| Daily News - Wednesday, 15 September 2004 |
President Leonel Fernandez will go on an eight-day tour of the United States starting Saturday, 19 September and ending on Sunday, 26 September. Fernandez plans to visit the cities of New York and Chicago, among others, on what will be his first trip to the US during this new administration, and his second trip abroad. Earlier this month, Fernandez travelled to Panama for the inauguration of President Martin Torrijos.
Next week, President Fernandez is scheduled to participate in the final day of the 7th Dominican American National Roundtable at the Great Hall of the City College of New York on Saturday, 19 September. The theme of this year's conference is "Education and Civic Participation: Empowering Our Community Through Academic Knowledge and Active Citizenship." See http://www.danr.org/
Next he will speak at the 59th United Nations General Assembly and participate in the Zero Hunger Program Summit. His itinerary also includes a luncheon hosted by President Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, together with the heads of state of France and Chile, among others.
On Tuesday, 21 September, President Fernandez is scheduled to meet with New York's police commissioner, with whom a cooperative agreement will be signed to train Dominican police officers to fight organized crime. On the same day, he will attend a workshop for the "New York-Dominican Republic Strategic Alliance Project" and the launch of a book by the same name.
Wednesday, 22 September will see the Dominican head of state participating in a discourse organized by the former Mexican foreign relations minister, Jorge Castaneda. The event is titled "Voices of Latin America" and will take place at the University of New York. See http://www.nyu.edu/voices/
At 10am on Thursday, 23 September Fernandez will speak before the United Nations assembly, following which he will meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
That afternoon, he travels on to Chicago where he will meet with Cook County authorities, the governor of the state of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago. Nest on the agenda is a meeting with Chicago community leaders, followed by a get-together with members of Dominican Liberation Party in that city.
The Stevens Institute of Technology, based in Hoboken, New Jersey, Coralina Group Technologies and the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra (PCUMM) of Santo Domingo today announced joint plans to establish a new institute featuring educational and research programs designed to help the Dominican Republic meet its objectives for industrial job creation.
The new entity, to be situated adjacent to the Cyber Park and the Institute of Technology for the Americas, and east of Santo Domingo near the Las Americas International Airport and Caucedo Port, will benefit from Stevens' expertise in the US in developing curricula and research centers that nurture innovation in the development and application of technologies for business formation and growth. The new hi-tech institute will also benefit from the experience and infrastructure of PUCMM. The initiative is the result of past planning and collaboration with the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development.
President Leonel Fernandez issued a recent decree naming the president of Stevens Institute of Technology, Dr. Harold J. Raveche, as Presidential Advisor for Science, Technology and Innovation to the Dominican Republic.
Scheduled to open in mid-2005, this institute of advanced learning is being described as one of the first steps towards implementing a broader economic strategy to establish the Dominican Republic as a center for advanced engineering, business leadership and innovative technology in such areas as computer and telecommunications software, agri-products, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
"The new institution will provide customized engineering, science and technology management programs that are based on the same rigorous research and high academic standards found at Stevens in the US," promised Dr Raveche. "We will provide an educational environment that creates the critical engineering, science and management talent required to enable the Dominican Republic to rapidly expand its high-technology sector. This new center will also be an educational and technology innovation resource for the rest of Latin America," said Pablo Tapia, Founder/CEO of Coralina Group Technologies. Tapia explained that over the next three years they expect investments from private enterprise and educational foundations to exceed US$50 million. For more information, see http://www.stevens.edu
The Senate approved a first reading of the fiscal reform bill, choosing not to make any change and retain the 25% surcharge on corn syrup imports. The surcharge has been the subject of debate by the US Trade Representative Office, who stated that such a feature would contradict agreements reached for the DR-CAFTA that was signed by the US and DR governments in August. The bill has already been approved in the Chamber of Deputies. The bill's next test will be a second reading, which could happen today or tomorrow, and if gets approval there, it would be sent to the President for its conversion into law. The passage of the reform bill is a condition for the resumption of the International Monetary Fund stand-by agreement.
