With the understanding that no news is good news… DR1 Daily News will not be updated the first week of January, on occasion of the New Year and Epiphany Day holidays. The update on Wednesday, 7 January (Tuesday, 6 January is also a holiday) will summarize news for the first week of January. Those eager to keep abreast of new developments in the DR may check in with the DR1 Forums, where any breaking news occurring over the holidays may be posted by community members. See http://dr1.com/forums/
Vice-Admiral Radhames Lora Salcedo, whose National Emergency Commission authorized approximately 1,500 points of sale for fireworks nationwide, blames parents for the high number of accidents related to the explosives over the Christmas holidays. Fireworks are being sold on every main street, as well as in supermarkets, colmados and several street corners of affluent sectors of Santo Domingo. The number of injuries this year is more than double those of 2002. Fireworks had been banned in the past by presidential decree, but the new authorities authorized their sale by reason that around 20,000 Dominicans make a living from their manufacture and sale. "I am sorry that parents do not assume the responsibility, but fireworks are a licit business and we have tried to impose controls - that is what we have to do. Anyone in violation of these laws will have their goods confiscated. But in regards to children, our direct allies need to be the parents who must watch over their children," said Salcedo, in an interview with El Caribe. Dominican hospitals have seen several cases of small children who have lost their hands due to injuries sustained while playing with firecrackers. Physician Carlos de los Santos of the Burn Unit of the Luis Aybar Hospital told the Listin Diario that no matter the quality of the fireworks, people need to understand that the human body is not designed to resist an explosion. He said that to eliminate the cases of burns and maiming from use of fireworks, Congress should implement a law prohibiting their use. He said that in during the Leonel Fernandez administration, the sale of fireworks was prohibited, bringing the number of fireworks-related burn incidents to zero. The doctor said that last year there were 218 cases of serious burns due to fireworks.
Of the 830 inmates freed by the government on occasion of the Christmas holidays, one case that stands apart is that of PRSC political leader Stalin Lebron, who in January 2003 was handed a 10-year jail sentence for the murder of his fellow PRSC politico Vinicio Zaldivar during a heated discussion at a PRSC convention in February 2002. Although Lebron did not meet the requirements needed for the pardon, he was freed 11 months after being sentenced because Item 27 of Article 55 of the Constitution grants the President of the Republic the right to pardon prisoners on the dates of 27 February, 16 August and 23 December of every year. Part of Lebron's sentence also included a fine of RD$3 million. The same case indicates that Lebron had been imprisoned previously for such charges as robbery, forging of documents and use of fake documents. Subsequently, an Appeals Court reduced the sentence to four years. Hoy newspaper last week carried the complaint of journalist Rafael Tomas Jaime, who cited the case of Adalberto Santana. With only three months time served of his seven-year jail term in connection to the death of the journalist's brother Santo Tomas Santos Jaime, Santana's name appeared on the list of those to be released. Jaime says that, on top of the current sentence, which also carried a fine of RD$3 million, Santana also has a case in the judiciary pending against him for robbery and armed assault. After the family made the complaint, Santana's name was stricken from the list and he was not released. Hoy newspaper reports that by contrast Fray Aristides Jimenez Richardson, the Catholic Church coordinator who works with the jails, implored the government to pardon Bolivar Morillo de la Cruz, the man condemned to one year in prison but who has been in jail for two years in La Victoria because he does not have the money to pay a RD$3,000 fine. The priest said that the inmate already has served his time. Jimenez Richardson denied that the church had any delegate on the commission that granted the pardons and criticized the arbitrary and trivial way in which the pardons had been granted. Diario Libre reports that the commission is composed of Attorney General Victor Cespedes; Attorney of the Court of Appeals Rafael Mejia Guerrero; deputy director of Prisons Arelis Peguero; director of Prisons Juan Caceres Urena; Domingo Porfirio Rojas Nina, member of the jail board, and Virgilio Almanzar, president of the Dominican Committee of Human Rights. Almanzar reportedly abstained from voting on Lebron's pardon because Lebron was one of the founders of an organization he heads. Only Rojas Nina voted against the pardon. In an interview with El Caribe, Victor Cespedes said that Lebron did fulfill the requirement of at least half the term in jail when taking into account that his sentence for murder had been reduced to four years and he had almost two years in prison.
