President Leonel Fernandez has continued his epic trip around the Dominican Republic, inaugurating a series of public works. Over the weekend, Fernandez inaugurated RD$1.44 billion worth of improvements in the province of Santiago. The list of public works includes water treatment plants in Santiago, street and road repairs, school buildings and bridges. This was a continuation of the inaugural events that started in Puerto Plata last Thursday, and which will continue in Santo Domingo today where the chief executive will open a school in Los Casabes in Santo Domingo North, the first of several new schools to get ribbon ceremonies. Today's program ends in Villa Progreso with the inauguration of a new housing project.
Amidst the cries of "Four more years", President Leonel Fernandez announced that he opposes an extension of his current term, which is being suggested as a way of combining the Congressional and Presidential elections. Denying any involvement with the re-elocutionists that are present at each inauguration ceremony, Fernandez released a short statement, saying that "people need to know their history in order for them not to commit the errors of the past." Former senator and PLD leader Jose Tomas Perez had proposed that either the legislative term be reduced or the Presidential term extended to six years, much like Mexico. In this way the elections for Congress, the President and the local municipal governments would be held at the same time.
First Ladies from Central America, Belize, Panama and the Dominican Republic will be meeting in Santo Domingo from 6 to 8 September to discuss the Strengthening of the Family as an Axis for Integral Development. First Lady Margarita Cedeno de Fernandez will be hosting the event.
The Dominican Medical College (CMD) and the Ministry of Public Health are combining efforts to put a halt to the latest outbreak of dengue fever. Dengue is transmitted by the same mosquito that transmits other tropical diseases such as yellow fever - long gone from these lands- and malaria. Part of the campaign is centered round school buildings, which are to be sprayed. Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez said that the elimination of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito would be extended throughout the country. In the meantime, the CMD spokesperson Dr Enriquillo Matos has urged doctors to cooperate with the authorities by notifying all suspected or confirmed cases of the fever.
Pediatrician Julio Demorizi told Diario Libre reporters that an outbreak close to an epidemic is possible, since there have been more cases reported this year compared to the same time frame last year.
The first stage in the new drainage and sewer system that the construction of the Santo Domingo Metro System made necessary, is now completed. Diario Libre says that the tunnels are finished and now the construction teams have to lay the pipes that will carry the sewage and runoff waters. The job will cost RD$370 million. Rain water will flow in to the Caribbean Sea and the sewage will be treated at an installation at Tres Brazos. According to the newspaper, the new installations will allow even the runoff from hurricane rains to be safely carried out to the rivers and sea.
The industrial park in Manoguayabo, to the west of Santo Domingo, will get a RD$300 million boost from the Industrial Promotion Corporation (CFI), according to an announcement from Isachard Burgos, the president of the Dominican Confederation of Small and Medium Businesses. According to Burgos, the director of the CFI, Ruben Bichara told small and medium business leaders that the government had already given the builders the first check for RD$75 million and that the next payments of RD$125 million and RD$100 million were on the way. According to Hoy newspaper, the industrial park should be ready to begin installations of small and medium sized businesses in mid-December.
The new Director General of the National Sugar Institute (INAZUCAR), Faustino Jimenez, is calling for the government to use all its sugar mills for ethanol production, since all, with the single exception of Barahona, have failed and are bankrupt. Previous governments' attempts to privatize the sugar mills through capitalization resulted in failures of the mills at Consuelo, Boca Chica, Porvenir, Santa Fe, Amistad and Montellano. According to Listin Diario, Jimenez said that the 518,000 tareas (35,580 hectares approx.) of land belonging to the Ozama and Rio Haina sugar mills should be declared as eminent domain and used for ethanol production. According to the Inazucar director, local consumption and the preferential market in the United States can be covered by La Romana, the Vicini sugar mill in San Pedro and Barahona. All the remaining sugar mills can be dedicated to producing ethanol, a process that would give new life to many of the sugar cultivation areas and reduce the nation's dependency on fossil fuels.
