Msgr. Agripino Nunez Collado denied yesterday that a crisis has arisen between the Catholic Church and the government following statements made by the Bishop of La Vega, Msgr. Antonio Camilo, and he regretted that the case is being treated as a political issue. He assured that Msgr. Camilo is one of the most dedicated bishops in the Church, "very well balanced", and understands that his words of criticism could have been the result of emotion, according to a report in Diario Libre. The La Vega priest harshly criticized the government's economic and social policies last Saturday during the celebration of mass during one of the most important religious holidays in the DR, the day of Our Lady of Las Mercedes. Nunez Collado stated that in a society with so many problems, it is natural to talk about those problems. He was satisfied with the President's attitude towards this issue stating that Fernandez had received the criticism with serenity. Nunez Collado insisted that Msgr. Camilo's comments had not affected relations between the Church and the government.
Listin Diario reports that government spokesman Roberto Rodriguez Marchena described relations between the government and the Catholic Church as "excellent" and that there is no hostility towards bishops and priests for their criticism and demands for the solution of the country's problems. He said President Fernandez is concerned about the poverty in the country and warned against confrontation with the bishops because they are expressing their communities' concerns, which is part of their pastoral duty.
Government spokesman Roberto Rodriguez Marchena is asking lawmakers not to damage the tax reform bill but rather to improve it taking into account the requests of the Catholic Church and the general population. Diario Libre reports that he assured that the government needs resources to improve education and health services, and that the way to obtain them is through the imposition of taxes. The official admitted that the population has been accumulating levels of dissatisfaction that need to be addressed urgently.
The list of people arrested in the official passport fraud case gets longer every day. Last night, 22 had been detained, among them ten city council members, five civil registry officials, and seven impostors, drivers and ringleaders. Diario Libre reports that former Technical Undersecretary of the Dominican Municipal League, Amaury Guzman, three civil officials and one city council members for whom the Attorney General is requesting preventive arrest, will be taken to a Judge of Instruction today. They are accused of procuring official passports by presenting birth certificates, false marriage certificates, and documents that certified they had been elected to posts as city council members for at least ten impostors. At 9:00 am today, Judge Natividad Ramona Santos will hold the hearing against Guzman, the alleged ringleader. Last night, four city council members from Pepillo Salcedo were arrested. They appear on false marriage certificates issued in Azua.
El Caribe reports that four of the city council members arrested are from Pepillo Salcedo and one is from from Guayabal, Azua. Their names are Jaime Dario Martinez, Juan Rafael de la Rosa, Rosa Mercedes Guzman and Ignacio Rosa Nunez, from Pepillo Salcedo and Santiago Adames from Guayabal. Other detainees are Tomasina Isabel Araujo, Benito Rodriguez Nolasco, Saturnino Sanchez Suarez, Andres Diaz, all council members, and Alfredo Amauris Pereira Ramirez, Jose del Carmen Encarnacion, Uladislado Abrey and Judge Milton Elias Pereira Ramirez. Council member Aure Ricardo Florentico paid RD$1 million to be freed on bail. Messenger Agustin Ventura and Veronica Pereyra were freed but remain indicted for this case.
A commission of Russian energy specialists will meet with Dominican technicians next November to evaluate the possibility of developing an energy project in the DR which would include both petroleum and gas systems. According to Diario Libre, the information was provided by the Russian Vice Minister of Foreign Relations Sergei Kilasyak, who held a press conference in the Presidential Palace yesterday together with Dominican Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso. Kelasyak explained that the Russian technicians would analyze joint projects in the area of gas systems with its Dominican counterpart. The Dominican technical commission that will analyze the projects with the Russian specialists is made up by Ruben Montas, Eduardo Rodriguez and Francisco Mendez.
A son of the Dominican Consul in Puerto Rico, Eladio Espinal Villafana, has been arrested together with two other men with a load of 37 kilos of cocaine and heroin, with an estimated value of UD$10 million. The consul himself confirmed the arrest of his son Edison Espinal Garao, together with Juan Manuel Vazquez and Pablo Acosta. The three were arrested when they were preparing to sell the drugs. Consul Espinal said that he had not seen his son for several years. He stated that he had been informed about his son's arrest by the DEA but he did not have further details about the case since he had not been in contact with his son for many years. The consul's lawyers confirmed Edison's arrest. He was later released on payment of US$2,000 in bail. The arrest took place on Monday when DEA Special Operations searched an apartment in Residencial Campo Rico. The strong smell of pure cocaine is what allegedly alerted the agents, who found the three young men preparing small portions of the drug. The Dominican community in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has expressed concern about this case.
The National Copyright Office (ONDA) seized equipment belonging to three cable-TV operators in Santiago last night. The companies were operating without the authorization of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL) and were violating copyrights. El Caribe reports that Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito had warned companies that are broadcasting signals illegally that authorities would do everything possible to guarantee copyrights to their legal owners. ONDA Director Marino Feliz Terrero said that Hedem equipment used for cable retransmission as well as an undetermined number of signal decoding cards were seized in the three companies closed. The AG stated that the government is responsible for guaranteeing respect for copyrights, intellectual property and judicial security of the owners of broadcasting stations that do comply with ONDA and INDOTEL's legal specifications. ONDA director said that companies that fail to comply with copyright law would be closed down and their owners prosecuted.
