Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, speaking at the XVIII Group of Rio Summit in Rio de Janairo, Brazil, suggested that the assembly consider the integration of former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide in the talks concerning the DR's blighted neighbor to the west. He defined Haiti as a country suffering from a power vacuum and whose economy is based on drug trafficking. Fernandez referred to the Haitian politician whose great popular appeal "should make him a part of the talks." Calling Haiti a narco-state where poverty and human degradation reign, Fernandez told his audience that they have a historic obligation to assist the beleaguered nation. Fernandez was speaking to eleven chiefs of state and eight governmental representatives in Rio, where the assembly decided to send more troops to Haiti as part of the UN peace-keeping forces there. The Haitian issue became a hot topic in yesterday's discussions and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva said that "it was necessary for the international community to mobilize and assist Haiti." Da Silva also said that "keeping order would not be enough to uphold democracy in Haiti."
The union leaders of the Dominican Republic warned business owners yesterday that they were obliged to honor the new wage scale signed on 26 October and would otherwise face renewed and more stringent efforts by the labor groups to have their wages increased. The Listin Diario says that Rafael Abreu, the head of the CGT syndicate, and Marialo Lebron, of the National Council of Union Solidarity (CNUS), told reporters that if Labor Minister Ramon Fadul accepted the challenge from CONEP with regard to Resolution 02-04, he would create a chaotic situation and the unions would be forced to go before the Labor Tribune and the National Congress. The union leaders met at the CNUS offices to elaborate their position regarding the employers' claims that the resolution is illegal because it exceeds the scope of the National Salaries Commission, the body responsible for issuing the new wage scales. Nevertheless, CONEP, the country's foremost private sector representative, has urged its members to abide by the resolution and increase their employees' salaries by the suggested increments if they have not already done so during the past ten months.
A deal was struck in the construction sector between the various bodies of that industry and the workers' representatives. The new package will yield the construction workers pay increases of 82.5%. Although union spokespersons Jose Eugenio Ruiz and Pedro Julio Alcantara had requested and fought hard for a 150% increase in workers' daily wages, the final deal was settled at 82.5%. The National Salaries Commission acted as the mediator in these negotiations and the final outcome establishes daily wages of RD$268 for non-specialized workers, RD$294 for skilled workers and RD$345 for assistants. Machine operators will take home between RD$448 and RD$639, depending on their experience and degree of expertise. The two groups also agreed to meet again in 18 months to review the salary structure within the construction sector. With this agreement, it appears that only the tourism sector remains to formulate a new wage agreement with its workers.
Fernando Garcia, the president of the Organization of Commercial Enterprises (ONEC), said yesterday that over the past three months some US$2 billion have returned to the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, the exchange rate dropped by RD$0.53 yesterday, sitting at RD$31 pesos to US$1, the second such significant stride taken by the Dominican peso this week. Last Tuesday, the dollar fell by RD$0.93 against the peso. Garcia said that the dollars that entered the country belonged to Dominicans who had never intended to remove their funds from the country permanently. It was Garcia's belief that a lack of confidence and worries about a further devaluation of the peso had led many people to acquire dollars as a hedge bet.
According to the ONEC leader, most of this hard currency has entered the banking system, been converted to pesos and has permitted new viability for commercial loans, with interest rates also falling considerably. The Central Bank has lowered its interest rates on certificates to less than 30%, reaching as low as 25% during the latest auction of certificates.
Garcia pointed out that until the actual consumers feel that their personal finances have improved, the local businesses will not feel the effect of the return of this capital. He said that this was why the ONEC had fought against an increase in consumer taxes.
Goldman Sachs Economic Research has released a 4 November report card on the Dominican Republic, in which Latin American economist and analyst Geoffrey Gottlieb reviews the recent evolution of the debt burden and outlines the macroeconomic assumptions that lead many to think the DR's primary problem is but a liquidity crisis. He also looks at what he calls the likely relief needed to meet liquidity needs and outlines possible restructuring scenarios for the investor to consider while more details are awaited.
See http://www.dr1.com/news/2004/110504_goldman_sachs.pdf
Hundreds of municipal authorities, mayors and council members, gathered at the Municipal Federation to demand that the central government let them keep the heavy equipment that was ceded to them by the past administration. They also demanded the return of their municipal police forces (a total of 700 men nationwide, most offices), which were disbanded by ministerial decree last week.
