2003 – Page 50

The latest sovereign update from international investment banking, securities trading and brokerage firm Bear Stearns concentrates on the political uncertainty evident in the Dominican Republic and its implications for the economy. The report outlines the situation where two of the main parties, including the ruling PRD, have been plagued by internal disputes. It describes President …

Read more…

Environment Minister Frank Moya Pons has said he would revoke commercial fishing permits held by a South Korean company caught fishing illegally in Dominican waters. El Caribe newspaper has been following the story for some days now, but today crosses to other publications with the news that the ministry is taking action. Vessels belonging to …

Read more…

The latest attempt to find a way of making up the government’s RD$650-million fiscal deficit is a proposal from Senator Ramiro Espina (PRD, Samana) currently being studied by the Senate Finance Commitee. It suggests an increase of RD$3.50 on premium gasoline and RD$1.75 on regular. The proposal also includes the imposition of a one-time 1% …

Read more…

Editorial writers seize on today’s date to make some chilling analogies about Dominican politics. Ana Mitila Lora, writing in her “Mochila al hombro” column in Listin Diario newspaper, speaks of spider webs obscuring the truth, especially when it comes to the Dominican justice system. Terms like bankruptcy, collapse and debt are used as euphemisms for …

Read more…

Tonight sees the start of the 2003-2004 Dominican professional baseball championships, known as the “winter league”. The teams competing for the title are the Aguilas Cibaenas, Leones del Escogido, Tigres del Licey, Gigantes del Cibao, Estrellas Orientales and Azucareros del Este. El Caribe salutes the game, which it describes as “more a passion than a …

Read more…

The Dominican Republic Women’s Volleyball Team, ranked 14th in the world, will go up against Cuba, ranked 6th in the world, on 1 November, the opening day of the World Volleyball Cup 2003 in Tokyo, Japan. The top three teams earn the right to compete in the Athens Olympic 2004 Games. This is the first …

Read more…

Vice-President Milagros Ortiz Bosch has broken away from the group of six pre-candidates opposed to the President’s re-election, announcing that she would put herself up independently for selection as Presidential candidate at the party convention, against President Hipolito Mejia. The convention model is the President’s preferred method for the PRD to choose its candidate for …

Read more…

Hatuey Decamps, PRD party president, pre-Presidential hopeful and perhaps the most fierce opponent of President Hipolito Mejia’s re-election ambitions, has won a re-election of his own. Decamps was unanimously re-elected vice president of the Socialist International organization (IS) at their convention in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil yesterday. The Diario Libre’s back-page column “De buena tinta” …

Read more…

Hoy newspaper quotes Finance Minister Rafael Calderon as saying that the country is in urgent need of fiscal reform. Such reform would need to be effective in the fight against tax evasion, which he said was widespread in the Dominican Republic. “We cannot go on creating new taxes and raising the current rates, at the …

Read more…

President Hipolito Mejia denied the suggestions by the Superintendence of Electricity that the power-supply situation was at its lowest point, claiming that the problems in the Cibao region, which includes the country’s second largest city, Santiago, had been resolved. “The problems in the Cibao are over, Puerto Plata (the generating station) has been repaired,” he …

Read more…