District Attorney Francisco Domínguez Brito urged that the judiciary apply maximum fines of 30 years jail sentences, with no bail to organizers of illegal boat trips for migrants. Former chief of the Navy, Victor García Alecón was successful at reducing these, but lenient judicial treatment of the organizers of the trip has not helped end the long list of tragedies. El Siglo newspaper asks whether the trips are the reflection of lack of opportunities at home or over earnestness to reach higher levels of personal wealth. Most of those attempting last Wednesday to reach Puerto Rico by boat paid RD$12,000 for the one-way ticket. The Associated Press story on the tragic trip can be read at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000308/wl/puerto_rico_dominican_drownings_2.html
