Aristides Fernandez Zucco was fired from his job as president of the Dominican Refinery (REFIDOMSA) yesterday evening by President Leonel Fernandez (no relation). President Fernandez sent out Decree 576-05 yesterday afternoon, replacing Fernandez Zucco with the Presidential advisor on energy matters, Eduardo Rodriguez. This comes after dozens of young people were hospitalized after Monday's leak from a fairly large spill of ethyl mercaptane, also known as "ethyl 30 ppm mercaptane", a substance used to produce the identifying odor of LPG. In normal, commercial usage, it is mixed with propane at 30 parts per million. Like Liquid Petroleum Gas (Propane), ethyl mercaptane is much heavier than air and that is why it affected so many people, especially children in schools along its drift path.
Initially, Fernandez Zucco had denied that the gas came from the refinery facility in Haina, to the southwest of Santo Domingo. Recently involved in several controversies involving the refinery, including the negotiations of the Petro Caribe Agreement and the Caracas Agreement as well as with the Shell Company, Fernandez Zucco had initially contradicted the statements made by Minister of Industry and Commerce, Francisco Javier Garcia as to the origin of the malodorous vapor that enveloped large parts of Santo Domingo on Monday. Yesterday, Fernandez Zucco apologized to the nation for his handling of the information provided by the Shell Company.
The Dominican ambassador to the United States of America, Flavio Dario Espinal, told a select group of newspaper editors that the DR-CAFTA agreement is a positive step because it consolidates the preferential tariffs that the United States had unilaterally granted to the Caribbean region. He said that this is a time when reciprocity was in vogue. According to the diplomat there are also other positive aspects, such as improving some elements of the rules of origin and the guarantee of an international treaty as well as judicial security. He reminded Listin Diario editors that the pact involves several stages of tariff reductions, and that this will permit the immediate entry, tariff-free for a lot of products, but others will enter 5,10 or 20 years later. The longer waiting periods are for farm products. The ambassador said that appliances, food and chemicals would be the first to enter duty free, which should benefit the consumers.
Radhames Segura, vice-president of the Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electric Companies (CDEEE), has said that there is "no immediate way out of the electricity crisis," and that the government is not disregarding the possibility of intervening in the Ede-Este distribution company. Segura admitted that "the public is receiving very expensive electricity, and they are not willing to continue supporting this or the continual blackouts that occur due to power rationing." Segura said that there was no miraculous way out of the situation, and that the government has well conceived plans but it will take two years for the results to be seen. Segura also commented on the fact that Ede-Este has been administered by AES-Dominicana since it was privatized, but that this entity has recently sold its shares to a Californian company, TCWW, and TCWW chose AES-Dominicana to run the operations, all without consulting the Dominican government, a major partner in the privatization process. In fact, Segura told reporters from Hoy that the government was going to ask TCWW to change the management of Ede-Este because, in his words, "AES has not proven to be efficient in the Dominican Republic."
Continuing along with the electricity theme, El Caribe reports that there will be renewed negotiations about the contracts with power generators, starting this morning. Under review will be the Madrid Accords and the IPP contracts. (Independent Power Producers) The discussions will include planning and cash flows projected for 2006. The meeting will attempt to clear up just how large the accumulated debts are for the Rural Electrification Project (PER), the Program for the Reduction of Blackouts (PRA) as well as the IPPs' deficits. According to El Caribe, two weeks ago the government announced its need to renegotiate the contracts with the IPPs with a view to clearing up the exact cost per kilowatt/hour. According to Segura, current invoices are at least 25% overpriced. The power providers have said on several occasions that they have not sat down with government negotiators because they have not been asked to do so. Today's meeting is the first step towards the renegotiation of the contracts. According to Hoy, once the government has in its hands the numbers of the total deficit, then President Fernandez can talk to the World Bank and the IMF in order to ensure that the subsidies do not exceed the US$300 million approved by the IMF.
A lot of people have thought about this, but it was Ernesto Vilalta who spoke to the press. Vilalta, the president of the Herrera Industrial Association (AEIH), warned that the CDEEE, the Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electric Companies, was taking some major risks in its attempt to acquire 1200 megawatts of coal-fired electric energy. Vilalta pointed out that the safest thing would be not only for the distributors to contract for the energy produced but that the investors in the project also take on the risks associated with the purchase of the coal and the construction of the transmission lines. In his press release, published in the economic section of Hoy, Vilalta points out that there are several significant risks for the government in the published bid prospectus for the 1200-megawatt facility. While not at all opposed to the contract for the new plants, Vilalta says that as long as they contribute to a reduction in electricity costs, he is all in favor of the generators. However, he feels that this type of initiative should be taken on by the electricity distributors and not the CDEEE, which announced the opening of bids for the generators. Vilalta said that he feels that it is not prudent for the government to offer to supply the transmission lines and the coal to be used to fire the plants, since these points could produce serious conflicts with the investors. He cited as possible examples the theoretical case where the generators might be ready and the transmission lines and the interconnections not ready, or the case where the coal purchased was not up to the necessary specifications, or a shipment was delayed for some reason. Both scenarios would expose the government to serious lawsuits. Because of these factors, Vilalta suggests that both the transmission lines and the purchase of the coal be left to the investors in the generators. The cost of the transmission lines could be reimbursed by the CDEEE, since they are the exclusive owners of all electricity transmissions.
