President Leonel Fernandez will travel next week to Brazil and Mexico. In Brazil, he will participate in the XVIII Summit of the Group of Rio (3-5 November). Subsequently, he will travel to Venezuela to sign the agreements drawn up to oversee the DR's purchase of Venezuelan petroleum. President Fernandez will sign the agreement with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The Fundacion Derecho y Democracia, as represented by a former JCE (Central Electoral Board) judge Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman has submitted to the Supreme Court of Justice a request that the Law on Political Primaries be annulled on the grounds that it violates the Constitution. The JCE has already requested funding for RD$747 million (RD$487 million for the primaries and RD$263 million for other expenses) as part of the 2005 National Budget. The Law of Primaries delegates the JCE with the task of organizing the major political bodies' primary elections. While the PRSC and the PLD have spoken out against it, the PRD, which pushed it through Congress in an attempt to solve their internal problems, is standing firmly behind the new system. The PRSC's president said that to organize its most recent primary, the party barely spent RD$12 million.
Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque and the country's leading arbiter Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado issued separate statements requesting employers to respect the salary agreement devised last week by the National Salaries Commission. Both men referred to the agreement between labor unions and employers that prescribed a 30% wage increase in the DR's legal minimum wage, as well as a 25% wage increase on those salaries between the minimum wage and RD$20,000 per month. Alburquerque, a labor lawyer and former labor minister, reaffirmed that the agreement signed at the CNS is a pact between the parties, and, as such, is legally binding. In his statement, Monsignor Nunez Collado pushed the business community not to stall any more on the issue. "I believe that agreements must be complied with, apart from what the labor laws and the Constitution say," stated the monsignor. In Santiago, mega-businessman Feliz Garcia told Hoy reporter Anselmo Silverio that most of the industries in the north of the Dominican Republic had already issued wage increases of between 20% and 30%, even before the recent agreement was drawn up. Garcia recommended that the agreement be respected and said that if there are some industries that have not yet complied with the increase, it is a situation that must be corrected. According to Garcia, the agreement signed last week between CONEP and the workers' representatives came relatively late for a large part of the business community, which, because of the pressure created by a US dollar valued at RD$50, had already made the wage adjustments. The Santiago business leader said that only those enterprises that had established wage increases of less than 30% would have to adjust their payrolls to fulfill the agreement.
Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque pointed out yesterday that the National Budget will severely limit the President's ability to implement plans to combat poverty. The special laws that focus parts of the budget on specific areas, such as the Congress (4% of the budget), the municipalities (10% of the budget) and debt service (40% of the budget), leave the Executive Branch with reduced funding for social programs to help the needy. The Judicial Branch gets 3%, the Government Accounting Office gets 0.55% and the National Council for Children gets 2% of the National Budget. Alburquerque made his comments after participating in a FINJUS seminar named Transparency in the Fight Against Poverty. Nonetheless, the Vice-President said that the government would continue to try to better the lives of the poor, and called the new Eating Comes First program only a small part of their strategy.
The International Monetary Fund mission to the Dominican Republic will depart today after a two-week stay that focused on the conditions necessary to reinstate the Stand By Agreement. Back in Washington, the team will report on the joint efforts that were agreed upon with the DR's economic cabinet. According to Jose Fajgenbaum, the acting director of the IMF's Western Hemisphere Department, and IMF senior economist Steven Phillips, the progress made was "significant," especially in the areas of monetary and fiscal policies. According to the team, a major question remains on how the government will resolve the issue of reform in the electric sector. The discussions will continue, either here or in Washington, to iron out the rough draft or begin a second round of negotiations. Apparently, the most difficult points to concretize are the problems of collections for electricity bills and the effect of the buy-back of the power distribution companies on the government budget.
Twelve of the generators went offline yesterday, initiating a new round of prolonged blackouts for most of the country. All 12 units cited a lack of fuel as the cause of their departure from the grid. While online generation was at 1071 MW, demand at peak hours stood at 1659.9 MW, sending parts of Santo Domingo into blackouts that were reported to have lasted from between 6 and 15 hours. AES Los Mina V and VI, Palamara-La Vega, Smith-Enron, Cogentrix I, Haina I, Cogentrix III, Monte Rio, AES Andres and Puerto Plata I were all offline.