The Saturday, 27 December edition of the Diario Libre reported that the Postal Service, the Social Security Institute, the Public Health Ministry and the Education Ministry have not received their salaries for two months. According to the report, these government employees have not received their checks for November or December. According to Pastora Mendes, the National Treasurer, delays in the payrolls from the various agencies have resulted in the delay in payments to these agencies. Several employees questioned by Diario Libre reporters said that this was an unusual situation and that when they got their Christmas bonuses, otherwise known as "the thirteenth salary", they were promised that the situation would be corrected shortly.
On Saturday, the Diario Libre newspaper reported that United States beef would continue to enter the Dominican Republic, in spite of the mad cow problem recently detected in the Pacific Northwest. The Dominican Republic, Bolivia and El Salvador were, at that time, the only countries that had not suspended imports of United States beef. On Monday, however, all of the papers, including the Diario Libre, carried stories on the cancellation of all beef imports from the United States, on a temporary basis. Jairon Severino, from the Listin Diario, reports that beef and beef products have been temporarily prohibited from entering the Dominican Republic as a result of the discovery of the EEB disease in cattle in several US states. Marcelino Vargas, the director general of livestock for the Dominican Republic, issued the decree on Sunday. The prohibition includes live animals, meat, meat products and byproducts of animal origin.
El Caribe's headline on 26 December read: "The Executive Branch continues its festival of borrowing abroad," while announcing the new loan contracts the government sent to Congress for approval. Now the government wants to borrow US$131.7 million to build the Pinalito Dam in La Vega. These funds would be borrowed from the Banco Nacional de Desarrollo de Brazil and ABN Amro Bank of Holland. In a letter to stimulate Congress to take on the loans from the commercial bank, President Mejia says the works could start as early as the first quarter of 2004 and should be ready in 36 months. He mentions that the project would also generate 1,200 jobs for residents in the area and would lead to investment of US$40 million in developmental projects in the region. The loans would be for 11-year terms, with a two-year grace period. The government-intervened Listin Diario presents the bill as the Mejia administration's solution to the serious power problems of the country. In the addendum of the bill sent to the Senate, President Mejia explains that the construction of the hydroelectric Pinalito Dam would signify savings of 335,605 barrels of petroleum, or US$10 million a year, which means the principal portion of the loan would be paid in less than 13 years. Mejia states: "The Executive Branch trusts that Congress will support and pass these bills and believes this will be a first big step to solve the serious energy problem with which we live." Fausto Adames, in an overview on Dominican debt, published in the 21 December edition of Hoy newspaper's economic section, says that this year alone, the National Budget Office indicated that payments on the debt have multiplied 136.45% from January to October compared to least year, going from RD$6 billion to RD$14 billion. In 2004, Dominicans will have to pay RD$39 billion for the foreign debt. That is, debt service will increase 281% from last year to this year, shooting up from RD$10 billion in 2002 to RD$40 billion in 2004. This figure is about 38% of the total budget proposed for 2004, estimated at RD$121 billion. Adames reports that the global foreign debt has increased by 50% in the past four years, going from US$3.684 billion in 2000 to US$5.5 billion at the end of this year, according to IMF projections. The worst part of it all is that prior to 2000, most of the debt was with multilateral organizations and foreign governments, while the new debt was taken on with foreign commercial banks. While last year foreign debt accounted for 20.3% of the GDP, it now represents 34%. The former director of planning under the Fernandez government, Rafael Camilo, estimates that the government will have to use 70% of the national budget to pay public debt, debt to government suppliers and contractors and domestic borrowing. He said this deficit the government will seek to cover with increased taxes, under the guise of tax reform. He also pointed out that these estimates are in addition to RD$98 billion in money printed without the backing of reserves, according to the Central Bank, to confront the collapse of three commercial banks and capital flight of US$3.5 billion. Camilo stated in the interview that during the Baninter crisis, the government gave priority to the interests of bank executives who received RD$40 billion prior to the authorities' intervention of the bank, at a pace of RD$2 billion to RD$3 billion a day, as recognized by Central Bank Governor Jose Lois Malkum. The bank's security trucks spent several days transporting funds from the Central Bank to Baninter branches, said Malkum. This money was later converted to domestic debt that the Dominican people are being asked to pay for with new taxes, in addition to the rampant inflation. Camilo says the Mejia government has abused the practice of borrowing from abroad, as it increased the foreign debt 50%.
