Manuel Guaroa Liranzo, a Baninter board member and leading shareholder, spent almost four hours with the Baninter case judge, Eduardo S?nchez Ort?z, yesterday, answering questions related to the bank’s collapse. Liranzo served as treasurer to the bank?s council of directors at the time of the collapse, but preferred to describe himself as the owner of TV station Telecentro (Channel 13), which has not been among the confiscated Baninter assets despite the fact that the Central Bank alleges that RD$700 million in its debts were apparently erased from the bank?s accounts. The 80-year-old Liranzo, who is a member of the PRSC executive committee but has been an influential figure in governments of all three main parties, also stressed the fact that he was collaborating with the judge as an informant. “I am here at the judge’s request, and am willing to offer any information.”
Political analysts have mentioned Liranzo as a key covert financier of the political campaign of presidential PRSC candidate Eduardo Estrella. President Hip?lito Mej?a himself admitted that the PPH faction of the PRD that supports his own aspirations for re-election had contributed to Estrella?s win in the PRSC primary elections held in March. The vote count is disputed by his opponent, Jacinto Peynado, for alleged fraudulence.
Today?s El Caribe ?En la cosa? column comments on a supposed meeting taking place yesterday at the house of a well-known businessman, that included the attendance of Guaroa Liranzo, Ram?n B?ez Romano (father of Ram?n B?ez Figueroa), Marino Vinicio Castillo (head of the defense of Ram?n B?ez Figueroa), Jacinto Peynado and the nation?s most prominent arbitrator, Monsignor Agripino N??ez Collado.