DR1 Daily News - Wednesday, 27 June 2018

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May 3, 2000
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Consolidated public debt now at 49.9% of GDP
Tourism ministers meet in Puerto Plata
ProConsumidor inspectors refuse RD$100,000 bribe
Transport needed in prisons
Many deaths not registered properly
Odebrecht case delayed due to defense tactics
American Shippers note Felix Bautista is blacklisted
Guillermo Moreno alerted of corruption in 2012
Green March announces the March of a Million
BHD Leon Bank announces finalists of its tribute to women
US pig farmers take a close look at pork market in the Dominican Republic
Two dead and four injured in gang related drug shootout
Two Canadians arrested on drug charges
Law student condemns police torture in Bani
Many signed but few make it to MLB
Karl-Anthony Towns featured in ESPN Body Issue



Consolidated public debt now at 49.9% of GDP
Central Bank data for the first quarter of 2018 shows government debt is 49.9% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The consolidated public debt is now at US$39.02 billion. In the past the Central Bank posted the statistic annually. It now provides an update for the first quarter of the year. The data for January to March 2018 reveals the debt has increased US$1.8 billion in only three months. The 2017 closed with US$32.22 billion.

https://m.diariolibre.com/economia/...ue-en-aumento-se-coloca-en-un-49-9-IB10223487
https://gdc.bancentral.gov.do/Commo...omía-dominicana//documents//infeco2017-12.pdf


Tourism ministers meet in Puerto Plata
The tourism ministers from member countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA) gathered in Puerto Plata looking to develop joint strategies to spur a growth in tourism for the region. The ordinary meeting of the Central American Council of Tourism (CCT) and that of the Directive Council of the Tourism Promotion Agency is ongoing from Tuesday, 26 June 2018 to Friday 29 June 2018 in the province of Puerto Plata.

During the meeting, the presentation, revision and reform of a new budget for 2018 and the new operative structure of the Secretary of Tourism Integration of Central America (Sitca) is being discussed. The agenda includes presentation of reports on the compliance with agreements adopted at the last meeting of CCT, held last April 2018 in Santo Domingo, as well as the management of cooperation resources and the elaboration of a project under the perspective of secure tourism, as part of the Central American Security Strategy.

The meeting is also to discuss a possible cooperation agreement between the World Tourism Organization and the Sitca, which includes support for the region in the information Exchange, forums organization, among other issues.

Finally, organizers announced that the Regional Program of Competitiveness and Sustainability for small and medium tourism enterprises will be officially presented, and the change of the pro-tempore presidency of the Central American Council, currently held by the Dominican Republic.

http://plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn...urism-define-strategies-in-dominican-republic


ProConsumidor inspectors refuse RD$100,000 bribe
The National Consumer Protection Institute (ProConsumidor) announced it has taken to court a restaurant employee for attempted bribery of inspectors. The inspectors had reported there was crossed contamination, lack of potable water, inadequate food handling, inadequate hygienic conditions, chemicals contaminating food, and other irregularities in the restaurant in question.

The incident occurred at Pica Pollo Rico located at Km. 9 of the Duarte Highway. Anina del Castillo, of ProConsumidor, said she is suing to discourage other restaurant owners from doing the same. The representative of the Pollo Rico restaurant faces a jail sentence of six months to five years and cash fine.

ProConsumidor says that the inspectors were offered RD$100,000 to alter their report. The inspectors held their ground and reported the attempted bribe to their superiors when they filed the case.

http://hoy.com.do/someten-encargado...ar-con-rd100-mil-a-inspectores-proconsumidor/


Transport needed in prisons
The Public Defender, Zoila Martínez Guante has asked the Attorney General, Doctor Jean Alain Rodríguez Sánchez, to look for a solution quickly so that inmates at jails around the country can be taken to court as necessary and to the hospital. She said that she is making the request due to the increase in complaints from the inmates themselves and their family members that court cases are being delayed as there is no transport to take them to court, and also they are being delayed to be taken to hospitals for the same reason.

http://almomento.net/piden-mp-mas-cooperacion-para-que-reos-sean-llevados-a-tiempo-a-tribunales/


Many deaths not registered properly
According to the Central Electoral Board (JCE), during the last three years, there have been 90,661 deaths registered in the Civil Registration Offices, of which 8% were due to homicides, accidents and suicides. Of the deaths registered from 2016 to 2018, some 4,181 were due to traffic accidents, 1,937 homicides, 782 suicides, 207 work related accidents and 393 for other types of non-specified accidents.