As the process of identifying recovered stolen vehicles begins, several owners are denouncing the fact that their cars have been altered to conceal their true proprietorship. In some cases, the chassis numbers were changed to prevent the vehicles being identified, while others were painted different colors, bore new license plates or were disguised with accessories.
Hoy newspaper reports today that Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito said that the police and military members who tampered with the recovered vehicles should be penalized.
Yesterday, in the parking lot of the Museum of Modern Art at the Plaza de la Cultura and that of the Segna collapsed insurance company that is two blocks from National Police headquarters, officials presented 120 vehicles that had been recovered. Hundreds of theft victims gathered at these sites in the hopes of identifying their vehicles and repossessing them.
Listin Diario political analyst Orlando Gil today speculates how far back the complicity of police officers in the mafia of stolen vehicles can be traced. "If there are so many vehicles being returned now, it means there were many recovered without their owners finding out, and still more whose vehicles were misappropriated. It is known that the usurpation of the vehicles, including luxury SUVs, had become a scourge and there are statistics that establish which brands were the most targeted. The authorities, according to Gil, even knew the modus operandi of the robbers. Nevertheless, nobody can recall if there were any reports of unofficial recovery operations, when such a high number of vehicles makes it apparent these recovery operations were successful. Neither are there any reports of the dismantling of car-theft gangs or widespread arrests, he writes. Gil further speculates that this is an important point because it leads to very serious suppositions. "For example, that these were not normal robberies, made by common delinquents, but actions led by villains from within the institution. In this sense, it would be necessary to find how the SUV or the pick-up truck ended up in the hands of someone else..."
Gil also writes that it would be worthwhile to know if the illegal possessor of the vehicle was the same person who recovered it, or if it was offered to him, because in each case the mafias would act differently. Likewise, he writes of the need to determine if any money changed hands in exchange for the recovered vehicles. He speculates "that there could have been gangs who enjoyed protection that enabled them to steal luxury vehicles that were later passed on to the officers." He feels one cannot discard the notion that there was an a la carte service, either, meaning that the interested party could specify the type of vehicle he wanted. Gil explains further that from the sample of recovered vehicles, it is apparent that luxury vehicles were preferred.
Gil says that if these matters are not clarified and put into evidence, the wrongdoing will not come to an end and may resurface in the future.
"The solution is not to shovel dirt over it. On the contrary, the problem must be brought to the forefront of everyone's attention, so that there may be a true investigation that causes only the wholesome fruit remain in the bowl," he concludes.
In view of a legal impediment placed on his travel, government security units are looking into how retired Colonel Pedro Julio (Pepe) Goico was allowed to board an Air France plane that would take him to France last Sunday. Vinicio Castillo Seman, a member of the defense team of Ramon Baez Figueroa (former president of the collapsed Baninter bank), remarked on the coincidence that Goico had left the country just as it was announced that investigations would be resumed into Goico's use of the credit card issued by Baninter for President Hipolito Mejia's international expenses. Hoy newspaper reports that the security forces are scrutinizing migration department personnel who made his departure possible.
Eligio Jaquez, the former minister of agriculture during the Mejia administration and one of Mejia's most vociferous political supporters, defended the Goico's departure. As reported in the Diario Libre, Jaquez justified Goico's actions, saying he needed to travel to carry out two-year studies in a Madrid university. Jaquez denied there was any legal impediment that prohibited Goico from leaving the country.
The new police authorities' initiative to confront crime has added a new tragedy to the list of recent violent deaths in the DR. Yesterday police killed four members of the Blas and El Gringo gangs in Azua, 120kms west of Santo Domingo, and Listin Diario journalist Juan Andujar was murdered. In a rampage of surprising violence, the criminals also injured Radio Enriquillo reporter Luis Sencion of Barahona, a nurse named Fatima Mendez, and two unidentified police officers.
The bloodshed shocked the city of Azua, to the point that stores and schools were closed and traffic came to a stop. Police officers are patrolling the city in search of the remaining gang members, with the help of the Rapid Action Group (GAR) of the Special Operations department. The men being sought are reportedly Eddy Vladimir Pujols Pujos, Franklin (Frank) Lopez Gonzalez, Ismael (Quico) Berroa, Rafael Marcial (Mussa) Mendez Guerrero, all members of the Blas gang, and two other men known only as Gringo Tejada Filpo and El Cojo.
