President Leonel Fernandez participated in the inauguration of the north terminal at Las Americas International Airport. The airport concessionaire, Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI (AERODOM) announced spending over US$35.8 million on infrastructure and equipment. Clave Digital reports that the north terminal will increase the airport's operational capacity by 65%, allowing an additional 140 flights daily. AERODOM manager Abraham Hazoury said that the company has spent US$213.0 million on the first phase of the concession and modernization of airports, indicating that the global investment in all airports managed by the company is much larger.
The Ministry of Foreign Relations announced that as from now the renewal and issue of Dominican passports abroad will cost 30 % less. Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso has instructed all diplomatic missions abroad to comply with this new decree. When the government removed the consular invoice, several consulates increased the cost of passports and other documents in order to compensate for the loss of income.
The Ministry of Public Health has announced that it will start to vaccinate elderly people living in 44 homes for the elderly next Monday to prevent them contracting pneumonia. More than 150,000 doses are due to be administered. The vaccines, one to stop the common cold and one for meningitis, were donated by Merck Pharmaceuticals, and are worth RD$175 million. This is the first project of its kind in the country and Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez hopes to implement this type of program for other vaccinations in the future.
The Ministry of the Armed Forces, through the Volunteer Military Service Directorate, and in coordination with the Ministry of Education, has announced a new special training program for high school students across the country. Six public schools were selected to begin the program with 300 students this Saturday, 30 September. The program aims to train students in the discipline and patriotic values needed for the country's future leaders. The initiative was announced by Armed Forces Minister, Lieutenant General Ramon Antonio Aquino Garcia and Education Minister Alejandrina German, and will take place every year during school vacation.
Starting 1 July 2009, users of Dominican telephone services, both cable and wireless, will have the right to change providers and keep the same number in accordance with Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL) Resolution number 156-06, which was approved unanimously by members of the council led by Jose Rafael Vargas. Diario Libre reports that this right will open competitiveness in the telecommunications market and is a commitment the country acquired as part of the DR-CAFTA process.
According to Venezuelan Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Francisco Belisario Landis, his country will be competing for a seat as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council with Guatemala, not the DR, for the 2007-2009 term. He expects to receive the support of the Dominican Republic. Belisario Landis explained that the Dominican government has asked for Venezuela's support in obtaining a set on the UNSC for the following term 2009-2011. Diario Libre reports that the diplomat made these comments at the Presidential Palace.
President Leonel Fernandez and Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales have been campaigning for the seat, and President Fernandez was at the UN General Assembly and in the Non-Alligned Movement Summit this month to lobby for support.
At deadline, the Senate had received more than 250 proposals for judge positions in the Central Electoral Board (JCE) judges, as reported in El Caribe. Senate president Reynaldo Pared Perez revealed that the names proposed would be published in the newspapers, according to a report in Clave Digital. He also stated that the number of candidates for judge would increase when the applications filed on Wednesday afternoon are added. Personal interviews will begin at 8am today. Once the interviews have been concluded, public hearings will be held for the candidates to undergo public scrutiny.
PRSC leader and Secretary General of the Dominican Municipal League, Amable Aristy Castro, joined the ranks of the 34,000 lawyers in the country yesterday, when he was sworn in, together with 120 other law graduates, during an audience in the August Hall of the Supreme Court of Justice by High Court President Jorge Subero Isa. Aristy Castro recently had his non-immigrant visa revoked by the United States Consulate. While he was elected senator for the province of La Altagracia in this year's congressional election, he has not yet decided whether he will swear for office. In January, elections will be held to elect the secretary general of the Dominican Municipal League, and Aristy Castro is a leading contender for the post.
Fitch Ratings has raised the Dominican Republic's B rating from stable to positive due to its economic recovery in the face of an economic crisis three years ago. Though this is good news for investors, Fitch Ratings warned that the liquidity in the Dominican market is still very fragile. This factor is worrisome because any loss in confidence in the market could cause a loss of capital like that in 2003.
The assessment agency based its decision on the strength of the country's economic recovery and expectations that the government will be more successful with the implementation of its structural reform agenda after gaining majority support of Congress on 16 August 2006. Other reasons mentioned are a very robust pace of economic growth, declining inflation, currency stability, a significant fiscal adjustment, a favorable balance of payments performance, a steady increase in foreign reserves, relatively low and improving external and public debt burdens and continued progress under the current IMF program.
Commenting on the upgrade in ratings, Franco Uccelli of Bear Stearns reported: "Fitch's revision of the Dominican Republic's outlook came less than six weeks after Standard & Poor (17 August) also lifted the credit's outlook to positive from stable. With both S&P and Fitch expressing favorable opinions on the DR through their positive rating actions, we believe that it is only a matter of time before Moody's, which rates the DR one notch lower than both S&P and Fitch, will follow suit."
In spite of the austerity policies continuously being announced by the authorities, over 30,000 public jobs were created between January and May this year and the state lacks a rational spending plan, according to the National Business Council (CONEP). CONEP president Elena Viyella de Paliza made the comments during the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) monthly luncheon, and went on to ask the authorities to reduce "supernumerary" payrolls and instead implement an austere and rational spending plan. El Caribe reports that Viyella is asking to professionalize and strengthen the application of the Law of Civil Service and Administrative Career.
