The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will devise strategies, through the National Dialogue forum, that will seek to reduce violence in the Dominican Republic. The Dialogue’s coordinator, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, made the announcement at the end of a meeting with the various media who had promised to assist the National Dialogue in spreading the word. Nunez Collado explained that in order to work out a plan against violence, UNDP consultant German Montenegro would supply a list of “suggestions” to help establish a basis for the final proposals that the dialogue will submit to President Fernandez. The heads of the media agreed to help motivate the population to spur a stronger social reaction against violence. Persio Maldonado, the head of the Nuevo Diario, was the spokesperson for the newspapers during the meeting that lasted several hours at the Santo Domingo campus of the Pontificial Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra. Among the media present were the newspapers Hoy, El Caribe, Nuevo Diario, La Informacion, El Nacional and Diario Libre, as well as the El Caribe-Cadena de Noticias (CDN) media group. Minister of Interior and Police Franklin Almeida Rancier, PRD leader Hatuey de Camps, Henry Mejia, Licelott Marte de Barrios and Victor Gomez Berges were the politicians on hand at the Dialogue and also present were members of the civil society.
Almeyda said an improved economy was a prerequisite for less crime. He pointed out that the unemployment rate is at a lofty 17% of the working population and this does not include those employed in the informal sector where wages are very low.