Popular news commentators Julio Martínez Pozo and Dany Alcántara are in the limelight, after the Attorney General announced they are investigating these two for their ties with Angel Rondón, the commercial representative of Odebrecht who has admitted to having received around US$92 million in payment for his services to the company. Odebrecht had admitted to paying US$92 million in bribes in the Dominican Republic to expedite the granting of contract work. The radio and TV commentators are best known for their defense of government actions.
The Attorney General Office made public it had obtained permission from Supreme Court special instruction judge Francisco Ortega Polanco to investigate Alcantara and Martinez and their relatives for possibly having served as Rondon in the distribution of the payments to government officers and former officers in the name of Odebrecht. The announcement by the Attorney General Office comes when the deadline for the presenting of the case against Odebrecht is nearing on 9 June 2018. The Attorney General Office will have had a year to prepare the case, including a four-month extension granted in February 2018.
In a press conference at the Dominican Journalists Guild (Colegio Dominicano de Periodistas), Martínez and Alcántara accused Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez of acting as an associate of Odebrecht when not investigating the supposed bribes also paid by the Odebrecht associate companies for the 17 projects carried in the country from 2001 to 2014.
Rafael Núñez, former press spokesman for former President Leonel Fernández, said the investigation is part of a supposed dirty campaign carried out in the inside of the ruling PLD party by persons loyal to President Danilo Medina and against Fernández.
The Attorney General Office is investigating 14 persons in the bribes scandal for actions that occurred during the governments of Hipólito Mejia (2000-2004), and Leonel Fernandez (2004-2012). All of the former government officers accused in the case were authorized to post bail, with the exception of lawyer Conrad Pittaluga who is on domiciliary arrest.
Meanwhile, an editorial in Diario Libre alerts to the manipulation of the media by the government. “That is the reason for the multimillion investment of the Administration in advertising and ‘other expenses’ that include a bulging payroll of those that the people call ‘loudspeakers’. “It is evident that someone is manipulating the national agenda and it is not the media that are simply acting as loudspeakers of the music that someone else is playing,” says the editorial on 8 May 2018. Diario Libre calls for the press to fulfill its role and not fall into the trap of the manipulators.
As reported, on Sunday, 6 May 2018, the Attorney General’s Office issued a statement saying that all of those involved in the investigation surrounding the Odebrecht case should cooperate with the authorities.
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Diario Libre
8 May 2018
