DR1 Daily News - Wednesday, 21 November 2018

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Infotep graduates 26,000 at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center
Larimar and amber cleared for export, gold could also be found
Dr. Rafael Antonio Lantigua wins First Oscar de la Renta Award
Renew your drivers license abroad
Switzerland has new offices in Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic to preside over Red GEALC
PRM’s Wellington Arnaud complains of lack of transparency in 2019 National Budget
Dominicans in the USA increase
Extradition sought for fishermen
Dominican truck drivers attacked
Cocaine Cowboy granted residency in DR?
The newest narcotic: Molly sold in DR
The wrong lawyer was shot and killed
Adrian Beltre to retire
Helados Bon launches its Christmas flavor


Infotep graduates 26,000 at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center
The National Technical Training Institute (Infotep) graduated 26,000 students on Tuesday, 20 November 2018. The graduation was presided over by President Danilo Medina and Vice President Margarita Cedeño and took place at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center. The 26,000 graduates received diplomas in a number of professions. So far in 2018, Infotep has awarded 723,000 course certificates this year. The key note address to the graduates was made by Ligia Bonetti, executive president of the Grupo SID.

In his own speech, Rafael Ovalles, general director of Infotep, highlighted the backing the business sector has given to the training programs at the Infotep, the leading vocational training center in the country. Ovalles announced that 21 new mobile workshops will be bringing the courses to low income barrios in the National District. He said in total there will now by 56 mobile workshops in operation nationwide, including Santiago Rodríguez and border provinces.

https://listindiario.com/la-republi...otep-gradua-26000-tecnicos-de-distintas-areas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zatdVKyb2Ks
https://presidencia.gob.do/noticias...ta-graduacion-nacional-de-tecnicos-y-maestros


Larimar and amber cleared for export, gold could also be found for export
President Danilo Medina has ordered the Ministry of Energy and Mines to arrange for the process of issuing permits for the export of amber and larimar in its natural or semi processed state. The order was made via Decree 431- 18 and according to the Association of Larimar Artisans in Barahona, is because the restriction of exporting the stones was limiting its commercialization and hence limiting the amount of money that could be made. Barahona has the only known deposits of larimar stone.

On the same day, President Danilo Medina also issued Decree 430-18 that authorized the exploitation, and assessment of “rare land” in zones of Pedernales. Likewise, the decree mentions Avila, Aguas Negras, Las Mercedes, Los Arroyos as land where there may be gold deposits that could be exploited.

http://eldia.com.do/larimar-y-ambar-podran-exportarse/
https://elnacional.com.do/video-alg...de-a-la-bauxita-y-la-minerales-en-pedernales/


Dr. Rafael Antonio Lantigua wins First Oscar de la Renta Award
Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas announced on Monday, 19 November 2018, the awarding of the first International Dominican Expat Award, Oscar de la Renta 2018 to Dominican physician Dr. Rafael Antonio Lantigua of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital.

The award was created to recognize Dominican expats and their descendents to the second generation that have had outstanding careers abroad and have positively impacted the Dominican Republic. The awards ceremony will be held 6 December 2018 in the Dominican Republic. Vargas said Dr. Lantigua was chosen from a shortlist of 45 nominated by universities, cultural organizations, business, social and religious organizations and individuals.

Dr. Lantigua graduated from the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) in 1972. He migrated to the United States where he completed his residency in internal medicine at Lincoln Hospital, where he also served as chief resident. He later completed an endocrinology fellowship at Rochester University School of Medicine in 1980, and then joined the Division of General Medicine at Columbia University as a faculty member. He continued to a distinguished career in the Columbia University medical system.

Dr. Lantigua is co-founder and previously was chairperson of the board of Alianza Dominicana, Inc., the major community-based organization serving the Dominican community in the United States. He is co-founder and former chairperson of the Board of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrants Rights. He has served in multiple boards of non-for profit organizations such as the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, Puerto Rican/Hispanic Institute for the Elderly, the Latino Commission on AIDS, and National Hispanic Leadership Agenda.

http://www.mirex.gob.do/medios/noti...migrante-dominicano-sr-oscar-de-la-renta-2018
https://www.nyp.org/physician/ralantigua


Renew your drivers license abroad
Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas and director of the National Institute of Transit and Ground Transport (Intrant) Claudia Franchesca de los Santos signed an agreement on 20 November 2018 to allow the renewal of Dominican drivers’ licenses at Dominican consulates around the world. Deputy Minister for Consular and Migratory Affairs Marjorie Espinosa was present for the signing.

