2003 – Page 52

Business leaders and economists have called on the government to take urgent measures to stem the devaluation of the peso, which yesterday had a value of as little as RD$37.50 to US$1. According to them, the government should introduce austerity measures and make genuine reductions in its public spending, with the supervision of civil society …

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Leading members of the Socialist International (IS) organization are expected to arrive in the Dominican Republic next week in order to help resolve the internal dispute in the ruling PRD party, according to reports in today’s papers. Former Spanish head of government Felipe Gonzalez and former Argentine President Raul Alfonsin will form part of a …

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Orlando Gil, writing for the government-intervened Listin Diario newspaper, says that the PRD is being swamped by mediators, most of whom have their own political agenda. The party should learn, says the commentator, that political differences must be sorted out by political means, and he called for a vote at a party convention. The real …

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It has come to light that a former naval systems engineer, Gustavo Isidro Zayas, whose death was announced yesterday, was killed under mysterious circumstances about which the police are reluctant to comment. Zayas, who was retired from the Dominican navy, was once the assistant to Presidential aide Martin Abreu Pimentel, who was killed outside the …

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The latest aftershock of the 22 September earthquake hit Santiago and Puerto Plata at 6:35pm yesterday, measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale. Although no damage has been reported, Radhames Lora Salcedo, the director of the Civil Defense and president of the Emergency Operations Center, said that the shocks are likely to continue and so people …

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Dominican universities are celebrating their graduation ceremonies this week, and the statistics show that women are not only making up the majority of students and graduates these days, they are also achieving the highest results. The country’s main university, the State-run Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) celebrated its largest-ever graduation, with 2,106 newly-graduated professionals. …

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The 2004 budget will be adjusted according to reality, President Hipolito Mejia said yesterday, although he did not comment on the report in yesterday’s Hoy newspaper that predicted overspending to the tune of RD$45 billion for next year. The President joked that if he were to fulfill all his ministries’ requests he would require the …

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Electricity Superintendent George Reinoso explained that the intensifying power generation and supply problems – with a current deficit of 200 and 300 megawatts – are due to the withdrawal of credit facilities to the electricity sector. Power distributors owe US$100 million to the generators, and the anticipated US$200-million World Bank loan has yet to be …

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The PRD pre-candidates opposed to re-election have said they see no possibility of reaching an agreement with President Hipolito Mejia. The seven, who are now split into two camps since the departure of Rafael “Fello” Subervi Bonilla from the core group, are saying that the President and his PPH (Proyecto Presidencial Hipolito, promoting his re-election) …

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Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal, who served as Leonel Fernandez’ Vice-President in the 1996-2000 government, said yesterday that he was confident the PLD would earn a decisive win in the first round of next year’s Presidential election. In his view, the public, who are disillusioned with the current government’s economic failures, will vote overwhelmingly for a …

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