The public system schools, ready or not, will receive 2,592,997 children returning from their summer holidays today. At the youngest level, toddlers are expected to number 245,000, primary schools will have their hands full with their 1,814,753 expected students and high schools have enrolled 532,833. The new school year will be officially recognized in a ceremony to be led by Education Minister Alejandrina German, and possibly attended by President Fernandez, at the Juan Bosch School on Los Arroyos Avenue in the La Puya section of Arroyo Hondo. School visits are also scheduled for the Dominican Republic School, the Professor Argentina Maria Mateo Lara High School and the Los Trinitarios Evening School. Eighty percent of all Dominican students attend public schools. Over the past week, the 13,274 schools in the state-run system were being cleaned and spruced up to receive the children.
Vice President Rafael Alburquerque, who is the head of the new Sistema Unico de Beneficiarios, a program to benefit the Dominican Republic's poor, said the Siuben program will reach out to 1.2 million families in its first phase. The United Nations, the Interamerican Development Bank and the World Bank will assist the government in the initiative. Preliminary preparation will include a census of the sectors to receive the assistance, beginning in the slum area of Guachupita. Vice-President Alburquerque made the announcement during a press conference at the Presidential Palace. The local representative of the United Nations' Development Program, Niky Fabiancic, also spoke at the event to highlight their support.
President Leonel Fernandez transferred to the Ministry of Finances the responsibility for the management of the foreign debt of the government. The Central Bank has undertaken this role so far. A presidential decree establishes this disposition will go into effect as of 1 October of this year. The decree establishes a period of 30 days for the Central Bank to send to Finances documentation regarding the international loans contracted by the government. The new measure also establishes that the Central Bank and the government commercial bank, Banco de Reservas need to report daily to the Ministry of Finances regarding the credits and debits of government departments that handle bank accounts in hard currency. Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa Albizu and Central Bank Governor Hector Valdez Albizu are cousins.
President Leonel Fernandez created by Decree 1090-04 the Oficina Presidential de Tecnologia de Informacion y Comunicacion (OPTIC) that will be in charge of establishing the policies for technological developments in the area of communications.
President Leonel Fernandez appointed Jose Armando Tavarez Rodriguez to head the Instituto Tecnologico de las Americas. Jose Francisco Martinez Baez was appointed deputy director. The ITLA is under a board presided by Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado. El Caribe reports, that it is unknown whether the rector of the PUCMM will continue in his role.
The new migration legislation, signed into law on 15 August by former President Hipolito Mejia, obliges companies hiring illegal foreigners to cover all costs in the event of their deportation, as reported in Hoy newspaper. Nevertheless, the law establishes that any violation of migration norms does not relinquish the employer from his legal responsibility to pay remuneration to the illegal worker. Article 100 of the law establishes that non-resident foreigners cannot hold jobs or perform any nature of lucrative work.
Gasoline prices declined for a second consecutive week, reflecting the appreciation of the Dominican peso and reduced petroleum prices abroad. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce set the current price of premium gasoline at RD$95, down from RD$100.80. Regular gasoline will cost RD$86.60, down from RD$91 last week and regular diesel fuel will cost RD$67.20, down from RD$71.
Industrial propane will cost RD$51.45 per gallon, while subsidized propane sold in tanks of 100 lbs or less will continue to cost RD$25 per gallon.
Lawyer Roberto Alvarez writes today in El Caribe that the Dominican community in the US could play an influential role in the US presidential election. He said that Dominicans are on the cusp of becoming the third strongest Latin electoral force in the US, behind the Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. By 2010, it is expected that the number of Dominicans residing in the US will surpass the Cuban national population. He said that by the second decade of the 21st century, Dominicans could become the second most dominant Latin American nationality in the US socio-political landscape. His statements are based on the numbers derived from a study titled Dominicans in the United States: A Socioeconomic Profile, as conducted by the Institute of Dominican Studies of the City University of New York.
Alvarez points out that the Latin community in the US today does not have any official spokesperson, as El Salvador's President Francisco Flores and Mexico's Foreign Relations Minister Jorge Castaneda once were. Alvarez feels President Fernandez, however, possesses the qualities and the background to take such a role: electoral legitimacy, government experience, international attention, background as an immigrant, and a significant Dominican diaspora that desires greater recognition.
President Fernandez is scheduled to travel to New York City to attend the 7th Annual Dominican American National Roundtable Conference from 17-19 September at The Great Hall of The City College of New York.