There are an estimated two million Dominican expatriates. In a first phase, the program will benefit residents in New York and Miami in the USA, Madrid, Spain and Rome, Italy.

"Through our collaboration with the Intrant, procedures that previously involved high travel expenses and time, will be replaced by processes over the digital platform," said Foreign Minister Vargas.

De los Santos announced major changes are underway for the driver’s license system in order to impact road safety in the country.

http://www.mirex.gob.do/medios/noti...cencias-de-conducir-en-consulados-dominicanos


Switzerland and Austria have new offices in Santo Domingo
Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado cut the symbolic ribbon for the opening of the new offices of the Swiss Embassy in the Dominican Republic on 20 November 2018 in Santo Domingo. The offices of Swiss Embassy and the Austrian Embassy in Havana will also be located at the same address. The new offices are located at the 10th floor of the Edificio Corporativo 2010 at Av. Gustavo Mejía Ricart 102 corner Av. Abraham Lincoln, in Piantini, Santo Domingo. The telephone number is +1 809 533-3781.

During the event, Vargas highlighted that an estimated 2,241 Swiss live in the country, making this the largest Swiss community in the Caribbean. Some 5,932 Dominicans live in Switzerland, including 4,000 that are dual Swiss and Dominican citizens.

During the event, Vargas highlighted that the Dominican Republic is Switzerland’s second most important trading partner in the Caribbean, with exports of US$244 million and imports of US$60 million.

Swiss Ambassador Urs Schnider said that Switzerland is ranked fifth among European nations trading with the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic exports its gold to be refined in Switzerland. Based in Santo Domingo, Schnider is also ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, and St Kitts and Nevis.

http://hoy.com.do/suiza-abre-nuevas-oficinas-rd/
https://www.eda.admin.ch/countries/...me/representations/embassy-santo-domingo.html


Dominican Republic to preside over Red GEALC
The Dominican Republic will take over the presidency of the Network of Electronic Government of Latin America and the Caribbean (Red GEALC) for 2019, as announced by the Presidential Office of Technology of Information and Communication (Optic) that represents the country in the regional organization.

The vote for the Dominican Republic was unanimous on 16 November 2018 at the V Ministerial Meeting and the XII Annual meeting of Red GEALC, that took place in Panama with the attendance of 25 member countries and invited guest countries including Italy, United Kingdom, South Korea and Estonia.

https://almomento.net/rd-asume-presidencia-de-red-de-gobierno-electronico-de-la-region/
https://presidencia.gob.do/noticias...e-gobierno-electronico-de-america-latina-y-el


PRM’s Wellington Arnaud complains of lack of transparency in 2019 National Budget
Opposition party legislator Wellington Arnaud (PRM-National District) complained that he has been requesting to no avail for an explanation of the origin and the final recipient of RD$66.13 billion that appears in Art. 4 of the 2019 National Budget Bill from the Ministry of Hacienda. He said he has yet to receive a response.

“It cannot be that the officials of the government feel they are above the law and that even when they are obliged to explain how the debts originate, intoxicated with power, they ignore a request for an explanation that has been formally and properly submitted to the corresponding authorities,” he said.

On 16 October 2018, he said the request has gone through the appropriate channels all the way to the Hacienda Minister Donald Guerrero and the government appears to want to include the funds as “contraband” in the 2019 budget.

"The creation of accounts payable is totally illegal, demonstrates a lack of transparency and constitutes the execution of a hidden budget, not approved within the National Budget, something that evidently shows that the government of Danilo Medina is trying to introduce debt without explaining its origin and for what purposes it will be taken on,” said the member of the Bicameral Budget Commission.

He stressed that this is a practice widely used in the governments of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), that year after year increase the public debt without offering any explanation or presenting the results of those decisions that are clearly questionable.

After the publishing of Arnaud’s claim, Hacienda Minister Donald Guerrero went public including himself among the backers of President Danilo Medina seeking a third presidency.

http://hoy.com.do/denuncia-que-el-g...tar-deuda-de-mas-de-66-mil-millones-de-pesos/
https://www.diariolibre.com/actuali...-busque-repostulacion-presidencial-JG11429176


Dominicans in the USA increase
According to the NGO Dominican Center for Social Justice (DOCESJ-CENTER), the Dominican community in the United States has risen to 2,081,419 during 2017. Organization president, Dominican Frank Valenzuela, said that in 2016 the number was 1,914,120, which means that there has been an increase of 167,299 representing 8.7%.

