The 23-year old case regarding the assassination of Orlando Martínez Howley, the former editor of Ahora news weekly magazine and columnist of El Nacional newspaper opens at the Palacio de la Justicia court house today. Martínez had been critical of the Balaguer regime of the time. The military of 1975 was known for its repression of leftist sectors and those that opposed the Balaguer regime. Martínez Howley was assassinated inside his car near the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo on 17 March 1975. The case against military of the time is being transmitted live by TV and radio by Cadena Nacional de Noticias. Yesterday, District Attorney Francisco Domínguez Brito requested that the General Procurator of the Republic Mariano Germán revoke the order that released the suspect intellectual author of the crime, Retired General Salvador Lluberes Montás from jail. Lluberes was released 13 July 1998 by the former procurator Abel Rodríguez del Orbe on grounds of the failing health of the general. The general was chief of the Armed Air Forces at the time. He was also chief of the National Police under a Joaquín Balaguer administration. Domínguez Brito bases his petition on grounds that Lluberes Montás has not constituted lawyer for the case, which is expected to delay the opening of the case today, Thursday, 5 November. Then President Joaquín Balaguer has kept the crime alive by creating suspense among Dominicans by leaving a blank page, where information on the authors of the crime would be written in the future, in his book "Memorias de un cortesano en la Era de Trujillo." The former President has the information to fill in that page will be known after he dies. The former nonagenarian statesmen, though, has eluded commenting on the case, and declined the invitation to testify, citing health reasons. Investigations into the case during the Balaguer administration were put aside. Reportedly, late chief of the Police Neit Rafael Nivar Seijas, commissioned to investigate the death, advanced on these investigations, but the findings were not released. Back then newspaper reports mentioned as responsible Air Force Major Joaquín Pou Castro (believed to have driven the car which transported the assassins), and military Luis Emilio Beras de la Rosa, a member of the Banda Colorá, a repression unit of the Balaguer government. The brother of Orlando Martínez Howley, Edmundo, was found dead in December 1995, supposedly for his efforts at uncovering the authors of the murder. Crimes in the DR prescribe after 20 years, but the case was kept alive by then judge Juan Miguel Castillo Pantaleón, who reopened the case in time, reportedly using a file on the case investigations carried out by former chief of the Police Rafael Neit Nivar Seijas. The judge was also assisted by a confession by José Isidoro Martínez González, who is dyeing and is interned at the military hospital. Martínez González is a former chief of the J2 unit of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the E2 of the Air Force, both intelligence outfits. Others implicated in the case are: Military Mariano Durán, who is fugitive from justice, and has been mentioned as one of two persons who fired at Orlando. The Listín Diario indicated that the judiciary has requested his extradition from the US, but has not received an answer from the US. Rafael Alfredo Lluberes Ricart, is the other person who allegedly fired at Orlando Martínez. Lluberes Ricart is a close friend of Pou Castro, and a renown member of the then Banda Colorá, a repression unit of the Balaguer government.
