2003 – Page 45

MUDHA, the Dominican-Haitian women’s movement, sent a delegation to the Central Electoral Board (JCE) yesterday, to discuss the procedures for registering children of Haitian parentage born on Dominican soil. According to MUDHA, each civil registry office makes different requirements for registering children, and these inconsistencies must be replaced by a standardized procedure. Birth certificates are …

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The liquidation committee of collapsed bank Baninter has announced that the final 26 branches still operating are to be shut on 26 November, according to a report in the Listin Diario. The bank’s customers are being asked to make their final withdrawals well in advance of that deadline, however. They are also being given the …

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Hoy newspaper reports that economist Eduardo Tejera and business leader Celso Marranzini have issued calls for the government to ensure that the dollar exchange market not be subject to manipulation by speculators. The rate fell slightly below the record RD$40-to-US$1 mark yesterday to RD$39.50, in reaction to the news that negotiations with the International Monetary …

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The business community has expressed surprise at the Senate’s approval of the 5% tax on exports. Groups such as CONEP (private business association) and ANJE (young entrepreneurs’ association), who had agreed to the monthly flat-rate “solidarity contributions” to the government in an attempt to ease the effects of the economic crisis, said that they could …

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All four main morning papers carry editorial commentaries focused on the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) negotiations with the Mejia administration. The government-intervened Listin Diario says that this news “revives the hope that the country will soon be able to return to its normal economic activity.” The writer also states that the reacquisition …

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This morning’s Diario Libre reports that the Central Bank has had to reassure depositors that the economic stabilization program agreed to with the International Monetary Fund would not include measures that would affect or restrict their savings, nor damage either the capital or the interest. The CB said in a statement that “protecting depositors’ rights …

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President Hipolito Mejia now has three pre-candidates on board for the planning of the proposed PRD party convention to select its Presidential candidate. Yesterday’s summit meeting was attended by rival pre-candidates Vice-President Milagros Ortiz Bosch, party secretary Rafael “Fello” Subervi Bonilla and Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero; party president Hatuey Decamps, Ramon Alburquerque, Rafael Abinader and Rafael …

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As reported in today’s Listin Diario, PLD Presidential candidate Leonel Fernandez said yesterday that the eyes of the world would be on the Dominican Republic on election day, 16 May 2004. He said that victory was assured for his party, which has placed well ahead of the current government party and the other opposition party, …

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The sale of domestic propane gas, used in households for cooking and to power certain motor vehicles, has been suspended for three days now. Most of the country’s supply stations remain closed and the reason for this is the government’s apparent failure to pay the RD$500 million owed in subsidies to the importers. Yesterday saw …

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In an illustration of how the economic crisis does not really hit until it begins to hurt the rich, Diario Libre’s Adriano Miguel Tejada describes the reactions of horror to the news that the capital’s most exclusive gyms have had to raise their monthly membership fees by about 60%. “Emergency!” cries the headline, informing that …

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