See http://www.danr.org/ip.asp?op=Registration&m=x0030002004Conference
Dianne Kerry, the wife of Democratic candidate John Kerry visited the Dominican Republic on 23 August to campaign to get more Americans resident in the Dominican Republic to register to vote abroad. Likewise, a Dominican chapter of the Democrats Abroad office is coordinated in the DR by Leo Perez Minaya. The plan is to register 3,000 US expatriates here to vote in the US election by 15 September. Already, 200 Americans have registered to vote in the November election. US polls show the 2004 presidential election to be very tight.
The National Police has recovered 50 vehicles that had been reported stolen, were recovered by the police, and then irregularly transferred to police officers, including several generals. Some of the victims of the thefts, many of whom still had to continue making monthly installments on their vehicles, have demanded that these law officials be brought to justice for having illicitly used their property. New Police Chief Major General Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez had given a 72-hour term for the return of the stolen vehicles, which are now to be returned to their legitimate owners.
Hoy newspaper reports that the situation was first brought to light by the Dominican Chamber of Insurance Companies, but the police under the previous chief never heeded their claims. "When any authority recovers stolen property and retains it for its own use, it commits a crime that is punishable by our legal codes, and to ignore that would be a serious violation of the law," reads the newspaper's editorial.
District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero said that those who hang on to the vehicles will be subject to persecution, in view of the expiry of the 72-hour deadline granted. Law officials estimate that police officers had in their possession some 300 vehicles, most of which are SUVs and luxury vehicles. Even the former police chief, Jaime Marte Martinez, was found to have a stolen vehicle at his disposal, as reported today in the Listin Diario.
Insurance Superintendent Euclides Gutierrez initiated the effort to return the vehicles to their rightful owners, after receiving complaints from private insurers' representatives.
Former president of the National Council of Drugs, Marino (Vincho) Castillo said that when he ended his term at the governmental organization in August 2000, he left behind an inventory of 319 vehicles that had been confiscated from drug traffickers and money launderers. He said a week into the Mejia administration, there were only five or six junk vehicles left as part of the inventory. He said that persons of influence in the past government, including former President Hipolito Mejia himself and Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch ordered those vehicles assigned to persons they recommended. He said that by law, no one can make use of those vehicles. He said among the vehicles there were several Mercedes Benz and BMWs.
Economist Eduardo Tejera, whose 15-year-old daughter was raped by a gang of five men on Friday, 27 August, said he expects those responsible to receive the full weight of the law. He questioned the fact that several of the accused had been released from custody on four previous occasions without having received any judicial penalties. Tejera said the country must rise up in wrath and indignation, not only because of the incident involving his daughter, but because last week 15 rapes were committed, and so far this year there have been 133, while most of the perpetrators of these crimes roam free. Tejera publicly denounced the rape of his daughter in indignation when medics told him of the many other cases that go uninvestigated because the parents choose to keep silent. Tejera's daughter, who was returning home from a disco accompanied by another youth, was taken by the men dressed in military garb when she arrived at her Avenida Anacaona high rise.
Nineteen-year-old Natanael Gonzalez turned himself in yesterday, the fourth of five men sought in the attack. The police have located a house on 11 de Julio and Altagracia in San Carlos, where they found military garb and weapons used by the group, said to be part of the Banda Los King. Samuel King, the fifth member of the gang, remains on the loose.
Several TV and radio talk shows have been proposing that establishments frequented by youths close their doors earlier. For years now, adolescents and young adults have been visiting these late-night hotspots from 12am to 3am, arguing that nobody shows up before those hours. Zoila Luna, Adriano Miguel Tejada, Cesar Medina and Freddy Beras Goico have all addressed the matter on their respective programs. Beras Goico commented that in the US, such businesses close at 2am. Despite the fact that the DR's crime rate and incidence of violence is below the levels of Puerto Rico, Mexico and Colombia, the public figures asserted that the country must act now and not wait till things get worse.
The Dominican Republic is on the five-day forecasted track route of Hurricane Ivan, currently making its way western through the Caribbean from Cape Verde on the coast of Africa. The forecast has the hurricane touching ground in the Dominican Republic at the southwestern town of Barahona and exiting by way of Jimani, as it takes a WNW route. Hurricane experts nevertheless urge that the storm be closely monitored, as deviations from its forecasted position are frequent. The present route would bring Ivan to pass some 170kms from La Romana on Thursday, 9 September, prior to heading west, where it is expected to enter a 100km radius of the capital city. This will mean very intense rains and strong wind gusts for Santo Domingo. To follow the storm, see the thread on DR1 Weather & Beyond forum. http://dr1.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34
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