Former chief of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD), General Radhames Ramirez Ferreira did not mention names but spoke openly about what he described as the control over military decisions exercised by the Corps of Military Aides of the Presidency during the last years of the Leonel Fernandez administration. Ramirez Ferreira headed the DNCD from 2006-2008. Recently, the government announced that the United States was seeking the extradition of Navy colonel Francisco Hiraldo Guerrero, who was director of operations of the DNCD under his administration. Ramirez expressed his surprise at Hiraldo’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking. He said that Hiraldo himself was following the leads pointing to Navy lieutenant Carlos Rosso Pena, who was extradited to Puerto Rico on drug trafficking charges. Ramirez said that he tried to fire Rosso, but was not allowed to do so. The request for extradition against Hiraldo Guerrero is based on statements offered by former Army colonel Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo, who was extradited in February 2005. Rosso was extradited in 2009. Both accused the former DNCD head of operations of providing protection for cocaine shipments.
El Dia reported on Ramirez’s comments on the Cuentas Claras morning talk show on 95.7FM.
Ramirez said: “That discredited, corrupt and immoral body, the Corps of Military Aides, where the factotum in the past years manipulated the Armed Forces, appointing the commanders and sending people to different places,” he said.
He said in view of the situation he tried to resign but was asked not to do so because it would create a great scandal and then President Leonel Fernandez did not deserve that. “I consider myself to be a friend of Leonel Fernandez. But one thing is Leonel Fernandez as President and another is the perverse circle around him,” he said. He said that the hegemony of the Corps of Military Aides over the Armed Forces caused an institutional debacle. “It was shameful,” he said. He said that only when working closely with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was he able to get people fired. El Dia points out that throughout the interview on Cuentas Claras Ramirez Ferreira never calls the person who directed the Corps of Military Aides by his name.
El Dia reports that when Ramirez Ferreira was chief of the DNCD, the Corps of Military Aides was headed by Major General Belisario Medina y Medina.
http://eldia.com.do/nacionales/2012/11/5/98431/Ferreiras-revela-Hiraldo-tenia-a-su-cargo-vigilar-actividades-de-Rosso
http://dr1.com/premium/news/2011/dnews072611.shtml#6
www.noticiassin.com/2012/02/ee-uu-quita-visas-a-4-funcionarios-del-presidente-fernandez/
www.noticiassin.com/2012/11/el-ex-director-de-operaciones-de-la-dncd-hiraldo-guerrero-paso-de-perseguidor-a-perseguido/