Police agents have been dispatched to radio and television stations to protect journalists in their work. Other members of Azua's press have also sought protection at police headquarters, fearing they may be the targets of the gang members still at large.
Hoy newspaper says the delinquents attempted to kill Sencion for his denouncement of a wave of recent robberies in Azua, in which a first lieutenant of the National Police, last name Holguin, was supposedly involved. The police officer allegedly provided backup to a gang that assaulted a business in the area. Sencion said that after he reported the situation to El Nacional newspaper, the thugs kidnapped his two daughters and threatened to kill them if he did not retract his statements within 48 hours. Sencion was able to recover his daughters and has since sent them to live in another city.
The clash with the gang members occurred at 6:30am yesterday, when police unexpectedly appeared to make arrests in the La Cuchilla barrio of Azua. Although this community is a mere two blocks from Army headquarters, Hoy newspaper reports that, ironically, this area of the city is considered one of the places where drugs are most readily sold.
Police say that a shootout erupted during which six gang members escaped and set off to hunt down the journalists in order to avenge the action taken against them. The exchange of gunfire that broke out near the market took the life of Francisco Antonio (Jim) Mendez, according to the Listin Diario, who has been identified as a rival gang member, and injured the nurse, who was presumably an innocent bystander. Also wounded were Jose de los Santos, Miguel Jimenez and Luis Gilberto Silverio, of whom the two latter are being held in official custody.
Later, the gang murdered Andujar, who was a journalist and environmental activist, with a bullet to the head as he drove his motorcycle.
El Caribe reports that Eddy Vladimir Pujols Pujols, one of the Blas gang members, tracked Sencion down at his home, where he shot and injured him in the elbow. The injury was so severe that doctors have had to amputate his arm.
Police revealed that one of the gang members killed, Jairo Melquisedec Pujols Pujols, was one of those prison inmates pardoned and released by President Hipolito Mejia on 24 December, while Eddy Vladimir Pujols Pujols had served jail time for attempted homicide and illegal possession of a weapon. Police identified Eddy Vladimir as the man responsible for Andujar's assasination.
Police Chief Major General Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez said that he himself had traveled to Azua to direct the operations and investigation. The helicopter in which he traveled to Azua was used to pursue the delinquents.
As reported in Diario Libre, witnesses say the thugs carried out their activities with the complicity or complacence of the local police authorities. Jocelyn Melo, the vice-president of the Human Rights Commission in Azua, directly accused the former commander of the Azua police force, Colonel Ignacio Espinal. Others mentioned were Lieutenant Holguin and a policeman known as "Chocolate." Others told Diario Libre that the police had no choice but to reach an agreement with the gangs or look the other way, and that they acted out of fear.
Manuel Maria Mercedes, the president of the Human Rights Commission, told the Listin Diario that they felt that Andujar was murdered because of a mishandling of the situation by the authorities. He explained that the journalist was acting as a middleman and had established contacts with the criminals who were being asked to turn themselves in. The theory is that when the police arrived to round up the delinquents and take them in, Jairo and his gang felt they had been betrayed by Andujar and sought to take their revenge.
El Caribe's editorial speculates that behind the deteriorating public security is the increase in drug trafficking, the inefficiency (and in some cases there has been talk of complicity) of the police officers, the proliferation of guns in the hands of the people, the shortcomings of the justice system in applying penalties, and the mounting social inequities. The editorialist urges the new government to act immediately and "cut the head from the serpent".
As of the 11am advisory from the US National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, a hurricane watch and tropical storm warnings have been extended westward along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, stretching west of Cabrera to Puerto Plata. A hurricane watch and tropical storm warning is also in effect for the southern coast of the country, from Isla Saona westward to Santo Domingo. At this point, the most grave predictions have the storm hitting the Dominican Republic as a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 74-95mph (119-153kmph). The storm is expected to pass over Puerto Rico today, after which it could adopt a new direction and intensity. To follow the storm, see the threads at the DR1 Weather & Beyond forum at http://www.dr1.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34
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