The "Other Fair" that was supposed to show the reality of the Dominican Republic according to its organizers, was halted by members of the police. The fair was supposed to take place in the Duarte Park in downtown Santo Domingo, and its organizers, mostly university students, planned to exhibit their views of President Fernandez' two years in office. Economist Hecmilio Galvan was jailed briefly over the weekend but he was released. The student-led fair was supposed to present a contrast to the much bally-hoed "Ten Years of a Vision" fair that the government put on recently at the Livestock Fairgrounds in Santo Domingo. Other Fair organizers Guillermo Pena and Milly Uribe called the closure a "gag on free expression." They denied that there were any political implications in the alternative fair.
Don Eduardo Leon Asencio passed away in his sleep last night, after suffering a heart attack. He was recovering from a knee operation performed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Public relations people at the Leon Jimenes Group told El Caribe that the public would be informed as to the time and date of the funeral. Don Eduardo was the eldest brother of the family that owns La Aurora, Presidente beer, Sherman-Williams paint and Banco Leon, among their main interests. Don Eduardo served as chairman of the board for the bank and the group. Long a prominent business figure within the tobacco industry, Leon Asencio was part of the Santiago Development Association that founded the PUCMM, the Cibao Savings and Loan Association and the Superior Agricultural Institute (ISA). Don Eduardo was also a public servant, serving as Vice-Minister of Industry in 1955, ambassador to the Court of St. James and ambassador to the United States. Under his leadership the biennial art prizes were instituted and the Centro Leon Cultural institution was founded.
Dogs, man's best friend, are selling for as much as RD$50,000 in Santo Domingo. Depending on size and breed, dogs are currently fetching anywhere from RD$2,500 on up, but size is not everything, since a prize Yorkie can cost as much as RD$35,000, and an English Bulldog, can, according to the article in El Caribe, cost new owners US$1,500. A number Santo Domingo pet shops supply dogs for the local market, under license from the Director General of Livestock. The National Anti-Rabies Center says that their regional centers will vaccinate dogs for free, and local vets will charge between RD$300-RD$400 to do the same thing. The shots can be purchased at a veterinary supply store for RD$150. According to the center, 29,319 strays are roaming the streets of Santo Domingo and more than 60,000 strays in the rest of the country.
Members of the National Police have closed down a nightclub that was operating after hours with the assistance of two police officers who would warn the club about approaching patrols. The "Bottle" nightspot is located in the Plaza Las Americas mall on Paseo de Locutores, near Winston Churchill Avenue in Santo Domingo. Sergeant Major Edwin Gilberto Solis Torres and Private Darwin Alexander Aquino Cruz were dismissed from the Police force and arrested along with 92 patrons of the establishment, the owner and employees. According to the police chief, the owner would close the main entrance, turn off all the outside lights and hide customers' vehicles in the adjacent parking garage, and patrons would enter the club through a back exit.
Representatives of the many tourist oriented businesses in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo have requested a meeting with the Minister of the Interior and the Police to discuss just how the Presidential decrees limiting the sale of alcoholic drinks is affecting their livelihoods. According to Luis Brocker (Pat'e Palo), sales have dropped by as much as 50%, amounting to millions of pesos worth of losses. Brocker told El Caribe reporters that many of the businesses that belong to the Colonial Zone Restaurant Association are being forced to ask customers to leave their establishments to avoid having confrontations with police armed with machineguns, which terrorize the tourists. According to the executive, the month of August has seen a 50% decrease in business, and since the area is a tourist Mecca, it should receive the same treatment as the tourist areas. According to Brocker and other members of the association, the presence of armed military and police personnel telling the owners to close at midnight obliges the restaurants to start the process at 11 pm
Rains fell over most of the Dominican Republic with the passing of Tropical Storm Ernesto to the southwest of the island of Hispaniola. Flood warnings were issued for most of the watersheds. The National Meteorological Center (Onamet) sent flash flood warnings to the provinces along the southwest coastline, from Azua to Barahona. Local newspapers published dramatic photographs of large waves breaking along the coastline of Santo Domingo. However, Monday's papers did not report any significant damage, nor flooding of any of the watersheds. Rains are expected to continue throughout the day.
The Spanish-speaking Sesame Street characters are booked for performances at the Coliseo Carlos Teo Cruz in Santo Domingo from 27 September through 1 October. Ticket prices range from RD$400 to RD$1,000. The Sesame Street characters promise to be the delight of the young set. The version being presented is an anti-obesity statement that is traveling throughout the US. Tickets will be on sale at Nacional Supermarkets as of 1 September.
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