The conflict is an obvious one: 90% of the local municipal governments are in the hands of the PRD, the party that suffered a crushing defeat in last May's elections and wants to retain its patronage base and the ability to carry out "make work" projects in the various municipalities. The municipal police forces and the equipment are vital to these party interests. The PRSC is also interested in this issue, since their only power base is the Municipal League and the municipal government of Santiago de los Caballeros, the DR's second largest city. During the assembly held at the Municipal League, Fausto Ruiz, the mayor of La Vega and president of the FEDOMU, and Amable Aristy Castro, the head of the Dominican Municipal League (LMD), condemned the resolution signed by Interior and Police Minister Franklyn Almeyda that dissolved the municipal law enforcement detachments. In a joint declaration, they said that they would go before Congress to introduce a bill that would legally create the municipal police forces. In addition, the PRD warned President Leonel Fernandez to stop his attacks on Congress and requested that he revoke the resolution of Minister Almeyda.
With Smith-Enron, Cogentrix III and the three AES units out of service, the national energy deficit reached 521 MW and put 187 of the 472 circuits offline for prolonged periods of time. Other generators are not working to full capacity, such as the Monte Rio which reduced its output to 60 MW down from the 87 MW being produced the day before yesterday. EGE-Haina also curbed its output, producing just 178.5 MW instead of the 303 MW that were available two days ago. Itabo, the hydro dams, Palamara and La Vega, the Estrella del Mar, Puerto Plata and Cogentrix I and II are the generators currently online and together supply around 920 MW to the national grid. Some of these generators are undergoing maintenance, some are shut down because of payment issues and others are in need of fuel. The operations manager of the Superintendent of Electricity's office told Hoy reporters he was counting on having 1,182 MW to meet peak-hour consumption, a scenario that would represent a deficit of just 259 MW. On Wednesday, the Superintendent of Electricity Francisco Mendez told reporters he envisioned having to face a 25%-30% energy deficit from now until the electricity companies can resolve the economic issues that have hit the sector. He called for the citizens in those neighborhoods that receive subsidized electricity to conserve as much power as possible, while he also announced that the government would continue the program of reduced blackouts (PRA) through the month of December.
Retired US Coast Guard commander Stephen Flynn warned that Caribbean countries, including the Dominican Republic, are currently hard pressed to come up with the resources to meet the enhanced security measures mandated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in December 2001, as reported by Caribbean region journalist, John Collins. The US Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 gave it force of law and as of 1 July 2004, the US has been enforcing the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS). Flynn advocates that more resources be made available to boost the security of the maritime transportation system.
Speaking at a two-day seminar titled "Adapting border controls to facilitate trade and security in the DR" and which was held in Santo Domingo last month, Flynn warned: "Since 9/11, Washington has provided only US$516 million towards the US$5.6 billion the Coast Guard estimates that US ports need to make them minimally secure." He pointed out that in the FY2005 budget, the White House asked for just $50 million more. But matters are financially much worse for the implementation of the added security measures abroad.
"Given the severe constraints on the state and local budgets within the jurisdictions where America's commercial seaports are located, it is difficult to see how these ports are in any position to bankroll the new security requirements that have been thrust upon them," he said during the workshop. "The evidence to date is that much of the international maritime community is simply going through the motions," he continued and indicated that on the day the ISPS code went into force, "only one-half of the world's port facilities had gotten around to submitting their security plans — and most were thrown together in the final weeks before the deadline."
The workshop was coordinated by the Global Foundation for Democracy ad Development (funglode.org), the Santo Domingo think-tank founded by President Leonel Fernandez. The seminar was funded under a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to Professor Anthony Bryan of the University of Miami, who is also a senior associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.
Neither of the regular cartoon characters appears in today's popular Diario Libre cartoon, which instead features a grotesque figure with signs all around it to explain its features. Titled "What We Dominicans Will Be In 40 Years," the projection into the future envisions Dominicans with huge eyes to better see in the dark. Of course, Dominicans will all speak English by then, having become "yes men". Other special features include sharp, pointy teeth acquired from eating raw meat, in the absence of cooking gas. People will be very skinny, because - just imagine - a chicken will cost RD$15,000! The future Dominican will sport excessively large feet since there is no gasoline and everyone walks. We will be bald, as well, having lost all our hair from scratching our heads so often, and have teeny, tiny ears as the political campaigning will have screwed up our hearing. The average Dominican will move around completely naked so that the thieves may see they have nothing to steal. And, since there is no water, everyone will be constipated and as a result: hemorrhoids! The cartoonist finishes by saying: "But we will be happy...we will have learnt that politicians are worthless!"
