Supreme Court head Judge Jorge Subero Isa viewed the appointment of Francisco Dominguez Brito as Attorney General as a positive factor in the launch of a judicial reform. He spoke during a meeting at his office with Dominguez Brito and deputy attorney generals Servio Tulio Castanos and Pedro Feliz. The new judicial officers discussed the implementation of the penal procedures code for September.
President Leonel Fernandez named Domingo Enrique Martinez Reyes as executive director of the State Sugar Council (CEA). Others appointments included Cesar Lopez as administrator of the government-run cafeterias (comedores economicos); Jose Feliz, as president of the Institute for Development and Cooperative Credit (IDECOOP); Bienvenido Perez (the former consul in New York) as minister sans portfolio; and Luisa Elena Ramirez Santana, as director of the Industria Nacional de la Aguja.
Additionally, Puro Peralta was named deputy administrative secretary of the Presidency; Francis Mejia, deputy director of the National Institute of Housing (INVI), and Gilberto Luna, deputy director at INESPRE.
Other newly-appointed prosecutors: Grinilda Trinidad Astacio, Cesar Armando Sanchez Sosa, Edward Nunez Paulino, Gray Cuevas Jimenez, Fidel Estevez Hernandez and Robinson Domingo. And Gustavo de los Santos Coll, Juan Luis Villanueva Beato, Wascar Tejeda, Catalina Arriaga Hernandez, Juan Antonio Garrido, Manuel Emilio Cabral Ortiz and Francis Omar Soto. Another 12 prosecutors had their positions renewed: Rosanna Reyes, Leonora Martinez Conde, Mayra Guzman de los Santos, Ninoska Cossio Rodriguez, Ramona Nova Cabrera, Tirso Mercado Nunez, Jose Manuel Aguilo, Keyla Rodriguez Gil, Laura Guerrero; Ironce Hernandez, Grinilda Trinidad Astacio and Maria Rutinel Dominguez.
President Leonel Fernandez also appointed Carlos Amarante Baret to head the Migration Department, with Victor Soto as deputy director. Aristipo Vidal will be in charge of Bienes Nacionales and Angel Faxas Vargas is the new director of the Ganaderia department.
Appointments at the Ministry of Education include:
Deputy ministers Gloria Josefina Pimentel Valenzuela, Fausto Mota, Francisco Cruz, Luis de Leon, William Sifres.
At the department of taxation, Fernandez appointed Roberto Rodriguez Estrella, Germania Montas, Dennys Manzanillo, Carlos Santos and Soraya Nivas as deputy directors.
President Leonel Fernandez retired almost 100 generals, of the army, navy and air force by different decrees yesterday. Heading the list are former Minister of the Armed Forces Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez, and former chiefs of the Navy, Army and Air Force, Euripides Uribe Peguero, Jorge Zorrilla Ozuna and Virgilio Sierra Perez, respectively. Others to hang up their camouflage include Luis Maria Perez Bello, the aging former deputy secretary of the Armed Forces and personal assistant to the late President Joaquin Balaguer, and Radhames Lora Salcedo, the former director of the national emergency commission (CNE). All those mentioned above ended their previous posts with the change of government. For a complete list of the pensioned generals, see
http://www.dr1.com/news/2004/082004_generals.pdf
At the same time, through Decree 898-04, the President returned to service Major General Jose Eliseo Noble Espejo, Rear Admiral Miguel Angel Alvarez Herrand and Rear Admiral Jose Casimiro Pena y Pena. The latter was appointed supervisor at the CDEEE.
The new chief of police, Major General Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez, visited the offices of the Listin Diario yesterday, which publication carries his profile today. The major general, according to the summary, was born in Higuey on 24 December 1959 and entered the National Police in 1979. He graduated in law from the UASD in 1985 and became a notary public. At the time of his appointment by Leonel Fernandez, Perez Sanchez was the director of the Instituto de Dignidad Humana (IDIH). He is a previous director of legal affairs of the National Police and participated in the drafting of Law 96-04 that governs the police forces.
He pledged to respect citizens’ rights while strengthening efforts to combat delinquency, saying, “Identify the delinquent, arrest him and bring him to justice – this is what guarantees the security of citizens.” He said that it is possible to respect human rights and carry out police work.