The Army is adopting special border controls during the electoral process in Haiti, according to Minister Admiral Sigfrido Pared Perez. The military official told Diario Libre that the DR is the only country in the world that has to avoid the illegal entry of Haitians across the border and control the exit of Dominicans and other citizens from its coastline, especially in the eastern region. He specified that the measures taken on the border do not mean that there is any fear of a 'calamitous situation', but went on to explain that some type of reinforcement must be in place in case of unforeseen circumstances. "We hope that normal elections take place in Haiti, as do the UN and other neighboring countries, but since the situation in that country is not normal, we must be prepared", said Pared Perez.
The government will not receive one penny of the US$39.4 million transaction that involved the sale of real estate for development of the maritime and housing projects to be built in Sans Souci. The contract signed between the government and Inversiones Turisticas Sans Souci, of which El Caribe has a copy, states that the transaction amount will be paid and compensated by investments in infrastructure by the buyer. These include the dredging and cleaning of the port and the building for the Navy Chief of Staff. Also, the conditioning of public areas, parks, and adjacent areas, the construction of 10,000 square meters of plazas and commercial areas, expansion and repair of the breakwater in the entrance to the port, the new Sans Souci Avenue, a floating bridge, and a beach club. This is being criticized by the President of the Senate Public Works Commission, Vicente Castillo, who stated that "the land is going to be paid for by works that contractors are going to build; works supervised by themselves and with their own resources. I don't think this is ethical and should be given special attention." The project promoters are guaranteeing that the revitalization of the city's sea terminal will produce large-scale social and economic benefits for the country. They are also projecting a considerable increase in the amount of tourists arriving in the city as they expect a greater number of cruise ships to dock at the new port.
Brazilian and Venezuelan technicians will be exploring the southern region of the DR to determine the existence of oil, according to the government. A French Press Agency cable reports that Minister of Industry and Commerce Francisco Javier Castillo has stated that the oil reserves are probably offshore and not on the coast with tourist potential. Javier Castillo stated that many experts in the country believe that there are oil reserves in the Bay of Ocoa on the south coast, to the west of Santo Domingo. He said that there had been no previous exploration in the area because of the very high cost of offshore operations. The dates and the conditions in which the South American technicians will perform the exploration were not disclosed. About 70 wells have been drilled since the 19th century, yet not one has yielded positive results. Currently, several foreign companies have concessions from the Dominican state for this sort of exploration.
President Leonel Fernandez has appointed colonel Nelsy Altagracia Santana Andujar as military, naval, air and police attache to the Dominican Embassy in Venezuela. The appointment comes as part of Decree No. 495-05. The official will substitute Eufemio Torres, who had been in the post for seven years. Diario Libre reports that Santana Andujar has a degree in international services and speaks three languages.
Heavily armed burglars held up the branch of Asociacion La Nacional de Ahorros y Prestamos, a savings and loans association, located at Los Restauradores Avenue in Sabana Perdida, escaping with RD$1.35 million. Listin Diario reports that the robbery took place around noon yesterday while the branch offered its regular services to the public. Six men took part in the robbery. Eyewitnesses said that the burglars left on foot and did not get into a car near the bank. They apparently got away without any problems. Police are searching for the suspects.
The United States Federal Reserve, the Department of the Treasury, and the Secret Service have unveiled the new ten-dollar bill that will start circulating in 2006. The new bill has security features that make it more difficult to forge. Among the changes is a type of ink that changes colors, a watermark with a concealed image of a printed face, visible when held against the light, and a hidden security thread. The bill was presented simultaneously yesterday in the US and all countries where the US dollar circulates. In the Dominican Republic the presentation took place at the Franklin Center where William J. Millmam, US Embassy Public Affairs Officer, highlighted the importance of the new bill. Later there was a direct transmission from New York, in which Robert Zayas explained the characteristics of the new bill.
El Caribe opinion columnist Miguel Reyes Sanchez writes about the UN report on the social situation of the world in 2005 called "The dilemma of inequality" which reveals a persistent and growing inequality in the world. This inequality is manifested in the gap between the levels of formal and informal economies, the abysmal distance between incomes of different social sectors, the differences in labor qualification, the disparity in levels of access to health, education, and opportunities for social, economic and political participation. The report states that one quarter of the world's labor population earns less than one dollar per day. Also amazing is the fact that there are 186 million unemployed individuals in the world, a situation that has a particularly adverse effect on developing nations and fragile economies. The good news is that the Dominican Republic has an inequality index of 5.5%, one of the lowest in Latin America, and considerably low when compared to Haiti (93.7%), Guatemala (33.8%), and Peru (21.8%).
The Global Foundation for Democracy and Development is holding a conference titled "The Place of Communication in Political Management" this tonight at 7:00 pm. The guest speaker is Dr. Pere-Orial Costa Badia, professor of the Department of Journalism and Communications of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Dr. Costa Badia has directed communications projects at several companies and institutions. He has also directed electoral and image campaigns in the political field. He has directed several courses on Television, Political and Electoral Communication, and other issues related to communications in the Menendez Pelayo University, the University of Sao Paulo, the University of Barcelona, the University of Valencia, the Complutense University of Madrid, the International University of Lisbon, and the Fernando Pessoa University of Oporto.
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