The largest number of deaths was due to natural causes at 35,131. Another 23,898 were due to illness. The report also highlights the cause of death of 23,995 individuals is unknown, or 26% of all registered deaths.

More men than women died over the period with 51,948 males and 37,252 females along with 1,461 where the sex was not completed on the form.

https://www.listindiario.com/la-rep.../la-jce-registra-90661-defunciones-desde-2016


Odebrecht case delayed due to defense tactics
Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez has said that the request by some of those accused in the Odebrecht case to remove Judge Francisco Ortega Polanco, is simply a delaying tactic as often happens in these type of cases. As far as the evidence that the lawyers of the accused say they have to prove their clients’ innocence, he said that his team would do their work to prove their case.

https://www.listindiario.com/la-rep...z-a-tactica-dilatoria-de-encartados-odebrecht


American Shippers note Felix Bautista is blacklisted
American Shipper online website is circulating that the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Government has published the name of Dominican senator Felix Ramon Bautista Rosario (PLD-San Juan de la Maguana), for having been placed on its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List of the US Department of State. Bautista is blocked, according to the Federal Register, because he is “responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption.”

Named to the list because of their purported ties to Rosario were businesses based in the Dominican Republic: Constructora Hadom , Constructora Rofi, Inmobiliaria Rofi, Seymeh Ingenieria and Soluciones Electricas y Mecanicas Hadom SRL.

All property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction of these people are blocked, and U.S. citizens generally are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additional information on property and interests subject to U.S. jurisdictions is available on OFAC’s website.

https://www.americanshipper.com/main/news/ofac-cites-corruption-human-rights-violations-71791.aspx


Guillermo Moreno alerted of corruption in 2012
In an op-ed piece published in Diario Libre on Monday, 25 June 2018, former National District prosecutor and presidential candidate in 2016 general election for Al Pais, Guillermo Moreno recalls the reasons why shortly after the end of the 2004-2012 term of former President Leonel Fernández, he sued former President Leonel Fernandez, his former Public Works Minister Víctor Díaz Rúa, and his former director of the Office for Supervisory Engineers of State Works (OISOE) Felix Bautista for corruption during those years.

At the start of the Medina administration in 2012, Economy Minister Temístocles Montas had estimated the Fernandez governments had left a fiscal deficit of US$187 billion. Montas had attributed this to unbridled wasteful government spending, mentioning big wages, per diem, advertising and propaganda, unjustified subsidies and excess investments in non-priority infrastructures.

He recalls that on 5 May 2012, Acento.com.do had published a report in which it was noted that Fernandez had traveled 70 times abroad, for 392 days and accompanied by official committees made up of 1,556 persons spending US$49.1 million on those trips from 2004-2012.

He recalls the World Economic Forum listing of the Dominican Republic among top ranked for wasteful government spending, and how the DR is listed as a champion of corruption in the world.

He observes some cases of infrastructure carried out by Felix Bautista when he was head at OISOE: remodeling of the National Library. The original budget was for RD$88.8 million and this became RD$1.40 billion once completed. The construction of the High Tech Building at the UASD that started out as a RD$283 million project and tended up costing RD$1.47 billion.

Also mentioned is how former Minister of Public Works Víctor Díaz Rúa spent RD$29.87 billion or 76.6% of the annual budget in only five months. Among the works Moreno publicly complains about are: Coral Highway that started out with a budget of RD$403 million and ended up costing R$1.8 billion. The Canca La Reina-San Víctor (Moca) road that was budgeted for RD$7.33 million and ended up costing RD$196.9 million.

Moreno is critical of former attorney general Francisco Dominguez Brito who did not appeal a case of corruption that a court ordered filed. Moreno says that Dominguez Brito used the argument that he had great respect for the former President.

He concludes:
“When you see the same corrupt politicians of yesterday, now once again candidates for public office, and see the persistence of a Public Ministry and Judiciary without independence and see the continuity of impunity and, above all, perceive the impotence of a citizenship that is fed up, one can only cry out “Oh God”, “How long is the road! Until when will this be!”

https://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/en-directo/leonel-victor-y-felix-ID10209526


Green March announces the March of a Million
The Green March Movement has called on the citizens of all 32 provinces and the National District to take part in the “March of a Million against corruption that will take place on 12 August 2018 in the morning in Santo Domingo.

The Green March is urging everyone to take to the streets to once again protest rampant corruption and impunity in the country.

