| Daily News - Wednesday, 31 August 2005 |
With a picture of flooded New Orleans on the front page, the headlines coincidentally tell of a major new dam that will halt flooding on the floodplains of the Yaque del Sur River. The dam site is located between Azua and Barahona and will cost an estimated US$260 million. The government, according to Frank Rodriguez, the head of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INDRHI), is looking for the financing. Rodriguez told the Listin Diario reporters that dredging the riverbed would not solve the problem of flooding along the lower parts of the Yaque. Readers may remember the terrible loss of live after hurricane Georges causes the river to overflow and nearly wipe out the town of Tamayo. According to Rodriguez, recent rains have impeded the INDRHI from continuing its work on cleaning up and shoring up the riverbanks with sandbags. A report from the Ministry of Agriculture said that 3,900 'tareas,' about 250 hectares, of land in the area near Barahona were affected by floodwaters from the Yaque. Particularly hard hit were the plantain farms and pastures. The project of the dam at Monte Grande would include several detours for the river before it reaches the Caribbean Sea. Rodriguez said that until the dam is built, his teams can only do provisional work along the river's banks in an attempt to help local farmers and cattlemen.
The Director General of Customs fired 25 employees yesterday for their roles in contraband valued at RD$164 million. According to the assistant director of Customs, Luis Sanchez, the crew of six attempted to introduce contraband that included foodstuffs, appliances, women's accessories, cloth and clothing through the industrial free zones of Herrera and Haina. The six have been sent to face charges.
Customs also identified 106 vehicles that entered the country illegally as contraband. These included Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The contraband people used names and invoices of vehicles that had already paid the correct duties. All told, according to Sanchez, the tab, including the applicable fines comes to RD$164 million. As a result of the investigation, the Customs office confiscated the goods and will put them up for auction. Some of the people indicted had been accused in previous cases of fraud.
The "Que se dice" column joins in the ruckus over the contract that ceded the Santo Domingo seashore to a private company for 99 years. The column's author jibes the contract revealed by the El Dia newspaper as being very similar to the old colonial tactic of giving bangles for gold, much akin to the famous US$24 dollar deal that got the Dutch the island of Manhattan. The columnist says that all it takes is a glance at the contract that cedes the rights to build an artificial island for the tourist industry in front of Santo Domingo to be reminded that today, some 500 plus hears later, we are still exchanging gold nuggets for shiny bangles.
As an example, this is sufficient, but there is more, a lot more to be looked at, especially with regards to the obligations that fall to the Dominican State - and thinking about the tax reform proposals that are very slowly being cooked up at the Presidential Palace.
The contract stipulates that the Dominican state has the obligation to: "Establish the fiscal conditions that will facilitate the execution of the project, its development and administration with an acceptable level of profitability."
The contract in question, published, in its entirety in the El Dia, should be sent to Congress for consideration, but, already, the members of the opposition have expressed their rejection, because, among other things, it is dealing with a "stupidity" that only exists in the minds of some of the government's officials. We'll have to wait, says the writer, nonetheless, in order to know the final determination of this generous contract that has made us remember those shiny bangles with which, according to the legend, the avaricious conquerors dazzled our unwary aborigines.
Without a doubt, the Sans Souci project is a big one, indeed. The construction of hotels, a convention center, apartments and parks on the 496,000 square meter section will cover both the east and west banks of the Ozama River as it meets the Caribbean Sea.
As told by Lisandro Macarrulla, president of Inversiones Turisticas Sans Souci, the company promoting the project, the cruise ships and the hotels will bring a million tourists to the city of Santo Domingo. At the present time, according to the Hoy newspaper, the Dominican Republic receives around 2.5 million visitors each year.
The company represented by Macarrulla will invest US$28 million over the next three years and the complete project will need US$400 million in investments. Part of the overall project will include the cleaning up of the Ozama River basin in order to make it more attractive to visitors. Estimates indicate that perhaps as many as 20,000 jobs will be created when the project nears completion, and, together with the other operations over US$4.0 billion in taxes will be produced.
Macarrulla, speaking to reporters as part of the program to get the Congress to approve the sale of the lands required for the project, said that if they did not get the approval of the Congress the investors would desist in their efforts and the area would remain stagnant. The sale includes 200,000 square meters currently occupied by the Navy and the Naval School in Sans Souci.
The luncheon was attended by members of the media, including radio and television as well as the print media and one of the details that were given out was the fact that the lands had been assessed and their assessed value was doubled in the offer made by the investors. Ironically, Pesident Fernandez has already given the first shovel full of dirt for the project, last June.
The government handpicked this company to carry out the project.
The Dominican Senate approved yesterday the US$90 million loan that will finance the aqueduct needed in the Northwest Line. The money will come from the National Bank of Economic and Social Development of Brazil (BNDES) and the Deutsche Bank, and will be used to expand the existing water system that was begun during the Balaguer administrations. Twenty-four senators voted in favor of the project after hearing the report given by senator Fausto Lopez Solis (PRD-La Vega), who requested that the Senate include the loan agreement in the agenda of the day. The financing was supported by senator Cesar Augusto Matias (PRD-Valverde) who pointed out that the project would solve the potable water issues for thousands of people in the Northwest. Matias said that the expansion of the existing system would bring heath and living condition benefits to these people. The government had negotiated a US$64.9 million package to finance the export of goods and services from Brazil. The deal with Deutsche Bank is for US$25 million to cover the local expenditures associated with the execution of the ambitious project. According to Hoy and other papers, the loans carry an interest rate of Libor =3.75%, and are to be paid off in five years. Now the whole package has to go to the Chamber od Deputies for approval.