The brilliant editorialist of the must-read column "De Buena Tinta" says that a lot of people are thinking that, with the end of his assignment in the Dominican Republic approaching, US Ambassador Hans Hertell might fire a parting shot. Hertell is not the "ugly American" portrayed in the novel by Burdick and Lederer back in the late fifties, but is perhaps, according to the column, an "ugly Puerto Rican" since he bears little resemblance to Marlon Brando who starred in the film made from the book. Nonetheless, there are Dominicans who are offended by Hertell's actions, and above all, by his lack of knowledge of the real Dominican political and business scene. Hertell's local detractors bet on John Kerry without understanding that it didn't matter who would head of the new administration – Hertell's appointment was coming to an end regardless. Nevertheless, there is now another fear and this is what can be heard through the grapevine these days: that when Hertell has one foot in the stirrup, he will do the nasty deed of revealing the names of those people under extraditions requests from the United States, as well as those involved with other big messes. If this scenario comes true, says the editorialist, it will not be necessary to ask "Who threw the bomb? Who threw it?" as a famous country song from the diplomat's native Puerto Rico says. Hertell, himself, will have thrown it. And the worst part, says the writer, is that Lomotil has gone up in price and there is no generic substitute.
Hoy newspaper reports today from Higuey that an angry mob confronted Deacon Rigoberto de Jesus Gonzalez Padial, after a judge deferred the trial of those accused of molesting children at the Ciudad de los Ninos San Francisco Javier orphanage until 10 January 2005.
Judge Rafael Cedano ordered five former employees of the institution (Ventura Perez de la Cruz, Felipa Jose, Yoanny Alvarez, Geniese Noncent, and Maria Cristina Guerrero) and two of their spouses to jail and denied their petition to have the alleged victims newly interrogated. The judge also advised the deacon and the deputy director of the home, Alejandro del Rosario, to consult the diocese of Higuey so that their sworn statements may be given in accordance with the Concordat signed between the Church and the state in 1954.
The first-floor courtroom was packed with people, who were ejected from the building before the hearing began. The only witnesses allowed to remain were members of the families of the accused and the press. Of those who were disallowed from viewing the proceedings, many remained in the vicinity of the building, demanding justice and the arrest of Deacon Gonzalez Padial, the institution's founder and director. Most of the angry crowd were residents of San Rafael de Yuma, the southeastern town where the children's home is located.
When the court proceedings were concluded, the deacon was escorted to his vehicle by police agents and the military to protect against the swarm of people who called out to the cleric with jeers and taunts. Hoy reports that approximately five people were arrested at the scene in connection with the disturbance.
A defense lawyer for the accused, Luis Fernando Espinoso, asked the court to verify claims made by the minors that the orphanage pool was used to hold satanic rituals involving human remains. He, too, requested that the accusers be questioned again in order to ensure that their statements had not been unduly manipulated or coerced. Espinosa, along with fellow defense counsel Mota Alvarez, said they would petition the court to have Gonzalez Padial and del Rosario charged with negligence, alleging that any such untoward activity at the Ciudad de los Ninos orphanage could not have occurred without their awareness.
The Puerto Rican and Venezuelan press are focusing on the Saturday, 6 November royal wedding to take place at the Altos de Chavon chapel in Casa de Campo, La Romana. The ceremony will wed 30-year old Duke of Anjou, Luis Alfonso de Borbon and 21-year-old Venezuelan heiress, Maria Margarita Vargas Santaella. The bride-to-be is the daughter of Victor Jose Vargas, the president of the Banco Occidental de Descuento of Venezuela, and Carmen Leonor Santaella, and her wedding dress is from Spanish designers Vitorio y Lucchino, according to El Universal of Caracas. Televicentro of Puerto Rico says that the popular Spanish performer David Bisbal will sing during the ceremony.
Luis Alfonso gained notoriety in Europe when monarchy supporters in France proclaimed him their heir to the French throne in the hope he would reinitiate a royal family in that country. He is the son of the late Duke Cadiz Alfonso de Borbon, cousin to King Juan Carlos, and Carmen Martinez, a granddaughter of Dictator Francisco Franco.
The Listin Diario said that while the grand event has not received much local attention, it may be another 100 years before a wedding such as this takes place in the country again. World-famous figures have been invited, potentially including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who will coincidentally be in the Dominican Republic on that date to sign an oil agreement with the Dominican government.
The betrothed couple has plans to take up residence in Venezuela, as reported in the Venezuelan press. It has also been reported that the rights to the ceremony have been sold and that the funds will be donated to a La Romana charity.
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