Former judge Juan Miguel Castillo Pantaleon told Hoy newspaper that he doubts the case of Baninter will ever be fully discussed in court. Technical Secretary to the Presidency Carlos Despradel recently said on the radio that the Dominican Republic is not ready for the trial because it would shock the Dominican people. Castillo Pantaleon, in an interview with the newspaper, said that the case is an indication of what he called pernicious linkage of the judicial power with the powers within the banking sector that promise impunity and advancement of political interests. He said that despite the country suffering the RD$100-billion fraud perpetrated by executives of the three banks, none of these cases will be heard in court. Castillo Pantalon described 2003 as an unfortunate year for Dominican justice, a year in which cases against corruption stagnated. He said that the judiciary produces only rhetoric, while the citizenry perceives that the system only exists to process the poor and not those responsible for crimes linked to the structure of power. He also mentioned the cases of Dario Gomez and the assassination of Carlos Everstz. Supreme Court of Justice president Jorge Subero Isa believes, in turn, that 2003 was a positive year for his Judicial Branch. He mentioned the implementation of the new criminal procedure code, that of children, and the results of the program for the modernization of the property jurisdiction.
The 2004 National Budget being debated in the Senate has assigned more funds to the Chamber of Deputies. These funds will come from the budgets of the ministries of Environment and the Interior & Armed Forces, according to the Diario Libre. According to Roberto Valenzuela of El Caribe, the senators and deputies began to work out the budget after the deputies asked for an increase of RD$282 million to their allocations. If approved, this will bring the total funding for the Chamber of Deputies to RD$900 million. Initially, the deputies were not going to approve any budget that did not assign them RD$1.15 billion, but following some backroom discussions they relented and agreed to the RD$900 million pesos. In a report in the Diario Libre newspaper, the director of the Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral (IDDI), David Luther criticized that the government continues to grant subsidies to non-governmental agencies in the form of government booty. Budgets to NGOs was increased in the budget RD$201.6 million, regardless of the call to austerity. Luther complained that the council created to follow up work of non-governmental agencies (CONASAFIL) is inoperant, and despite this the number of NGOs receiving budget allotments has been increased.
According to the Diario Libre, the government does not discard the possibility of more modifications to the 2004 budget, although the total amount will not vary. Technical Secretary to the Presidency Carlos Despradel told reporters that the government may concede on the application of the suggested 30% tax on many items such as electrical appliances, and leave the new tax on cigarettes and alcohol in place. Late on Friday (26 December), Despradel, Finance Minister Rafael Calderon and Budget Director Luis Perez Cuevas met with legislators for several hours in an attempt to hammer out agreements on budget entries for the legislature. In today's Diario Libre, the Budget and Finance Committees of the Senate will present the government's economic team with the proposals that have been settled. In spite of an agreement not to talk to the press, the Diario Libre learned yesterday that the money for the new proposal, which includes increases for the UASD and the Plaza de la Salud (hospital center), will come from the allocations originally destined for the ministries of Environment and the Armed Forces & Interior. Jose Alfredo Rizek, the executive director of the Foundation for Institutionalism and Justice (FINJUS), explains that Congress has until 12 January to pass 2004's National Budget, which may or may not include increases in the luxury tax. If it does give the budget its stamp of approval by that date, the financial plan for 2003 will be enacted and the government will be able to use any surplus at its discretion. By law, the budget needs to be ratified during the second legislature of the year. This closed on 13 November, but was extended for 60 days, bringing the budget deadline to 12 January.
Pedro Silverio, the chief economist at the Economic Research Center for the Antilles (CENANTILLAS), told reporters for Hoy that the 2004 budget was devised using an exchange rate of RD$40 to US$1. This, in his opinion, shows that neither the government nor the IMF believe in the current RD$35-to-US$1 rate that is being ballyhooed in the local papers. This is also a reflection, said Silverio, of the IMF's opinion of the militarization of the exchange banks. Silverio says the repressive force used by the government has failed. At the same time, Silverio called the government's policy of indebtedness "a disaster." He reminded the reporters that the foreign debt currently exceeds 40% of the GDP, while just a few years ago it stood at 18%.