In an attempt to regulate the comings and goings of foreigners in the Dominican Republic, the authorities are widening the debate over the regulations that will allow for the application of the Immigration Law. The National Council on Migration met yesterday with politicians and business people at the Pontifical Catholic University "Madre y Maestra" (PUCMM) with the idea of agreeing on migration policies as covered by the law that has been on the books since last August 2004.
According to Interior and the Police Minister Franklin Almeyda, who heads the council, the idea is to reach a consensus with the people involved. Almeyda added that: "This not only refers to immigration issues, but also to the migration of Dominicans overseas for whom we have to define very clear policies, since the norm is for the Dominicans that live overseas to feel that they have no protection."
In his intervention, the coordinator of the National Dialogue, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, argued that they had to find solutions to the migration issues without party politics getting involved. He said, "When issues of national interest are at stake, party politics have to be put aside."
According to sources, the El Caribe reports that this exchange of ideas could include proposals that will be included in the regulations governing migrations.
The much celebrated helicopter that belonged to Quirino Paulino Castillo, the accused drug trafficker now on trial in New York City, went unclaimed at the public auction announced by the Attorney General's office last week. The Santo Domingo district attorney had to call the auction "void" since non of the bidders were willing to pay the announced reserve price of US$1.8 million. The auction was held in the office of the DA, Jose Manuel Hernandez in the presence of the notary Franklin Araujo. According to Hernandez, several businessmen had called to ask about the Colibri helicopter, but nobody came up with the starting bid.
According to Paulino Castillo's lawyer Felix Olivares, the former owner is in agreement that the apparatus be sold since it does require a hefty monthly maintenance expenditure in order to keep it in flying condition. Olivares even felt that the sale could eventally aid the family of the former army captain. Olivares told reporters that the auction of the seized property was being carried out according to the law and that he had no objections to the process.
Other properties of the accused drug trafficker, such as his farms and rice mills are being administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and technicians from the Agricultural Bank. Santo Domingo District Attorney Hernandez told the Hoy reporters that: "We are using the same people, but under our management and we have obtained better profits than those that were on the books when we seized these properties."
216 x 12 = 2592. The very somber numbers reveal that an average of seven people die a violent death each day in the Dominican Republic. Over the past seven months a total of 1,513 people have died as a result of robberies, fights, and "exchange of shots." The numbers also show that 70 women have been killed and three military and Police personnel. Over 500 cases have been classified as being of "undetermined origin," cases the authorities tend to identify as being tied to drugs and drug trafficking and sales.
The majority of the deaths were reported in Santo Domingo, Santiago and the National District.
Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito told Listin Diario reporters that the justice department was trying to reduce the number of violent deaths, and is assisting the Police and the courts as well as the forensic teams from the National Institute of Forensic Science.
The only provinces that had not reported exchanges of shots with the Police were Dajabon, Pedernales, Barahona, El Seibo, Elias Pina, Independencia, Salcedo and Sanchez Ramirez.
Most of these provinces are among the poorest in the Dominican Republic. In a curious note, the report showed that 73 people died a violent death in places of public entertainment where they were supposed to be having a good time.
The population of the "24 de Abril" barrio are victims of a series of daylight robberies and the cops are not doing much about it. This, despite the fact that there are not one but two police precinct houses in the barrio. Young people can't leave their houses to study or work or to have fun. The Neighborhood Board of San Rafael is asking for action to put a stop to the delinquency, as was done in Capotillo, the barrio next door to 24 de Abril.
According to the reporters from the Listin Diario, the neighborhood seems like an 'open city' where the delinquents can do what they please. Over the weekends, the locals have to "take to the trenches" inside their houses, as if they were in a war zone, as before the dawn the vandals attach anything and anybody in their paths, according to Amparo Galan, the president of the Housewives Association of the neighborhood. She told the reporter haw last week as she was waiting for her daughter to come home, three delinquents and then two more, walked by with firearms in their hands as if it was nothing. A short time later she heard shots fired. Another neighbor, Angelica Vargas told the reporters that she and her husband go to the corner of "Ovando and Albert Thomas each evening to meet our daughter as she comes home from work, just in case." Because of this, the Neighborhood Council is asking for a Police presence similar to what is happening in the neighboring barrio of Capotillo. The Police assigned 17 cops on Harley Davidson bikes to patrol Capotillo and there are reports that delinquency has considerably declined.
Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez are coming for the opening night of the Presidente Latin Music Festival. The event is sponsored by Presidente beer. The festival opens 14 October at the Felix Sanchez Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo. Presidente beer let be known that the couple will together receive US$1.2 million for their Santo Domingo presentation. The event continues on Saturday, 15 and Sunday, 16 October bringing some of the best of contemporary Latin music to Dominican audiences.
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