The PRD party has rejected accusations that it has played a vital part in the latest wave of violence that is shaking the country’s population. The party also issued a statement criticizing the massive firings that are affecting the government patronage jobs, as well as the demotions and forced retirements in the ranks of the Armed Forces. The uppermost officials within the PRD, headed by former President Hipolito Mejia, met and discarded the suggestion that elements of the PRD were behind the crimes directed at prominent members of the citizenry, as well as normal, everyday folks. El Caribe says ex-President Mejia told reporters that there is absolutely no link between the assault on commentator Euri Cabral and the PRD. Party leader Eligio Jaquez said the accusations that originated from within the PLD government are “careless and superficial.” In his first public appearance since his overwhelming defeat in last May’s elections, Mejia was his usual, jocular self, telling reporters that if he had wanted to do harm to Cabral, he “would have done it while in power.”
El Nacional afternoon newspaper yesterday carried a headline whereby former President Hipolito Mejia asks President Fernandez to not “throw wood in the fire.” Mejia spoke up to defend his former chief of the Police, retired general Jaime Marte Martinez from accusations that the latter had retained 20 vehicles that had been reported stolen, as per a statement from District Attorney Hernandez Peguero. Mejia joked about how many asses a person would have to have to sit in that number of vehicles. As reported in El Nacional, he said that when he appointed Marte he recommended that he do things that were done normally, “because one cannot change things from one day to the other.”
The PRD officials’ meeting lasted from 9am until 6pm, and Tony Raful, as the acting president of the party, reported that the group had decided to ask President Fernandez to respect the Civil Service law and to stop the massive firings.
http://www.elnacional.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=16007