The organizers said that those interested in managing teams from their own towns, neighborhoods and villages should write to the Green March Movement at marchadelmillonrd@gmail.com or contact the organization via the social networks: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Marcha Verde @CeroImpunidadRD.

In order to promote the march, a free concert has been organized on Sunday 8 June 2018 at 5pm, in front of the Supreme Court of Justice. Performers will include El Torito, Vakeró, Manuel Jiménez, La Gran Mawon, Roldán Mármol, Señor KR, La Piña ta dulce, Verdecitos de Santiago, among others.

https://www.diariolibre.com/noticia...ha-del-millon-contra-la-corrupcion-HB10221701


BHD Leon Bank announces finalists of its tribute to women
The BHD Leon Bank released the names of the top ten finalists of the 4th edition of its contest, Women that Change the World.

The women that have received the most votes from jurors are: Alba María Reyes, Carmen Ofrocina Montero, Elsa Johanne Sánchez, Esperanza Marte, Guadalupe Valdez, Juana Adita Tavárez, María Elena Moreno, María Josefina Paulino, Michela Izzo and Zeneida del Carmen Pérez.

The jurors making the selection are: Claudia Catrain, specialist in corporate responsibility’ journalist Huchi Lora; María Amalia Leon, executive director of the Fundación Eduardo León Jimenez; Mercedes Ramos, president of Grupo Ramos; Oscar Villanueva, president of the Fundación Quiéreme Como Soy; Soledad Alvarez, linguist and poet and Steven Puig, general manager of the BHD Leon.

The 4th Women that Change the World Awards include a tribute to Mary Pérez de Marranzini, founder of the leading Dominican rehab center, the Asociación Dominicana de Rehabilitación (ADR) and to Sor Leonore Gibb, creator of the Consuelo educational model.


US pig farmers take a close look at pork market in the Dominican Republic
The pork farming and vending community of the Americas is meeting in Santo Domingo for the 8th Annual Latin American Product Showcase this week. Farmers and suppliers will participate in market tour, marketing sessions and networking activities attractive to stakeholders of the rapidly growing Latin American export market. The 2018 Latin American Product Showcase will be held 27-28 June 2018 at the Jaragua Renaissance Hotel.

The pork sector gathering is expected to be the largest to date with roughly 60 exporting companies and 200 meat buyers from across Central America, South America and the Caribbean in attendance. The event provides U. exporters and farmers with an opportunity to visit one-on-one with numerous potential buyers in a single location. As part of the eighth annual showcase, many activities are organized by the US Meat Export Federation backed by Pork Checkoff.

A vital part of the showcase is a market tour where the farmers will visit Mercado de Los Mina, a small food market; Pricesmart Store San Isidro, a store similar to a U.S. grocery store; and Supermarket Store La Sirena San Isidro, a store similar to a US supermarket or big box store.

With their participation, US farmers will be able to observe the similarities and differences in the retail space in the Dominican Republic compared to grocery options in the United States. This will give producers a better understanding of how pork is being marketed directly to consumers by retailers.

As reported, the farmers will learn about the buying habits of millennials in Latin America and discuss strategies for meat marketing, including price expectations, specific cut opportunities and future menu trends during educational sessions.

Craig Morris, vice president of international marketing for the National Pork Board, explains, as reported in National Hog Farmer website:
“Our NPB International Marketing Committee has highlighted the Latin American market as one of paramount importance for our marketing efforts,” Morris says. “Attending the Latin American Product Showcase is an incredible opportunity to see how we can continue to invest and hone our strategy in this region. I’m excited to hear from our farmers in attendance and get their thoughts on what we are doing well, with an eye on the future.”

http://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/ma...armers-attend-latin-american-product-showcase
https://www.usmef.org/


Two dead and four injured in gang related drug shootout
Two people were killed and four injured in a gang shoot out over the control of a drug sales point in Santiago. The incident occurred in the Yagüita de Pastor, sector and led to the deaths of Sandy Vladimir Pérez and Alberto Martos (El Bolo), both aged 21. Those injured were Anyeli Olivo Reyes, Brayan Camacho and brothers Sugeidy and Dionis Rodríguez Rodríguez. The injured are in police custody in the hospital. One of the gangs involved was previously led by Chino Diente who died a short while ago in a shootout with the police.

http://almomento.net/santiago-dos-muertos-y-cuatro-heridos-deja-tiroteo-entre-bandas/