According to Hoy newspaper, the US dollar is nowhere to be found. Although the exchange houses are buying the US currency at RD$34.80, or thereabouts, the sale of dollars is practically is at a virtual standstill. Rumors cited by Mario Mendez, the economic editor of Hoy, say that the burgeoning black market for dollars does have a considerable supply, at a going rate of RD$41.50 to US$1. According to the Mendez article, many people serving as intermediaries for dollar purchases do not even show up at the exchange houses, since this would require them to identify themselves to the authorities. Since last week's meeting of bankers, remittance companies and exchange bankers, there has been a persistent buzz concerning the flourishing black market for dollars. The illegitimate situation is worrisome, according to Mendez, because this is the time of the year where a very large influx of dollars is usually felt in the market. Reporters from Hoy were unable to locate any dollars for sale. Economist Bernardo Vega explains in a newspaper column in El Caribe today that the government wants the dollar to be at RD$35-US$1 because that was the rate it used to calculate the fiscal deficit. Any increase in depreciation, increases the fiscal deficit used for IMF negotiations.
Edwin Ruiz, the reporter for the economic section of the Listin Diario, wrote on Sunday that the "boom" period for the Dominican economy has ended. Using a Dominican folk adage, Ruiz says that the coming years will be the "seven years of the thin cows." In one of the most extensive analyses of the economic situation, Ruiz revisits the years before 1990, the IMF agreements of 1990 and the following boom. The unprecedented fall in the GDP and the huge devaluation of the peso are tied in to the rescue of the Banco Intercontinental and the Banco de Credito. In comparing the most recent Baninter crisis with what happened in the late 80s, when several banks went under, Ruiz says that the bankruptcies of 1987 and 1990 were paid for by the depositors, while those of 2003 were paid for by the poorest sector of the population, in the form of a 40% inflation rate and a corresponding decrease in the government's social services.
Economist Frederic Emam-Zade continues to use satire as he looks at governmental economic policies. In today's El Caribe, he uses the Christmas Carol as his story line. All the important people are in the National Palace, when suddenly there is a big gust of wind and all the lights go out. A voice speaks out, loud and clear: "Look at what this country was like before you came on the scene." And the images of a country with a few sad faces, but many more happy faces showed on a wall. Fields full of crops and stores full of people, trucks full of merchandise......a "prosperous world." Then, the lights go out and new images appear, in contrast to the former ones, showing many sad, bitter and desperate faces. With no one trusting anyone else, each person sets out to make money at all costs, even by killing. The people are humiliated, deceived and swindled, in a country left divided with poverty assuming control. The voice says: "This is the country you have created; this is your work and your legacy." Suddenly, the lights return and the audience sees that several hours have passed and it is nearly dawn. The sky is red, the sea is blue and a white fog joins the two into one piece. On the horizon a star appears, announcing peace, hope, the end to the disaster and the beginning of good things.
El Caribe attributes the recent collapse of a discharge pipe, which now hangs over the streets below, to a lack of maintenance of the drainage system. The overpass system, inaugurated at the end of the former PLD government in 2000, was built at a cost of RD$649 million (and an exchange rate of RD$17 to US$1). The failure of the drainage system produces large pools of water when it rains and, in some places, there is vegetation growing in the pipes. The worst spot is located at the Josefa Brea and 27 of February intersection, where the discharge tubing broke, injuring one driver, and now hangs above the roadway.
The new president of the Dominican Olympic Committee, Luisin Mejia, says that the foremost concern of the DOC is the organization and staging of the Monte Plata 2004 National Games. The previous priority of the DOC was the celebration of the Pan Am Games. The celebration of the Monte Plata Games requires million-peso installations to be built from scratch in that impoverished city. The new president of the amateur sports association in the Dominican Republic, as published in Hoy newspaper on Friday, 26 December, said: "My main goal when I become president of the COD is to integrate the Monte Plata National Games 2004 and work to make that event a success." Mejia replaces Jose Joaquin Puello, who retired after 21 years at the helm of the DOC. News reports have indicated that most of the Pan American Games world-class installations are suffering from neglect - the norm for massive sports venues built by Dominican governments for sporting events nationwide. The government halted all construction work for the Monte Plata Games to redirect that funding to the finalization of the Pan Am Games. But now, the COD feels the paralyzed efforts are a national priority. The Games are set to be held in July 2004. Hoy newspaper says that Sports Minister Cesar Cedeno is also supporting the Monte Plata Games, indicating that these will entail a new opportunity for the country to acquaint itself with the talent of Dominicans living in this region. Meanwhile, the newspaper reports on the same day that the government paid RD$325 million of the RD$1.1 billion still owed to the contractors who built the mega installations for the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo. Luisin Mejia, who worked alongside Puello for the organization of the Pan Am Games, calls the Monte Plata Games "my Pan American Games."
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