According to Valenzuela, the Dominican population was concentrated in five states in 2017:
New York 42% (872,504), New Jersey 14.5% (301.655), Florida 12.4% (259,779), Massachusetts 8.2% (172,577) and Pennsylvania 6.1% (127,505).

He pointed out that in the last 10 years the Dominicans are moving more inland and that in 2007 52.2% lived in New York and now in 2017 that percentage had reduced to 42%.

He said that the reasons for this were the lower cost of living, lower taxes, more employment and better opportunities for home purchase.

https://almomento.net/nueva-york-poblacion-dominicana-en-eeuu-llega-a-mas-de-dos-millones/


Extradition sought for fishermen
Dominican Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas says that a high level commission will go to The Bahamas on 26 November 2018 to sign an extradition agreement for Dominican fishermen who are serving jail sentences there. The commission expects to return with at least three of the 127 fishermen who are currently in custody in the Bahamas.

Vargas assured that the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Bahamas has been helping the fishermen, providing them with food and other essential items. He said the men are being held in less than ideal conditions. Vargas said that the objective of the government in this case is to negotiate the quick release of the detained fishermen.

In addition he said that the authorities had reached an agreement with local fisherman to provide location devices that would determine whether fishermen were in international, Dominican or Bahamian waters in order to eliminate any errors in the future.

On Monday, 19 November, the family members of several of the arrested men gathered in Puerto Plata to complain about the poor conditions their relatives were being held in which included a small cell with little ventilation, limited food and no communication with their families.

The group is made up of 124 fishermen and three captains who were captured on 13 October by the Bahamian authorities some twelve nautical miles north of Cuba. They were sentenced to six months in jail and the payment of US$52,000 each with the captains sentenced to a year in jail and the payment of US$92,000 each for fishing illegally in Bahamian waters.

https://almomento.net/rd-acordara-extradicion-con-bahamas-beneficiaria-pescadores-presos/
https://elnacional.com.do/cancilleria-gestionara-bahamas-libere-a-57-dominicanos/


Dominican truck drivers attacked
The National Federation of Dominican Transport (Fenatrado) has complained about what it calls “the repeated aggression” against Dominican truck drivers taking cargo to Haiti. Fenatrado said that in the majority of cases the driver and his assistants are beat up and the merchandise stolen. Ricardo de los Santos, president of Fenatrado, said that this attacks have been going on for years and that the Haitian government has done nothing to protect Dominican truck drivers, nor to arrest those responsible.

He went on to say that the last case was when Dominican semi trailers were stopped and one of the drivers, José Altagracia de Oleo Zabala, was shot twice and had to undergo emergency surgery in a hospital near Cap Haitian where he is still in a serious condition.

He complained the fact that nothing is done to stop the violence or arrest those responsible shows a total lack of interest on the part of the Haitian government to protect the lives and property of the Dominican truck drivers. He added that the shipments of food, cement, metal bars, medicines have never been returned.

http://eldia.com.do/fenatrado-denun...minicanos-que-transportan-cargas-hacia-haiti/


Cocaine Cowboy granted residency in DR
Miami media is reporting that Cuban Willie Falcon, one of South Florida’s most infamous “cocaine cowboys”, has been deported to the Dominican Republic after his bid to stay in the United States failed following his 20-year prison sentence on a drug-related money-laundering conviction. The man is described as responsible for the greatest wave of violence in Miami in its history. His story inspired the film “Scarface” starring Al Pacino in 1983.

His legal residency in the Dominican Republic was reportedly agreed upon in a deal between the Trump and Medina administrations, confirmed by Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas after the news broke in Santo Domingo. What the Dominican Republic stands to gain from the deal is not known.

Vargas Maldonado told the Dominican press that the arrangements were handled directly by the National Investigations Agency (DNI). The director of the DNI, Retired Lieutenant General Sigfrido Pared Pérez, told El Dia that Falcón is under observation at their installations. He said the DNI is investigating matters related to his past. He said that the capo can voluntarily leave the country when he considers it convenient.

Pared Perez is brother to Carlos Pared Perez, personal assistant to President Danilo Medina, and to Reinaldo Pared Perez, who is president of the Senate in the Dominican Republic. Sigfrido Pared Perez is a past minister of defense.

Falcon, 62, was deported because he was a convicted felon without US citizenship. The United States chose not to keep the convicted criminal in its territory, striking the unknown deal with the Dominican Republic. Falcon had been held in Louisiana since June 2017 by immigration authorities who at first sought to deport him to his native Cuba. But Falcon reported argued if sent to Cuba he would be killed because he had participated in several attempts with the CIA to kill Fidel Castro, Vargas told the Listin Diario.

