Santiago went green all over on Sunday, 26 March 2017. Reports on the Sunday march against corruption and impunity in government held in Santiago are that it could have even been larger than the also spontaneous demonstrations on 22 January in Santo Domingo. The organizers said that the growing popularity of the protests is a spontaneous expression of support to eliminating impunity and corruption in government.
The Green March Santiago Committee for the End to Impunity is calling for the authorities to carry out an independent investigation into the Odebrecht construction contracts.
Nevertheless, in an interview for Diario Libre, speaking for the government, legal advisor to the President Flavio Darío Espinal said that Dominican legislation does not contemplate that the government request independent prosecutors from the United Nations. He said the Dominican Criminal Procedures Code does authorize that when a case is declared as complex, the Attorney General can be assisted by lawyers that are not part of the Public Ministry in the role of “co-accusers.”
The peaceful protest began at 10am at Av. Circunvalacion with Hermanas Mirabal and wound its way along Avenida Guzmán Fernández, Calle del Sol, Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration, ending at the intersection of Francia and Las Carreras avenues.
The group is demanding that an audit of the payments, contributions made by Odebrecht and its local partners to the electoral campaigns of President Danilo Medina in 2012 and 2016 be presented and the installation of a commission that can act with full independence to investigate of Odebrecht contract work in the Dominican Republic.
In the Cibao Manifest, read by Altagracia Kubinyi, in the name of the movement, she spoke of concern for prevailing of impunity and lack of controls and accountability for public spending and concentration of powers of government in a single political party. The Manifest expressed concern on the complicity of government and part of the political class in scandals of corruption, overvaluation and bribes as in the cases of Odebrecht, Embraer (Super Tucanos), Sunland, OISOE, Punta Catalina coal-fired power plant, and others.
One DR1 reader who participated in the Santiago march observed:
“I was a participant in the march in Santiago today against corruption and impunity because of the Odebrecht scandal…..in my estimation it was another successful march…..large crowds like in Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and other places….many people are sick and tired of these politicians who have no ethics…the country is waking up.”
In an editorial today, Diario Libre writes about the widespread support by the middle class to the protest: “The passivity of the authorities to crime and corruption in this and past administrations is unsustainable, where increases in taxes and bureaucracy affect only one part of society.”
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27 March 2017
