The Secretary of the Presidency, Danilo Medina, has announced that the DR will receive convenient facilities to import 50 thousand barrels of petroleum daily from Venezuela, which include 40% financing at an interest rate of 1% yearly and 90 days to pay the remaining 60%. Diario Libre reports that the deal also includes a two-year grace period and 25 years to pay back the principal. Medina stated that this would represent an important relief in terms of the pressure of the exchange rate in the Dominican economy. According to Listin Diario, the financing will reach US$500 million yearly.
The government decided yesterday not to restrict the circulation of vehicles on Wednesdays and Thursdays as had been announced last week. According to a report in Diario Libre, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Francisco Javier Castillo said that the need to save fuel remains, but the measures that were going to be established, of limiting circulation on Wednesdays and Thursdays according to the license plate numbers were abolished. Other measures are to be expected but not necessarily that one. The government's decision to abolish the measure comes as a result of the agreements reached in the Petro-Caribbean summit in Jamaica earlier this week. Listin Diario adds that President Leonel Fernandez has called a meeting of the National Energy Commission to study all the measures that could be implemented to reduce fuel consumption without hindering the normal development of daily activities.
The Banco de Reservas has obtained a credit line with international institutions to be able to provide the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (Refidomsa) the dollars it needs to cover the oil bill until next December. Central Bank Governor Hector Valdez Albizu and the manager of Banco de Reservas, Daniel Toribio, announced that Refidomsa will not have to purchase its foreign exchange in the market for the payment of the oil bill since this month until December, as the Bank has been issued credit lines by international financing institutions. Although the size of the loan was not disclosed, this measure takes pressure off the foreign exchange market. The officials, who spoke in New York, stated that with these resources, plus US$110 million available for the balance of payments, Central Bank net reserves of US$700 million and the withdrawal of RD$8 billion of circulating currency (M-1), the foreign exchange rate should reverse its tendency towards increase and recover its relative stability. Crude oil and fuel imported by Refidomsa throughout this year have been estimated at US$2.5 billion if international prices of crude remain at the current level of approximately US$65 per barrel. For the rest of the year, pending imports are calculated between US$800 and US$900 million.
The government of Colombia is planning to broaden financial opportunities within a package of cooperation projects with the DR for the import of gasoline and coal for the operation of electric generators. As reported in Listin Diario, Colombian Ambassador Jorge Enrique Garavito Furan stated that a trip by President Fernandez to Colombia is being planned for 27 to 29 September, for him to meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in order to discuss the set of cooperation projects being considered. The diplomat said that the DR is Colombia's main export market for fuels, particularly gasoline. There is an agreement for the import of that fuel which was signed during President Fernandez's previous term in office. He added that the interest is to adjust that agreement to the DR's current needs through more acceptable financing mechanisms for the payment of the oil bill.
The Director of the Presidential Office for Information Technology and Communications (OPTIC), Domingo Tavarez, has moved center stage in the scandal involving the resignation of Gustavo Montalvo from the National Ethics Commission, the Executive Branch Modernization Program (Pro-Reforma) and as liaison at the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency with the National Competitiveness Council. Questions were raised about Tavarez after Clave Digital published the information that this official had not heeded the requests of the National Ethics Commission, which is headed by respectable lawyer and professor Jose Joaquin Bido Medina, and which had Montalvo as one of its members, both prominent figures within the PLD. However, Tavarez went even further. He paid no attention to the Technical Secretary of the Presidency, Juan Temistocles Montas, who, acting upon warnings of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) about irregularities detected in the project called "Citizen's Services Center Portal of the Dominican Government", sent him a letter stating that the government was not willing to invest in the modality proposed by the director of OPTIC. Tavarez's insubordination towards Montas - who is his immediate superior - was reported to President Fernandez, pointing out that the official only followed orders directly from the President. Montas stated that Tavarez, as director of OPTIC, had prepared a US$13 million budget for the portal project, which according to the Executive Branch Modernization Program (Pro-Reforma) only cost US$2 million. Clave Digital comments that it is scandalous that the Dominican Government's electronic portal which was to be conceived by OPTIC is meant to make the actions of all state institutions more transparent as a way of reducing and fighting corruption in public administration, and it has been precisely this project that has generated strong questioning from the Ethics Commission, the IDB and the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency. Clave digital has posted facsimile copies of original letters from Montas to Tavarez, Montas to the President, the IDB to Montas and the Ethics Commission to Tavarez at http://clavedigital.com/Portada/Articulo.asp?Id_Articulo=6062
Meanwhile, Listin Diario reports that PLD Secretary General, Reinaldo Parez Perez, is asking for an investigation into the reasons for Gustavo Montalvo's resignation. Pared Perez highlighted Montalvo's reputation, saying he is a citizen with a clean background, within the PLD as well as in his private and professional life.
Ramon Tejada Holguin writes an opinion article in El Caribe stating that if every time you enter the government's website you remember that "the Coordinator of the Technical Unit of the National Ethics Commission, Gustavo Montalvo, resigned because he believes the tender to create an electronic government with more transparency was not transparent itself, then this electronic government is rather opaque, unnecessary and destined for failure." He maintains that nobody has been able to explain what happened during the call for the National and International Public Tender OPTIC/LC-001-2005, no matter how many questions are asked by the National Ethics Commission, or how loudly international institutions and civil society organizations complain. In other words, he adds, can you imagine that what is supposed to aid transparency is the main proof of opaqueness and suspicion?
