The new president of the Dominican Olympic Committee, Luisin Mejia, says that the foremost concern of the DOC is the organization and staging of the Monte Plata 2004 National Games. The previous priority of the DOC was the celebration of the Pan Am Games. The celebration of the Monte Plata Games requires million-peso installations to be built from scratch in that impoverished city. The new president of the amateur sports association in the Dominican Republic, as published in Hoy newspaper on Friday, 26 December, said: “My main goal when I become president of the COD is to integrate the Monte Plata National Games 2004 and work to make that event a success.” Mejia replaces Jose Joaquin Puello, who retired after 21 years at the helm of the DOC. News reports have indicated that most of the Pan American Games world-class installations are suffering from neglect – the norm for massive sports venues built by Dominican governments for sporting events nationwide. The government halted all construction work for the Monte Plata Games to redirect that funding to the finalization of the Pan Am Games. But now, the COD feels the paralyzed efforts are a national priority. The Games are set to be held in July 2004. Hoy newspaper says that Sports Minister Cesar Cedeno is also supporting the Monte Plata Games, indicating that these will entail a new opportunity for the country to acquaint itself with the talent of Dominicans living in this region.
Meanwhile, the newspaper reports on the same day that the government paid RD$325 million of the RD$1.1 billion still owed to the contractors who built the mega installations for the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo.
Luisin Mejia, who worked alongside Puello for the organization of the Pan Am Games, calls the Monte Plata Games “my Pan American Games.”