Political commentator Aristofanes Urbaez of El Siglo newspaper says that the arrest of the top-ranking past PLD government officers is "pure circus." He writes: "I sometimes think that Hipólito Mejía is more intelligent than one would think, because he has placed in the judicial area of government (attorney general) the worst in legal matters in the country. What is happening with the so-called corruption proceedings, is not even a plan as the PLD politicians have denounced, but a circus of the worst kind which any judge without prejudice will annul instantly because all procedures have been violated." President Hipólito Mejía himself yesterday spoke up about what he described as "excesses" and "shows" that were being staged by some of the authorities entrusted with persecuting those suspect of corruption while in office. He said he opposed that former President Leonel Fernández be called before a judge for questioning regarding the management of the PEME program that distributed money to suspect trouble-makers in slum areas in order to buy social peace. "A former President deserves respect," he said. "I do not believe if an institution has accounting problems that it is the responsibility of the President," he told Hoy newspaper. "Under no circumstance will I accept nor propitiate persecution against anyone," he said. He added, nevertheless, that "he who stole will have to suffer consequences." But then he warned his legal officers, "One thing that I do not want is that there be deceiving bluffs and phantasmagoric ways to accomplish things. I do not like that," said Mejía. He said that all should be carried out according to normal procedures. "Nobody has the right to take what is not theirs, but there should be no shows, I don’t like shows," he stated.