During her talk, Viyella voiced the concerns of many regarding the government's lenience with those who constantly violate the law. During her speech, "How to make the difference," Viyella called for a dictatorship of the law. She said that citizens and criminals need to again perceive that there will be penalties for violations. She said that this will only be possible if the government applies the laws and makes penalties more severe.
A power sector business entrepreneur herself, she complained that to this day 50% of energy users don't pay for the service, and that the government is subsidizing this type of delinquent behavior. She urged for a reform that would strengthen government regulation of the sector and at the same time lower the price of electricity.
She called for the government to fulfill its commitments with the International Monetary Fund and the DR-CAFTA agreement.
In her opinion, the most pressing challenge Dominican society has is to recover, as soon as possible, respect for authority and the law.
Traffic chaos affected many areas of Santo Domingo yesterday as a result of clashes between university students and police in and around the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) campus. Students were protesting the eviction of street vendors located near the university and the recent suspicious murder of 22 year old law student Elvin Amable Rodriguez. Two students were injured. Students reportedly entered the premises throwing stones, teargas bombs, and birdshots at the police in charge of security. Diario Libre reports that the students started their demonstration at Alma Mater and Correa y Cidron streets. Chancellor Roberto Reyna warned the rioters that they could be subject to penalties. Redirected traffic caused lengthy jams along George Washington, Maximo Gomez, Independencia, Bolivar, 27 de Febrero, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill and other avenues in the city, where it was reportedly taking up to two hours to get from the Colonial Zone to Bella Vista - four times longer than usual.
Yesterday, the Justice Department presented 15 pieces of evidence reportedly proving that Quirino Paulino Castillo and Pedro Julio Goico Guerrero and others were involved in asset laundering and international cocaine trafficking. The evidence, presented by assistant prosecutors Luis Gonzalez, Gustavo de los Santos and Francisco Polanco, included a letter sent to the District Attorney's Department by a telephone company executive confirming that Paulino had made dozens of phone calls from mobile number 809-907-8104 to Francisco Alburquerque, Lidio Arturo Nin Terrero and Ernesto Bienvenido Guevarra Diaz, to coordinate the transport of a shipment of 1,387 kilos of cocaine that was seized in Santo Domingo in December 2004. El Caribe reports that the judge hearing the case is Natividad Ramona Santos, of the National District Fifth Court of Instruction.
Diario Libre reports that drug traffickers wanted by authorities in the United States are finding it incredibly easy to change their identities and obtain legal identification documentation here in the Dominican Republic, which they use to evade capture and prosecution by the authorities. The Dominican authorities have become concerned at how easily fugitive traffickers can obtain new birth certificates, identification cards and passports. The International Police (Interpol) has warned the National Department of Drug Control (DNCD) about individuals wanted for drug trafficking, theft and murder who enter the country, and disappear as if by magic. The most recent example is that of Dominican David Tavarez who is wanted for murder in Rhode Island. Tavarez re-entered the United States using the name Danilo Antonio Almonte.
Clave Digital has begun publishing a series of articles on ties of investors in the Dominican tourism industry to Carlos Sanchez and Andres Lietor Martinez, two key people accused of involvement with the Operation Malaya corruption scandal in Marbella, Spain. The investigative journalism reports looked into linkages with former Minister of Public Works Miguel Vargas Maldonado. The report analyzes the deals involving the government-owned Cayo Levantado and Cayacoa hotels, land in Samana, and the Hotel Hispaniola in Santo Domingo and points out how these represented millions of dollars in profits for Vargas who aspires to the PRD presidential candidacy for the 2008 election. The report looks into the partnership between Grupo Pineiro of Spain, operators of the Bahia Principe company that recently purchased several major properties in Samana, and the accused Spaniards. Clave Digital points out that once the scandal hit the press in Spain, the Pineiro Group purchased the remaining 40% share of the accused partners in the holding company of Cayo Levantado and Cayacoa hotels.
The report reveals that an advance payment of US$4 million made by the CIRSA casino group was used for the purchase of the Hispaniola Hotel. For the remaining payment, the report claims that protected area property was transacted with the government. To legalize this situation, a bill was passed that excluded these plots of land from protected status, prior to the end of the Mejia government.
See http://www.clavedigital.com
The World Weightlifting Championships that begin this Saturday in Santo Domingo won't be deprived of the sport's biggest star and "the world's strongest man" Iranian Hossein Rezazadeh. Rezazadeh considered staying away from the event after 9 of his 11 teammates tested positive for illegal substances. Rezazadeh himself tested negative. The event is scheduled for September 30th through October 7th and over 700 athletes from more than 100 countries are taking part, all members of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). The importance of the event is that it is a main qualification event.
Sports Minister Felipe Payano has reminded the public that entry to all events is free of charge for all. This is the first time the country is hosting this event, which opens on Friday at 5pm, and whose first official event will take place on Saturday at 10am at the Olympic Stadium weightlifting arena. Pan-Am Games twice-champion Wanda Rijos won't be competing due to injury.
See http://www.iwf.net/main.php
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