2004 – Page 4

Deputies have been convened today to review the elimination of the 25% corn syrup tax, a major point of contention for the passage of the US-DR free trade agreement through the US Congress. The DR Senate approved the bill as presented by President Leonel Fernandez shortly before Christmas, after the government committed to submit an …

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The Dominican Association of Sweets Manufacturers maintains that with the issuing of Decree 15-04 on 15 November, the government is effectively doing away with the window that had been left open for local industries using sugar as an input material to compete. The new decree incorporates an article that forces customs to dispatch sugar only …

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Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa said that a decree issued by President Leonel Fernandez that eliminates the requirement that Honduran cigarettes entering the DR be stamped in order to resolve the conflict with British Tobacco. The company had pointed out that the precondition was in violation of trade agreements in effect. Bengoa said that a judgment …

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Listin Diario economic section’s carries today a report on the profitability of the telecommunications industry in the DR. It also says that local consumers want the phone companies to reduce the cost of their services, given that they were raised when the peso’s value was at a peak low compared to the US dollar at …

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The Dominican Association of Free Zones and the National Federation Free Zone Laborers (Fenatrazona) have agreed on a 25% raise for free zone workers. The wage increase will go into effect in two parts, 15% to be given on 3 January and 10% on 4 April. The free zone monthly minimum wage will rise from …

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The National Commission of Emergencies (CNE) is reporting the deaths of 33 people and 350 injuries in the Dominican Republic from 12pm on 23 December to 6am on 26 December. Of the total, 18 died in traffic accidents and 12 in gun or knife confrontations. Of the 350 injuries, 132 were sustained in traffic accidents, …

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Two agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration paid former Captain Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo a five-minute visit to his cell at the Direccion Nacional de Control de Drogas (DNCD), where they expressed that the US government will seek his extradition. This information is according to his lawyer Carlos Balcacer, who demanded that his client be …

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Morning newspapers inform that “The Don,” the very prosperous former army Captain Quirino Paulino Castillo, now implicated in the largest drug bust of the past 14 years, lived in the Julieta neighborhood, right behind the popular Bravo supermarket. Newspapers say his city address is Virgilio Diaz Ordonez 64. Diario Libre reports that a lady once …

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Newspapers over the Christmas holidays published statements and documents involving former army chief Radhames Zorrilla Ozuna, former chief of the Armed Forces, retired Major General Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez, and as high up as President Hipolito Mejia, in the irregular military career of former army captain Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo. Paulino Castillo is being singled …

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Listin Diario political analyst Orlando Gil writes: “The political responsibility was that of President Mejia, but the institutional responsibility belonged to the military chiefs who were unable to resist the evident degrading of the armed forces. In his analysis today, Gil contrasts the collapse of institutionalism within the military under Mejia and his armed forces …

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