2003 – Page 75

Making headlines today is the gruesome account of another family tragedy, in which the murder of a mother and daughter was followed by the suicide of the father. The family’s dysfunctional behaviour was also exposed, with the husband being singled out for his violent and abusive treatment of his wife. Calls for better protection for …

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News reports showed photos of Cesar Sanchez signing contracts with Union Fenosa representatives at the Hotel Santo Domingo at 5:30am on Tuesday, in order to meet deadlines set by government negotiators. The reasons for the rush, however, were not disclosed and economic analysts are at a loss to explain. Speaking to members of the national …

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Also speaking at the PUCMM meeting, as reported in Hoy newspaper, Jesuit priest and economist Jose Luis Aleman termed the deal with Union Fenosa a “dangerous political move” aimed at rallying popularity. Aleman said the government should instead have demanded better implementation of the contracted services from the Spanish company. While he believed a long-term …

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Adriano Miguel Tejada’s back-page commentary in today’s Diario Libre provides what one hopes is a satirical report that says the PPH (the Proyecto Presidencial Hipolito internal PRD campaign to promote the President’s re-election) may at last have found a way of reducing spending on the public payroll. Tejeda suggests that all government employees should simply …

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The government is coming under pressure to pay back the money raised by the recently introduced import and export taxes, originally levied by Presidential decree in order to fund the payments to the power distributors. Lisandro Macarrulla, president of the Dominican Association of Industries (AIRD), has said that the Supreme Court’s pronouncement of the illegality …

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For the second time in four months US analysts Standard and Poor’s has reduced the Dominican Republic’s risk rating, this time from B+ to B-, amidst growing fears that the country is likely to default on its loan repayments. Following the collapse of Baninter earlier this year, S&P reduced the rating from B++ to B+ …

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Bear Stearns reported on 1 October on the cooling of relations between the IMF and the Dominican government following the government’s insistence on rushing the buyback of Union Fenosa power distribution company shares. Bear Stearns does not believe, however, that the short-term fiscal costs associated with the renationalization of the power distribution companies will be …

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The Dominican army reconstruction contingent in Iraq was involved in an incident yesterday in which their base at Diwaniya, 190kms to the south of Baghdad, was attacked by gunfire. No one was injured in the confrontation and Dominican soldiers were able to detain several suspects. This is the first time the troops have been involved …

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The Venezuelan Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel said yesterday that relations with the Dominican Republic were “in the process of improving.” Rangel said that both nations’ foreign ministries were actively trying to mend the rift that emerged when the Venezuelan President ordered a suspension of oil exports to the Dominican Republic, due to his suspicion that …

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The Diario Libre reports that the Dominican Republic will join the Free Trade Agreement with the United States once the Central American countries have finalized their negotiations, according to El Salvador’s Finance Minister, Miguel Lacayo. This decision was made at a meeting between US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and his counterparts in the region. Speaking …

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