Diario Libre in an editorial published on 5 February 2018, observes the lack of closure to many crimes that make headlines in the Dominican Republic. “Here everything happens, but the details of cases are hardly ever revealed,” he writes.
To mention just a few, Adriano Miguel Tejada, executive editor of Diario Libre, mentions all sorts of contraband that is discovered, but no one ever knows who has imported the goods. ”Thus, the responsible person just loses the value of his or her shipment (unless this is returned to person of interest on a technicality) and nothing ever happens,” he writes.
He observes the recent diesel contraband. “To whom was it consigned? What shipping company brought it? The information is known by the Customs Agency, but there is no way to get information on this”, he writes.
Tejada also mentions that the press never was able to report on the free zone industry where the Quirino drug shipment was headed, or who smuggle in alcoholic beverages and cigarettes that are freely sold in local shops. “Those people have distribution channels, that should not be too difficult to trace,” he observes.
Tejada also accuses the Police of no longer sharing information with the press, after being assisted by new international consultants. “All crimes are a mystery, unless there is an up-roar among public opinion.”
He observes that at the DGII any information is protected by discrepancy and news people are told the information is withheld so as not to affect ongoing investigations, until it arrives at the Attorney General’s Office where prosecutors simply report the investigation is at a dead end.
At the Ministry of Foreign Relations even the check stubs were stolen and nothing happens; at the state UASD university finances are secret; and at the Ministry of Education even teachers that failed the standardized assessment tests received incentives.
“A joker told me that all this has been happening ever since politicians diversified into all businesses, because if you investigate, always one of the top echelons will appear, regardless of the party …. you reach your own conclusions,” he writes.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
6 February 2018
