President Leonel Fernandez traveled to Miami yesterday. During a meeting with Dominicans living in Miami, he addressed the recent wave of violence in the DR and attributed this to an increase in drug trafficking following the relaxing of law enforcement efforts to combat drug trafficking. He said that his government will confront crime without respite until a sense of safety is returned to the Dominican people. He said the country is suffering from the effects of the "debris left by a political hurricane," in clear ireference to the past administration.
President Leonel Fernandez traveled to Miami on Sunday, 10 October to participate in a Monday morning encounter with Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Bush is expected to lobby for the vote for Miami to become the headquarters to the Free Trade Area of the Americas headquarters. The Mejia administration had already committed the Dominican vote would favor Panama as the host city.
President Fernandez will also be keynote speaker at a lunch with leading Floridian businessmen at the historic landmark Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Fernandez is scheduled to return Monday evening.
Diario Libre pointed out on Saturday that Armed Forces Minister Sigfrido Pared Perez has made comments that contradict statements made by other high-ranking civilian government offices. For instance, Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito had spoken that he backs a project to purge the Armed Forces. Pared Parez would respond in a press interview that reform in the Armed Forces is responsibility of the President of the Republic, the Armed Forces Minister and the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee. Next, Interior and Police Minsiter Franklin Almeyda Rancier had stated that the present wave of violence is politically motivated. Pared Perez responded in statements to the press that intelligence bodies of the Armed Forces had not found any political involvement in the recent violent acts.
Diario Libre comments that Pared should be reminded that the Dominican government is a civilian one, and thus he should let civilians be the spokesmen for the government.
Political commentator Orlando Gil writes on Saturday in the Listin Diario that the issue of the government appointing more deputy ministers than those established by law per ministry is hurting the government's image. Gil emphasizes that President Leonel Fernandez had pointed out that his government would only appoint those established by law, but in practice this has not been the case, and the positions have been filled with PLD appointees, regardless of whether they surpass those established by law. Gil says that since Fernandez made the announcement in his inaugural speech, and used this issue as a example of the austerity in his government, the failure to apply the measure affects his credibility. He comments that his predecessor, Mejia had boasted he was a man of his word, to be latter known more for the many time that he failed to keep his word to the Dominican people. He says Fernandez may soon be regarded in the same light if he does not take care. Gil comments on the multiple cases of appointments of deputy ministers that do not have offices in the ministries and that furthermore have been rejected by the ministers themselves. "The anecdotes abound, and the overabundance of deputy ministers are now being seem as unfounded, but are motive of much jesting among the population. At one time, this will have a political cost," he wrote.
Former Central Electoral Board judge Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman considered abusive that the government disbursed RD$412 million to the political parties when public hospitals do not have medicines, there are not enough schools for children, as reported in Hoy today. He says politicians are a privileged class in the DR.
Castanos Guzman spoke during the workshop on Pending Electoral Reforms: Strengthening of the Electoral System organized by Participacion Ciudana civic group. "At some point, this will have to be revised," he commented emphasizing that money that goes to politics means there is less money that can be used to reduce poverty.
To make matters worse, a recent modification to the electoral law now calls for taxpayers to fund the primaries of the political parties, to the tune of an additional RD$450 million.
The Chamber of Accounts, the body in charge of auditing use of government funds, has reopened the case of the Plan Renove based on a governmental audit. There has been a volley of insults among those who were involved in the plan promoted during the Mejia administration as the solution to public transportation in the DR, as reported in the Listin Diario on Saturday.
Fabio Ruiz, the former executive director of the plan and Milciades Amaro defended their performance on the board in regards to the buses assigned to the private bus company, Terra Bus.
Juan Hubieres, of Fenatrano, who resigned after two years on the board of Renove, criticized that the case dosier did not mention Ramon Emilio Jimenez (Milo) who kicked off the purchase of the vehicles, nor Pedro Franco Badia, president of the plan until April 2003, nor Siquio Ng de la Rosa, who replaced Franco Badia.
As per Resolution 06-04, the Accounts Chamber requested that prosecutor Jose Manuel Hernandez determine the penal responsibility of the board members of the National Transport Council of the Plan Renove.
The Accounts Chamber says that the vehicles that would have been assigned to transporters ended up in the hands of third party persons and private transportation companies. It mentions Milciades Amaro Guzman and Antonio Marte, representatives of the state in the plan, as beneficiaries of 48 buses, a truck and 31 units. Amaro is shareholder of Terrabus and Antonio Marte of Aetra Bus.
Hubieres complained: "There is a clear intension to blame the transport union directors while leaving out of the corruption query the politicians and former officers of the past government."
Economist Arturo Martinez Moya says that the country cannot continue importing the same volume of fuel given the present record high prices. He urged the government alert the population and create a national plan to save fuel. He urged that a well thought savings energy savings program be implemented immediately. He said that if savings are not had, the exchange rate will be affected. He said the cost of barrel for the DR could be at US$60 because the country buys primarily finished product, not crude. He said that once the barrel of petroleum costs more than US$26-US$27, it is more cost efficient for the country to import fuel than for the Dominican Petroleum Refinery to process it.
El Caribe newspaper today highlights that there is a need to break down institutional obstacles and market structures so that currency trading in the DR can fluctuate more with market forces. The newspaper reports that the way the system works today, five money dealers receive more than 50% of the hefty profits made by the volatile exchange market. The newspaper points out that the regulated exchange market moves US$7 billion a year in the Dominican Republic. Augusto Peignand, president of the Dominican Association of Exchange Companies (Adocambio) explains the regulated market is made up by 80 exchange houses and remittance companies, in addition to commercial banks. These handle the transactions of 70% of the foreign exchange that enters the country via the export of goods and services and remittances.
