President Luis Abinader named Rafael Feliz Garcia as the new Minister of Youth. The appointment comes after former Minister Luz Alba Jimenez Ramirez was removed after findings of irregularities in a tender for electronic devices at the Ministry. The appointment is in Decree 804-21.
The new Minister of Youth was sworn in on 20 December 2021 by Administrative Minister Jose Ignacio Paliza.
He is a graduate in sociology from the UASD state university. At the time of his appointment, he was the vice rector at the Instituto Tecnico Superior Comunitario in San Luis, in eastern Santo Domingo. His biography does not list jobs he had held before his entering government for the high-up position at the ITSC.
Investigative journalist Addis Burgos (Desclasificado on Channel 37) had revealed that the ITSC was padded with new appointments of relatives to ruling party (PRM) politician Luz Alba Jimenez.
Feliz Garcia is the third minister of youth named in the first two years of the Abinader administration. The first minister of Youth, Kinsberly Taveras, resigned after being investigated for having accumulated considerable wealth at her young age, despite having been only mayor of small townships. The government has not presented the results of the investigation into the granting of contract work for garbage collecting that benefited companies related to Taveras.
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Somos Pueblo
CDN
Diario Libre
21 December 2021