President Leonel Fernández appointed Alejandrina Germán as Secretary of the Presidency. She replaces Danilo Medina, who will be running for President on the ruling Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) ticket next May. At the time of her designation, Germán was director of the Consejo Nacional de Educación Superior (CONES), the government body that is in charge of regulating university level education. She was one of the key organizers of the PLD primary. The President appointed Melanio Paredes to replace Francisco Javier García at the Dominican Port Authority. Francisco Javier García is Danilo Medina’s campaign director. Javier García had clashed with businessmen for his decisions to favor truck union monopolies at Dominican ports. Prior to the appointment, Melanio Paredes served as director of the Departamento Aeroportuario, the body that rules over the operation of Dominican airports. Hoy newspaper in its page two political analysis comments that Germán and Paredes were partial to Vice President Jaime David Fernández, who lost the primaries to Medina. The columnist says that more appointments in government of the Vice President’s supporters are to be expected, as the government seeks to motivate the Vice President’s followers to support Medina for President. Medina needs all the support he can get as he was elected because of strong support within the party, despite most independent polls showing that the most saleable candidate was the Vice President.
