Former Minister of Public Works Gonzalo Castillo has a case against him in the judiciary for allegations of billions in irregularities in purchase of asphalt when he was at the Ministry of Public Works during the Danilo Medina presidency. Yet so far, the state prosecution has not called for his arrest nor has pressed charges. Journalist Marino Zapete and later Alicia Ortega presented evidence in the case, yet at the time the PLD chose Castillo to be the party presidential candidate in 2020. Despite a billionaire election campaign, Castillo would lose to Luis Abinader of the PRM.
Nevertheless, now Somos Pueblo reveals that the Ministry of Defense has ordered that a general and a colonel be assigned to the security of the former presidential candidate for the former ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). Dominican law does not call for taxpayer money to be used to assign security to past ministers of public works.
The Ministry of Defense assigned Gonzalo Castillo’s brother, Brigade General Ricardo A. Castillo Terrero and colonel Jose Bienvenido Calderon Peguero to be his security.
The Minister of Defense Carlos Luciano Diaz Morfa is a former Chief of Staff of the Army and served for many years as the security chief for former President Hipolito Mejía. Despite being in the opposition, former President Hipolito Mejia on several occasions defended positions of former President Danilo Medina.
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Somos Pueblo TV
7 November 2022