Hoy newspaper reports in its lead story that Venezuela appears to be responding to last week’s granting of asylum to two dissident military officials by the Dominican authorities. Dominican oil refinery (REFIDOMSA) president Amaury Justo Duarte confirmed that three oil tankers scheduled to leave for Santo Domingo on Wednesday were not given permission to leave their port of origin. Justo Duarte said that he could not attribute this delay to ‘political’ reasons. On 30 April the Dominican foreign ministry announced that two retired Venezuelan army captains accused of involvement in a 2002 failed coup attempt were to be granted political asylum in the DR. The country is heavily dependent on oil imports from Venezuela. Justo Duarte told Hoy that in the framework of the San Jose agreement, signed between Mexico and Venezuela, the Dominican Republic receives 135,000 barrels of crude oil daily, 80% of which come from Venezuela.