What is known is that Falcon and his partner in crime, fellow Cuban Sal Magluta, built a South Florida empire as cocaine smugglers for the Medellín and Cali Colombian cartels as a result of which they had a flashy lifestyle of ocean-racing boats, nightclubs and trips to Las Vegas. They were accused in 1991 by a federal jury of transporting at least 75 tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States. The media says they beat the charge, having bought off the jury but were convicted at a second trial. Falcon came to a deal with the prosecution and received a reduced sentence of 20 years.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article221920385.html
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2018/11/19/where-in-the-world-is-cocaine-cowboy-willy-falcon/
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...te-a-capo-cubano-de-los-cowboys-de-la-cocaina
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...s-de-2-billones-de-dolares-en-cocaina-a-ee-uu
http://eldia.com.do/capo-de-los-cowboys-de-la-cocaina-fue-deportado-a-republica-dominicana/
https://acento.com.do/2018/actualid...stadounidense-fue-enviado-ee-uu-rd-lo-acepto/
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...falcon-quien-fue-enviado-al-pais-tras-acuerdo
http://eldia.com.do/narco-cubano-llego-al-pais-a-traves-de-acuerdo-entre-ee-uu-y-el-dni/


The newest narcotic: Molly sold in DR
The Center for Guidance and Comprehensive Research (COIN) alerted on Tuesday, 20 November 2018, that the new drug Molly is being sold in the Dominican Republic. Santo Rosario, president of COIN said that four youths have already died for consumption of the lethal narcotic. The drug reportedly is sold in Capotillo, Cristo Rey, Villa Consuelo, Los Guandules, La Ciénaga and Guachupita. He said the drug is imported from China and then adulerated with bicarbonate, and rat poison among other inputs.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration reports that in the past few years, the drug has become a toxic mixture of lab-created chemicals.

https://www.elcaribe.com.do/2018/11...ce-por-el-consumo-han-muerto-varias-personas/
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/22/health/9-things-molly-drug/index.html


The wrong lawyer was shot and killed
The National Police has revealed details about the murder of lawyer pastor Santo Cedeño del Rosario, which took place on 17 October this year, when he was shot inside his vehicle in front of the Arca de Cristo church in La Romana. Arrested for the crime are Félix Antonio Martínez Valdez (aka) Liquito, who was the author of the crime along with Felipe Valerio; Carlos Alfredo del Rosario De Jesús (aka) Supite and/or Pipe, and Natanael de Jesús Severino.

Felipe Valerio admitted he shot the lawyer; De Jesús Severino, confessed to being the driver of the motorcycle that was transporting Valero and Del Rosario De Jesús (aka) Supite, was the person who located the victim in his vehicle and then called the others to tell them.

The person who wanted the murder committed was Félix Antonio Martínez Valdez (aka) Liquito, who was in jail in El Seibo but he actually supposedly ordered the murder of lawyer Julin Cabrera, offered a payment of RD$200,000 and provided them with a photograph of the lawyer.

However, Supite and/or Pipe misidentified the lawyer and thought he was Cabrera. Hence Santo Cedeño del Rosario was killed instead in a case of mistaken identity.

http://eldia.com.do/asesinato-de-abogado-en-la-romana-fue-por-error-segun-la-policia/


Adrian Beltre to retire
Dominican baseball player Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers retired yesterday, Tuesday 20 November, after 21 seasons in a career in which he hit 477 home runs and became the first player from the Dominican Republic to have 3,000 hits. The 39-year-old third baseman announced his decision in a statement released by the Rangers, saying it is time for the "next chapter of my life." Beltre debuted with the Los Angeles Dodgers until 2004 when he joined the Seattle Mariners (2005-2009), and then he played with the Boston Red Sox in 2010. He later played with the Texas Rangers until retiring. Beltré is a four-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner.

In his statement, Beltre thanked former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda for "believing in this young kid from the Dominican Republic when others thought I was too young to be called up" to the Majors.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/adrian-beltre-retires-1.4912966


Helados Bon launches its Christmas flavor
Helados Bon, the leading Dominican ice cream manufacturer, is enticing Dominicans to celebrate Christmas with their “Galleta Navideña” desert. The ice cream is a combination of creamy premium vanilla ice cream laced with tiny pieces of cookies laced with chocolate and ginger, accompanied with dulce de leche.