The Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) designated a committee to negotiate a new electoral alliance with former President Joaquín Balaguer and his Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC). Danilo Medina, Secretary of the Presidency, and Norge Botello Fernández, Minister of Interior and Police, are on the committee. On Christmas Day, the Listin Diario carried a news story reporting contradictions between the Department of Customs and political interests of the PLD in view of the upcoming municipal and congressional elections in May 1998. While the Department of Customs seeks to eliminate the mafia that operates a contraband of luxury vehicles, it has clashed with the fact that several influential PRSC members are involved. This has become a delicate situation for the PLD, which seeks to avoid confronting the PRSC, as it is interested in repeating the alliance that brought President Leonel Fernández to the presidency in 1996. Reportedly, Miguel Cocco, director of the Department of Customs, has repeatedly visited former President Joaquín Balaguer to discuss the situation and find a solution.