Magistrate Luis Arias, the head of the Central Electoral Board announced yesterday that the JCE would allow overseas Dominicans to vote in the May 2006 congressional and municipal elections. Arias said that the full panel of the JCE magistrates approved the measure, since overseas voters are already registered in special voter registration rolls. As such, they were prohibited from voting in the Presidential elections inside the country. As the report in El Caribe says, these voters will be able to vote in the upcoming elections at their normal voting places in the Dominican Republic, since they are identified on JCE registers.
In spite of the fact that it was said that there were 56 people involved, the 20 survivors appear to refute that number. These lucky people, 15 men and five women, are being treated for severe dehydration at medical facilities in the Turks & Caicos Islands. An official from the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Rosario Graciano de los Santos confirmed that there were 20 survivors out of the group of 22 that sailed from the Dominican Republic, and not 56 as had been reported. The air and sea search for the victims was hampered by high seas and winds and the search was called off. According to El Caribe, the survivors paid between RD$15,000 and RD$30,000 each to make the trip to Puerto Rico. Graciano de los Santos said that after all Dominican diplomats in the Caribbean area were alerted to the situation, the survivors turned up in Turks & Caicos, a British dependency. Official word was sent to the Dominican authorities by David Brett, the first secretary of the Governor of the Turks & Caicos.
A 44-year old civil servant, apparently under the influence of alcohol and waving a pistol, was lucky to escape with his life yesterday as he attempted to cross the set of the filming of the movie version of Miami Vice in Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone. Mario Torres was wounded by the army personnel assigned to guard the film set. According to eye-witness reports he was brandishing a pistol and told corporal Jose Antonio Rosario Encarnacion that his weapon was "cocked and that he (Torres) was going to shoot him (Rosario Encarnacion)." According to reports, the incident occurred at about 7:30 yesterday evening as shooting was about to start on the set. As Torres pointed his weapon at corporal Rosario, the corporal prepared his own weapon, knocked his attacker's arm aside and let off one shot, wounding Torres before his weapon jammed. Torres fired three shots during the incident. Actors and stagehands were taken to their hotels and shooting was delayed. Minister of Culture Rafael Lantigua called the incident an "isolated case."
Pedro Dominguez Brito, a lawyer and younger brother of the Attorney General, writes a weekly column in El Caribe that usually touches on the idiosyncrasies of the Dominican people. Today's column is a good example. Called the "Culture of the 'gift'", the column tells the tale of a young woman, Angelita, who had a fairly good job in a free zone factory, earning over RD$240.00 for her 7 to 5 day. With a little effort, the woman would probably be able to purchase a television set and maybe an electric stovetop in December, unless the temptations of the lottery or beer got the better of her. But, since we are now in an election period, in the woman's barrio one of the political parties announced that it would be handing out food parcels come Tuesday and Wednesday. The activity promised to be successful. The excitement was huge. The woman was not an exception to the furor. On Tuesday she got up at six and half an hour later she was in line with hundreds of other people. Enduring the pushing and shoving, hunger and cold, four hours later she was still waiting. Just a few had received the food baskets, especially the buddies of the party leaders that were not in the line. The packages ran out before midday, but they said that the candidate would return with more the following day.
On Wednesday, the woman, Angelita, got up even earlier, and by 5:00am she was in the line with all the other people. She was ready for everything and she was not going to leave empty-handed. Dominguez Brito tells how her empty stomach rumbled, how she nearly fainted, but she got close and at almost 2:00 in the afternoon, Angelita got her little food package. Inside were, among other things, three pounds of rice, a small bottle of cooking oil, some wine, possibly cooking wine, a box of oatmeal, and two cans of the ever-popular "pica-pica" (canned herring in hot sauce). Angelita had won.
On Thursday she returned to her job in the free zone. But she was not allowed in. She was justly fired for missing two straight days of work.
This really happened to Angelita: she lost her job and lost two day's pay (RD$480.00), but she was happy because she was given something... something that was worth, at most, RD$150.00. Pedro Dominguez Brito is a labor lawyer.
The Dominican Republic is the focus of the table tennis world this week as the IV World Children and Youth Table Tennis Tournament gets underway in Santo Domingo. A total of 88 players from 38 countries and from all five continents are currently vying for medals in the tournament. This year's tournament is dedicated to the great Dominican table tennis players, Mario Alvarez, Juan Vila and Raymundo Fermin, champions at the Pan American and Central American level and highly ranked in the world during the 70s, 80s and 90s. Admission to the tournament, which is being held at the Parque del Este facilities, is free to the public. During the draws for the different groups, the Dominican Republic was a bit unlucky to draw very stiff competition in both boys and girls divisions. In Group A, the Dominican team will have to face England, North America and Asia. In the Girls Division, the Dominican team will face Japan, Africa and Europe. Just one family from Santiago has three members of the Dominican team: Hector Vila, Juan Vila Jr., and Linette Vila are all following their father's footsteps.
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