“Citizens’ security is not contradictory with human rights,” he said. “What is in contradiction is the permissiveness of society in the face of crime, impunity, corruption, trafficking of influence and other evils,” said the former university professor.
He also visited Hoy newspaper, where he said his plans were to instate Citizen Security Committees in 34 cities. He said the committees will be made up by community leaders, neighborhood board presidents and honourable residents of each place. He said these would be support groups for the local police forces.
According to the new police chief, the 27,000 members of the National Police (of which 6% are university graduates) are sufficient to carry out the work needed, but felt they must patrol the streets. He said that to be a police agent is to patrol, make rounds and prevent crime. He said he has ordered all agents to go out there and work.
The Customs Department has sent out notification to those beneficiaries of vehicular tax exemptions during the Mejia administration to visit the department to pay the corresponding taxes on the vehicles. The department says the tax exonerations that were issued in violation to tax laws in effect have definitely affected government revenues and were granted with the sole purpose of favoring particular individuals outside of what is established by the norms. The department is granting a period of 30 days, starting today, for the beneficiaries to come forward and remit payment of the corresponding taxes. It says that after this date it will begin compulsory collection of the taxes, eventually confiscating those vehicles whose taxes have not been paid in full.
More than 300,000 users of the governmental OMSA bus service are having a harder time finding transport lately. Listin Diario reports that the main reason is that the department does not have money for fuel and no credit from suppliers. President Fernandez has not yet appointed a replacement for Diogenes Castillo, the director of OMSA. Reportedly, of the 400 buses that the transport association operates in Santo Domingo, only 30 to 40 buses were in service yesterday. Listin reporters said they could not reach Castillo for comment. Fernandez had not yet appointed his replacement.
Superintendent of Electricity Francisco Mendez said the government plans to renegotiate the buy and sell contracts that resulted from the Madrid Accord and established prices for the long term that are not market or competition driven. As reported in the Listin Diario, he said the Madrid Accord violates the Electricity Law. Another priority, he said, is to renegotiate the contracts with the Smith-Enron and Cogentrix power plants that establish fixed charges regardless of the volume of power supplied. Mendez said this must be done as soon as possible in order to render the generation and distribution costs of the industry transparent.
Mendez also said they seek to return the Ede Norte and Ede Sur power plants to the private sector in the short term.
He said that first step is to improve the service. An industry that does not produce is not entitled to charge for a service that is delivered in such a precarious way, he explained, adding that people do not feel motivated to pay for such service, either.
On the other hand, Radhames Segura, in charge of the CDEEE, said yesterday that the goal of the government is to end the blackouts. A first step in this direction, said Segura, is to reduce the current US$27-million monthly deficit of the power distribution companies, in part due to a lull in collections. He expects collection rates to improve hand in hand with the service. “One cannot ask people to pay for bad service,” he told Hoy newspaper reporters when interviewed at the Presidential Palace.
Segura also said the people can be sure that this government is going “to definitely resolve the power problem in the Dominican Republic.”
The Chamber of Deputies approved a first reading on the tax reform bill and then sent it to a special commission presided over by Marino Collante of the PRSC for further study. 120 deputies of 150 voted in favor.
Diario Libre attributes the fact that PRD deputies had requested that the bill be delayed as a ploy to use it as a bargaining tool in the face of the possible judicial prosecution of Mejia government officers.
The peso, for the first time in recent memory, appreciated to the RD$40-to-US$1 mark, given the abounding positive expectations as the Fernandez government takes control. As of yesterday, the US currency was being bought for RD$39.48, after having peaked at a rate of RD$54 to US$1 during the Mejia administration. In the past two months, the peso had settled at an approximate rate of RD$45 to US$1. Since the change of mandate, the peso has been gaining about RD$1 a day against the US$1. The government is reportedly receiving offers of hundreds of thousands of pesos and dollars in deposits for advance tax payments, being offered by local and foreign businesses that want to support the government.
There is concern that the less purchasing power of the US dollar could affect the tourism and export manufacturing sectors. Government officials have said they have the option to buy the dollars to build up the international reserves, so as not to flood the market and depress the currency exchange market faster than the markets can adjust to.