According to the Central Bank, of 7 October, the exchange companies had revenues of US$74.9 million.
The newspaper points out that the market is an oligopoly. The newspaper says that five companies concentrate 53.9% of the profits, with Vimenca and Santa Cruz the leaders. Of the remittance companies, Vimenca is by far the market leader, with its alliance with Western Union.
The Consumer Price Index shows a 1.13% decline in September compared to August, according to the Central Bank. The Central Bank points out that this is the first time that in September there is a decline in inflation. September is usually a month when prices increase primarily because it is the month when stores stock up for Christmas inventories.
The decline in inflation is primarily attributed to the appreciation of the peso. Inflation through August is at 32.61%.
While the peso has appreciated 30% in recent weeks to around RD$33-US$1, prices have been slower in falling in the DR, many stagnating after the government increased the ITBIS tax on sales from 12 to 16%.
On the other hand, businesses are now returning prices that had been set in US$ to peso prices.
Many prices had been set to the RD$54-US$1 mark and now need to be adjusted. Stores say they need to sell the goods they purchased at higher prices. Nevertheless, when they had purchased inventories at lower prices, they were prompt to adjust these to what it would cost them to restock.
The National District judge hearing the case presented by Manuel Guaroa Liranzo against former Baninter bank president Ramon Baez Figueroa for alleged contract abridgement has been shelved after Liranzo retrieved the suit, as reported in Hoy newspaper. Liranzo was the treasurer of the Baninter bank until its collapse. Despite being the treasurer of the bank at the time of its collapse, Liranzo was not included in the accusations presented by the Central Bank against the bank's leading executives. On the contrary, in May 2003, Liranzo received a payment of US$10 million from the Central Bank to the order of Scotiabank, to pay a loan that had been contracted, as well as a Central Bank certificate of investment for RD$551,540,000 that was cashed during the government transition period.
Hoy newspaper explains that the media assets of Guaroa Liranzo in partnership with Baez Figueroa are Telecentro (13), Multimedios (RNN), Inde, Administraciones Diversas, Gestiones y Administraciones de Negocios, Cadena Espacial and Cadena 31.
Over the weekend, the Police detained Cuban-American Ana Ibis Marti, co-owner of a free zone in San Pedro de Macoris, for questioning. Marti said she was co-owner of the BMW X5 station wagon that was recovered from the bottom of the Caribbean Sea fronting Las Americas Highway. She explained she had borrowed in a finance company in La Romana to purchase the vehicle whose previous owner was a Kelvin Frank Cordero Severino. The vehicle had the front window shattered and a large rock in the front seat.
Diario Libre says there is a difference between the name on the insurance and the name on the registration of the vehicle. The registration is in the name of Kelvin Frank Cordero Severino resident in San Pedro de Macoris.
Cuban-American Ana Ibis Marti told the press that the BMW station wagon that the police recovered from the Caribbean Sea had been stolen from her office. She suspects her partner in business, Cuban-American Michael Rojas with whom she had differences over the same vehicle, as reported in the Listin Diario.
Diario Libre points out that the prison authorities have authorized that leading Dominican drug trafficker, Florian Feliz, who is kept at a maximum security cell in the Monte Plata pen, be visited by his dentist who has improved his smile with new braces. Nuria Piera, Channel 9 investigative journalist, broke the story on her TV show on Saturday. Feliz has contested the 20-year sentence and the case is pending a hearing in the Supreme Court of Justice.
Some 4,222 Dominicans were deported from the United States to the DR from January to August 2004, almost double the 2,327 that were deported during the first eight months of 2003. The number is 30% more than the 3,284 that were deported in the entire year 2003. From 1998 to 2003, some 19,934 Dominicans have been deported.
El Caribe newspaper reports that more than 60 of every 100 Dominicans that were deported from the United States during the first half of 2004 were deported for criminal charges, primarily drugs, homicides, rape or forgery. The remaining 36.7% was sent home for violation to US migration law.
Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito told El Caribe newspaper that he has no doubts the increase in the deportees has to do with the increase in delinquency in the DR. But he told the El Caribe that in recent violent incidents, such as those that happened in Navarette, Azua and Banco de Reservas robberies, the authorities did not link these to those deported. Domingo Brito said that the deportees should not be stigmatized, as they are not all alike.
Dominguez told El Caribe: "You have to handle this case with tweezers. A deported person is not necessarily a high risk criminal. We cannot attribute the wave of violence to the increase in deported Dominicans."
Despite the fact that the billionaire infrastructure built by the past government for the Pan American Games is in a state of practical abandonment, the government could be considering completing the Monte Plata installations for the Monte Plata National Games. In the Dominican Republic, almost all large installations built for the national sports games quickly fall into abandonment, with those built for the Pan Am Games no exception.
The Mejia administration had started the Monte Plata installations and now the governor of Monte Plata announces these will be completed. Engineer Ricardo Contreras says that the works will be priority for the government and will be included in the 100-day priority, as reported in Listin Diario. The Mejia government left the installations 30% completed. The new date is December 2005.
Claudia Cruz was chosen the Dominican representative to the Miss World pageant to be held on 4 December in China. The Dominican Republic won the Miss World contest in 1982 with Mariasela Alvarez. The country also has won the Miss Universe contest with Amelia Vega (2003). This year, the public could call in and vote for the candidates, or send in a vote via the Internet.
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