President Mejia said reports that the government will use the sovereign bonds money for the purchase of Hyundai vehicles and trucks are not true. The news came from a Hyundai press release and was distributed world wide by Asia Pulse and Bloomberg news services. “That is a lie; that only is in the mind of Bernardo Vega [editor of El Caribe newspaper] or of some idiot among those who write things that are not so,” said the President when interviewed in Bavaro where he is attending a medical conference. El Caribe reports today that a spokesman for Magna Motors, the Hyundai distributor in the DR, said the vehicles would be financed by a US$150 million loan to be taken with an international bank and guaranteed by the Dominican government. Several conflicts could delay the start of the “Plan Renove” vehicle modernization program. They include a dispute between the Hyundai distributor Magna Motors and the company that has been authorized to import the Hyundai vehicles. Also, union leaders oppose the way the vehicles are being distributed to those with the right political influence. Among those to benefit will be Fenatrado, the infamous trucking union that is said to charge among the highest ground transport rates in the Americas.