The Ministry of the Interior and Police will begin confiscating, as of tomorrow, the firearms issued under what it is euphemistically calling "friendly" weapons permits. These illegal permits, estimated to number 300,000, were issued by Armed Forces personnel, the National Drug Control Department, the National Department of Investigations or the National Police. Among the holders of such permits are rural authorities, known as "alcaldes pedandeos," municipal authorities such as mayors, and other governmental officials, all of whom will now need to obtain permits through the customary channels.
Furthermore, it is now prohibited to carry a visible weapon, such as a pistol down one's waistband, even if that person is authorized to carry such a weapon. The Ministry of the Interior and Police will consider the mere visibility of a firearm to constitute a threat to the general public.
These measures are part of the Anti-Delinquency Plan being effected by the National Police, the military and the Justice Department.
The "prophylaxis" of the police force – which has seen over 300 of its ranks dismissed and dispatched to the civil courts – as well as the increased number of patrol units, are part of the program. Interior and Police Minister Franklin Almeyda Rancier said that his people would use the data bases of the police and the armed forces to trace those who hold these "friendly" permits and who have not complied with the 30 October deadline to turn their weapons in.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will devise strategies, through the National Dialogue forum, that will seek to reduce violence in the Dominican Republic. The Dialogue's coordinator, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, made the announcement at the end of a meeting with the various media who had promised to assist the National Dialogue in spreading the word. Nunez Collado explained that in order to work out a plan against violence, UNDP consultant German Montenegro would supply a list of "suggestions" to help establish a basis for the final proposals that the dialogue will submit to President Fernandez. The heads of the media agreed to help motivate the population to spur a stronger social reaction against violence. Persio Maldonado, the head of the Nuevo Diario, was the spokesperson for the newspapers during the meeting that lasted several hours at the Santo Domingo campus of the Pontificial Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra. Among the media present were the newspapers Hoy, El Caribe, Nuevo Diario, La Informacion, El Nacional and Diario Libre, as well as the El Caribe-Cadena de Noticias (CDN) media group. Minister of Interior and Police Franklin Almeida Rancier, PRD leader Hatuey de Camps, Henry Mejia, Licelott Marte de Barrios and Victor Gomez Berges were the politicians on hand at the Dialogue and also present were members of the civil society.
Almeyda said an improved economy was a prerequisite for less crime. He pointed out that the unemployment rate is at a lofty 17% of the working population and this does not include those employed in the informal sector where wages are very low.
As a member of the ACP nations (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific), the Dominican Republic and its banana industry will benefit greatly from the increased tariffs agreed upon by the European Union. These tariffs increase the tax on bananas from ˆ75 per ton to ˆ230 per ton on fruit coming from non-ACP nations. The measure, as announced last Wednesday, is intended to protect the banana farmers of the ACP region – most of which are former colonies of the European nations – from competition from other Latin American nations.
According to Luis Bonilla, the head of Probanano, "The country will not have to pay any tariffs as long as it stays within the [allotted] 650,000 tons per year."
The former colonies hold 20% of the European market, and the European producers (Spain, Portugal and France) hold another 20%. Latin American producers comprise the remaining 60%, according to EU spokesperson Arancha Gonzalez.
The Dominican Republic is the largest exporter of organically-grown bananas to Europe and exports of all bananas are expected to reach 200,000 boxes per week by the 2005 harvest. The sale of bananas in Europe has been causing bitter disputes for years, however. The major United States fruit harvesters, such as United Brands and Dole, pushed for a WTO decision against the European Community's discriminatory policies regarding bananas from Latin America. The WTO agreed with the American companies and the US began applying sanctions of US$191 million against the European banana producers. International politics forced a truce in 2001, but Ecuador has said it will go to the World Trade Organization to seek redress.
As the Most Valuable Player of the Yankees-Red Sox playoffs, Dominican slugger David Ortiz has been chosen to be featured on "The Breakfast of Champions" package. Commenting on the sponsorship, Ortiz told the press that he still prefers "mangu," the popular Dominican breakfast of mashed plantains.
Others who have had their images represented on the Wheaties cereal box include US legendary athletes Jessie Owens, Jack Nicklaus, Hank Aaron and Ozzie Smith, Babe Ruth among others.
See http://www.wheaties.com/champions/championslist.asp
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