The acting director of the International Monetary Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department issued a statement welcoming the policy commitments outlined by President Leonel Fernandez in his inaugural address. “The IMF is ready to work closely with the new economic team that took office this week,” says the statement from Jose Fajgenbaum. “In fact, important and constructive technical collaboration between the team and IMF staff has been going on for some time already, and will continue.”
Fajgenbaum stated: “I had the privilege of meeting President Fernandez earlier this year, and I know that he clearly understands the economic policy challenges facing his country. I believe President Fernandez is determined to move ahead with institutional reforms and economic policies that will bring confidence, stability and sustained economic growth back to the Dominican Republic.”
See http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2004/pr04178.htm
For an interesting debate on the IMF, see:
http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33884&page=1&pp=15
South Florida’s largest call-center company is opening its first offshore location in the Dominican Republic, reports the Sun Sentinel of Florida. Plantation-based Precision Response Corporation announced it would employ 300 people at the center to be located in Santiago, and the initiative could expand to hire as many 600 bilingual (English-Spanish) workers. Journalist Doreen Hemlock explains that this is part of a trend to “nearshore,” or open operations closer to home, thereby making it easier for managers to monitor the projects that would be just a short plane ride away and conveniently operating in the same time zone.
“The Dominican Republic is especially popular for the nearby centers because of its relatively low costs — comparable to India and less expensive than Jamaica and other English-speaking Caribbean islands,” said Philip Dickenson Peters, chief executive of Zagada Markets Inc, a Coral Gables firm focused on Caribbean offshore services.
Peters explains call-center jobs in the islands are considered to be among the better-paid positions, with workers tending to stay put longer. Plus, employees are familiar with the demands of US clients, since tourism has brought a "long legacy of dealing with Americans and offering them customer care," said Peters.
Hemlock also reminded that proximity and lower costs help explain why Verizon International Teleservices has grown its Dominican Republic operations, providing phone calls, data entry and other services to both international and domestic clients and employing roughly 4,000 people since 1996. The company expects to add 10% more employees to their ranks this year, due to the booming US Hispanic market.
Precision Response employs more than 10,000 people worldwide, including 6,000 in South Florida. Overseas, it operates in India and the Philippines.
See http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/...
A secret jail room is in use at the Las Americas International Airport, as was revealed by Diario Libre today. The cell reportedly is used to irregularly albeit temporarily detain Dominicans who arrive after being deported from the United States. Danilo Reyes Castro denounced the fact that he had to pay US$100 to expedite the release of his niece who was deported from the US, or she would have been kept in the cell overnight.
Despite the shocking reports of a recent illegal voyage that saw over 50 people perish as they attempted to reach Puerto Rico, the trips do not seem to have lost any popularity. Diario Libre reports that the US border patrol detained 44 men and 16 women, all illegal migrants fleeing the Dominican Republic. The news item says that some 150 illegal immigrants disembarked yesterday afternoon on the north coast of Puerto Rico. The group reportedly left from Nagua.
Jose Vinicio Calventi Gavino, who for 31 years was the director of the Hospital de Maternidad Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia, the leading maternity hospital in the country, died yesterday. He is recognized for his efforts in creating the local specialty of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and having trained innumerable Dominican doctors. Calventi returned to the country after work and study in New York, Paris and Chile. He is survived by his wife Idelissa Bonnelly de Calventi, also recognized for her work as a professor at the UASD, and one of the country’s leading environmentalists.
The Dominican Republic’s best chance at its first Olympic gold, 400-meter hurdler Felix Sanchez, has arrived in Athens, Greece. As the event’s world champion, Sanchez will compete in preliminaries and semifinals from Monday, 23 August. The finals are set for Thursday, 26 August at 10:30pm (local Greek time) on 26 August. The man known as “Super” Sanchez, who trains in the United States, will also compete with Dominican teammates in the 400 x 4 relay and the 400-meter sprint.
In other Olympic news, the DR lost to Cuba in women’s volleyball (23-25, 17-25, 23-25) in a 1-hour, 11-minute game.
http://www.athens2004.com/en/VolleyballWomen/...
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