Two Canadians arrested on drug charges
The National Police, in coordination with Interpol and the Canadian Embassy in Santo Domingo, has taken into custody two Canadian nationals accused of several crimes. Kenny Joseph Pascal Maheu was arrested in Boca Chica after having been sought by Canadian authorities for drug charges. At the time of his arrest he possessed RD$122,000.00 in cash; 1,590 Canadian dollars and two cell phones. The other suspect arrested was identified as Denis Desputeaux. He was taken into custody in Puerto Plata and is accused of conspiracy and drug dealing. At the time of his arrest, Desputeaux was carrying RD$17,435 in cash as well as a number of credit cards. Both men are in custody awaiting the legal processes.

https://elnuevodiario.com.do/policia-dominicana-detiene-a-dos-canadienses-reclamados-por-su-pais/
http://eldia.com.do/autoridades-capturan-a-dos-canadienses-acusados-de-cometer-varios-delitos/


Law student condemns police torture in Bani
A law student from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) in Bani has complained that he was tortured in Bani jail by the police and inmates.

José William Calderón Franco told the local press about the torture he was subject to after he went to the jail to request that the authorities release a neighbor of his who had been arrested in a raid on Thursday 21 June 2018. Calderon Franco said that having asked about the detained man, a construction worker, the police insulted him, handcuffed him and put him in a cell with other inmates.

He said that there several police hit him and kicked him, and in tears, he said they hit him with a plank on the buttocks, chest and back, even after he rolled up on the floor in a fetal position.

Others in the cell were also tortured being made to stand on a bench with a gallon of water in each hand, and were punched without being allowed to drop the water. Later they had to stand for hours with their arms above their heads.

He said that one of the police told him this was to teach him not to mess with the police and that he had to learn that those lawyers who were successful were those who worked with the police.

He named some of those allegedly involved in the torture including Lieutenant Germán, Sergeant Soto Lugo. Calderon Franco claimed that officers were acting under the orders of Colonel Báez Ubier.

Franco was accompanied at the press conference by Senator Wilton Guerrero, who asked General Brown Pérez to order a proper investigation into the case and transfer those police who were implicated in the incident away from Bani.

https://www.listindiario.com/la-rep...rcel-de-bani-por-parte-de-policias-y-reclusos


Many signed but few make it to MLB
Between July 2017 and June 2018 the Major Leagues in the United States have signed 612 Dominican baseball players for an amount of around US$70 million, according to Rafael Oscar Pérez, director of the MLB in Santo Domingo.

However, he pointed out that even though many were signed, those who get to play in Major League Baseball is only around 6%. This percentage has increased from the historical figure of 5%.

Perez said that the reason so few actually make it to the Majors is due to several factors including the high number of games that prospects must play that puts pressure on the body as well on the mind. Perez says that the pressure to succeed often overwhelms the young athletes. He said the lack of education, language barriers and difficulties in acculturation also make it hard for Dominican prospects to succeed in the US. In contrast, 17% of Americans signed make it to the MLB, nearly three times the success rate compared to Dominicans.

https://www.listindiario.com/el-dep...-firmo-612-peloteros-de-rd-en-periodo-2017-18


Karl-Anthony Towns featured in ESPN Body Issue
The body of Minnesota Timberwolves basketball player Karl-Anthony Towns is for all to see in the buff. He was photographed for the Body Issue of ESPN The Magazine that features dozens of athletes in nude and semi-nude photographs. The issue is intended to rival the annual Swimsuit Issue published by Sports Illustrated.

https://www.listindiario.com/el-dep...-towns-posa-desnudo-para-revista-body-de-espn
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/spor...18-espn-body-issue-20180625-photogallery.html
 

JasonD

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Feb 10, 2018
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"ProConsumidor inspectors refuse RD$100,000 bribe
The National Consumer Protection Institute (ProConsumidor) announced it has taken to court a restaurant employee for attempted bribery of inspectors. The inspectors had reported there was crossed contamination, lack of potable water, inadequate food handling, inadequate hygienic conditions, chemicals contaminating food, and other irregularities in the restaurant in question.

The incident occurred at Pica Pollo Rico located at Km. 9 of the Duarte Highway. Anina del Castillo, of ProConsumidor, said she is suing to discourage other restaurant owners from doing the same. The representative of the Pollo Rico restaurant faces a jail sentence of six months to five years and cash fine.

ProConsumidor says that the inspectors were offered RD$100,000 to alter their report. The inspectors held their ground and reported the attempted bribe to their superiors when they filed the case."


http://hoy.com.do/someten-encargado-...proconsumidor/

That is a step towards progress!