo enough? Or is it that the officials and military cannot hear mass where other Catholics do?" She then asks if the military has so much spending money, citing a budget of RD$4.8 billion for 2003, "how can the defrauding of the Dominican soldiers in Iraq be explained?" She says that the relatives of the soldiers allege that the government has not come through with its monthly allowance of US$1,300 to officers and US$800 to soldiers - a stipend that is authorized by Armed Forces regulations to all military members stationed abroad on active service. Lora says that the soldiers are now desperate and have had to borrow money, and that only the National Police's members in Iraq have received two months of wages. The author can be reached at anamitila@hotmail.com
Hatuey Decamps was declared the winner of last weekend's PRD convention, in which he contested the pre-Presidential ticket with Ramon Alburquerque and Jose Rafael Abinader. While Decamps obtained 63.45% of the 389,605 votes cast on Sunday, his opponents are alleging "massive fraud". Nonetheless, it appears that Decamps will be proclaimed the official PRD candidate at a ceremony on Sunday. That same day will see a second PRD party convention, in which the remaining pre-candidates President Hipolito Mejia, Rafael "Fello" Subervi Bonilla, Milagros Ortiz Bosch and Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero will also make their bids for Presidential candidacy. Once a winner is declared, the thorny issue will be directed to the Central Electoral Board (JCE), which will have to decide which of the two candidates can run under the PRD banner. Former Foreign Minister Hugo Tolentino Dipp has come out in favor of Milagros Ortiz Bosch in a column in Listin Diario newspaper, saying that she was the only one capable of finding solutions to the nation's chief problems. Tolentino Dipp said he hoped the PRD would fight next year's Presidential election as a united front, but that in the current circumstances President Mejia had "totally divided the party." This division would intensify should Mejia win this weekend's vote, said Tolentino Dipp, who resigned his post as foreign minister earlier this year because of his opposition to the President's support for United States policy in Iraq.
Diario Libre's "ADC - Antes de comenzar" opening editorial comment, by Anibal de Castro, focuses once more on the question of telephone surveillance. It remarks that Vice-President Milagros Ortiz Bosch's telephone conversations were routinely monitored - and even recorded - when she did her stint as Acting President while President Hipolito Mejia was out of the country. Fellow PRD members have also been tapped, not to mention opposition politicians, writes de Castro. He asks therefore whether we should call those who are listening in "calieses", a word evocative of the Trujillo era, used to describe government spies. The only person who isn't being eavesdropped on is telecommunications institute INDOTEL president Orlando Jorge Mera, "perhaps because he is a mute?" de Castro quips. Due to this practice, the telephone has become the ideal medium for protest "about the economic situation, the power cuts or whatever," he continues, "done with the knowledge that the authorities are listening." Ending with a note of sarcasm, de Castro says that with all the surveillance going on, the people unwittingly have the chance to make themselves heard. "And then we complain that no one is listening to us…" Anibal de Castro can be contacted on acastro@diariolibre.com
Dominicans living in the Metropolitan Area of Washington, DC are being encouraged to register to vote in the next Dominican presidential election. Ricardo Tejada, president of the Group of Dominican Professionals in Washington, DC, a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded in 1996, says that personnel from the Central Electoral Board (JCE) will be in the US capital for the registration drive. "This will be a great opportunity for the 12,000 Dominicans living in the area to exercise their right to vote for the President of the Dominican Republic," says Tejada. There will be two Saturdays on which to register, 13 December and 20 December, from 12pm to 5pm in the facilities of Discoteca Julito's located at 1401 East University Blvd., Hyattsville, Md 20783 (Langley Park in the Union Mall). For more information, contact the Office for the Registry of Voters in New Jersey at 973-279-3633, or the Group of Dominican Professionals (www.gdp-wash.org) at 877-870-8048, or by email at rtejada@gdp-wash.org.
Miriam Brito, the widow of businessman Jose Castro, who was shot dead by a member of his domestic staff, with the support of Castro's wife and older children in an apparent household mutiny, has been released from jail. Brito, her children, and the servant who fired the shot, all allege that Castro had subjected them to systematic abuse. Castro's mother and siblings are reported to be outraged by the decision of San Cristobal's District Attorney Roberto Faxas, accusing the media and public opinion of having branded their late relative as an "obsessive aggressor". They maintain that it was clear Brito had been the "intellectual author" of the crime. Deidania Gonzalez, the domestic employee who pulled the trigger, is still in custody, but a bail application is being considered. Gonzalez alleges that, in addition to the physical and verbal abuse, Castro had raped her on two occasions, an accusation that is being challenged by one of Castro's sisters: "This is another ploy on the part of the lawyers, because my brother never messed around with the servants." The DA has said that the case, which is being viewed as one of "involuntary manslaughter", would focus on Gonzalez' confession and the many testimonies from friends and neighbors that Castro had indeed been violent and abusive towards members of his household.
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