Dominican Ambassador to Washington, Flavio Dario Espinal, has rejected the "failed state" status awarded to the Dominican Republic by US magazine Foreign Policy, and protested to the magazine by saying that the report caused stupor and incredulity in the government and people of the DR. Clave Digital reports that Espinal calls the classification "scandalous" and asks whether it is believable that the DR has a worse human rights record than Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Haiti. He also asks whether the DR could be compared to Rwanda and the Ivory Coast regarding refugees and displaced persons, and believes it is strange that those two countries scored better than the Dominicans. He also rejected that the DR was placed as the fourth worst country on the list in terms of public services. Foreign Policy replied to the ambassador by stating that the Failed States Index establishes the susceptibility to armed conflicts by observing a broad fan of economic, military, political and social factors. Most of the states on the index have not yet failed and many will never, the magazine hopes.
Meanwhile, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) expressed its support of the Failed States Index published in the July-August edition of Foreign Policy, in which the DR is placed among the first 20 states under the highest risk of failing in the world. A letter from USAID Director Andrew S. Natsios in the September-October edition of Foreign Policy says the international political community is in debt to the magazine for publishing the first Failed States Index as well as with its producer "Fund for Peace". Natsios states that this index calls to the attention of readers a problem which before was only of concern to the highest levels of international politics in the US.
The DR is among the countries that classify as having a medium human development level, coming in the 95th place in the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2005. This is reported by the United Nations Development Program (UNPD). It says that life expectancy for Dominicans is 67.2 years, the adult literacy rate is 87.8%, enrolment in primary, secondary and higher education is 76% and the GNP per capita is US$6,823. AIDS is one of the health problems dealt with in the DR - 1.7% of the population between 15 and 49 years of age is living with the disease, rating third in Latin America after Honduras (1.8%) and Haiti (5.6%). Inequality is also manifested in other health indicators such as the infant mortality rate. The HDI is an indicator that covers three aspects of human welfare: income, education and health. Other Latin American countries, such as Brazil with 63rd place, precede the DR on the scale. It is followed by El Salvador (104) and Guatemala (117), respectively. Seven countries in the region are in the "high" range such as Argentina (34) and Cuba (52).
Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito has instructed District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero to appeal against the ruling that dismissed the case against several former Hipolito Mejia administration officials accused of irregularly assigning themselves and their relatives a number of greenhouses worth approximately RD$500 million that had been purchased by the government (see DR1 Daily News 7 September 2005). The AG considers Judge Vanesa Acosta's decision "encouragment for administrative corruption and white-collar crime, which must be fought by all means, without fear and with responsibility as a way to make the public function more decent and end impunity". The AG's remarks are contained in a press release issued by the Justice Department Communications Office which states that the official regretted the judge's dismissal of the case.
Seven people involved in the case of alleged drug trafficker Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo are being sought by the Justice Department, as announced by the National Drug Control Department (DNCD). They are being asked to turn themselves in. El Caribe reports that anti-narcotics agents are searching for Juan Rodriguez Cordero, Faustino Maximo Perozo Vargas, Francisco Alburquerque, Marcos Taveras Jimenez, Jose Ramon Ortega de Leon, Ernesto Guevara Diaz and Gladis Suriel Collado. According to the DNCD spokesman Buenaventura Bueno Torres, these are the most wanted and "we hope they will turn themselves in, as have others involved in the case". He stated that would make things easier "for us and for them". On Tuesday, Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of Manhattan, who is presiding over the Quirino case, postponed the trial until 4 November 2005 based on the fact that new information had emerged that would have to be analyzed by the court.
The Ministry of Environment will report tomorrow on the results of the investigation of an accusation into the alleged sale of land within the ecological reserve of the Enriquillo Lake that was purchased by a Senator of the region, as reported in Diario Libre. According to the accusation by several organizations in the area, approximately 44 hectares of land were purchased by the Senator of Independencia Province, Dagoberto Rodriguez Adames, from peasants of the settlement made by the Dominican Agrarian Institute (IAD) in 1997. David Volques, a member of the Asociacion Bosque Seco, said that Rodriguez is developing a project called Villa del Escondido where he intends to build 100 villas and they are assuming the land he purchased is for that purpose.
The National Drug Control Department (DNCD) has seized 95 packets containing 106 kilos and 450 grams of cocaine in the port of Haina. El Caribe reports that DNCD spokesman Buenaventura Bueno Torres said that the drug was found on container No. UXXU 4523850-8, in three parcels which contained five bundles coated with grease to avoid being detected by the DNCD Canine Unit. DEA and DNCD agents performed the combined operation which dismantled the trafficking network composed by Victor and Ramon Encarnacion, Edward Antonio Garcia, Eladio Malaguia Arias Suarez, Jose Israel Peralta Montas and Victor Manuel Genao, all of whom were arrested. Also arrested was Domingo Aybar Rosario (aka Bronco or Cristian), whereas Adria Bienvenido Mercedes de los Santos (aka Yuly) is at large.
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