1999 – Page 88

The Center for Strategic and International Studies released a report (July 1999) on the DR which highlights how the DR has gone from being an isolated nation to being one of the leading success stories of Latin America. The report, part of the CSIS Hemisphere 2000 series, was written by Howard J. Wiarda, a professor …

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Rafaela Alburquerque (PRSC-San Pedro de Macoris) was elected on 16 August president of the Chamber of Deputies. She was elected by consensus of the three leading political parties. She is the first woman to preside the Chamber of Deputies. Despite the PRSC being minority in the Chamber of Deputies, leaders of the leading opposition party, …

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Engineer Ramón Alburquerque (PRD-Monte Plata) was re-elected president of the National Senate. Jesús Vásquez will be the new vice president; Ginette Bournigal, and Angel D. Pérez, secretaries. The Senate returns to work today, Tuesday, 17 August at 3 pm. The PRD is majority in the Senate.

News reports say the city government of Santo Domingo is now suspended in "institutional limbo." The Mayor of Santo Domingo felt slighted that the hierarchy of his political party, the PRD called for the election of the PRD candidate to preside the city hall when he was in Winnipeg, Canada officially receiving the symbols of …

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Miguel Cocco, director of Customs Department, was interned at the Baptist Hospital of Miami on Sunday. He suffers from a kidney-related problem. Press reports said that he was recovering satisfactorily. Tests were being performed for an accurate diagnosis of his ailment.

Dirección General de Prisiones statistics show that 80% of those in jail in the Dominican are there for theft, homicide or drug trafficking or consumption. An estimated 15,000 persons are kept in jail in the DR. The breakdown of reasons for being in jail is as follows: theft 31.5%; drug trafficking 26%; homicide 25%; fraud, …

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An estimated 800,000-person crowd showed up to wave Dominican flags and move to Dominican merengue in Manhattan on Sunday, 15 August. The annual Dominican Parade is the leading event of the Dominican community in New York. Mayor Rudolph Guiliani presided over the celebrations of the parade that went from 28th Street to 60th Street along …

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Police is on the trail of a cattle rancher who was kidnapped last Friday in La Romana. News reports say that he was visiting a lover in Reparto Benjamín of La Romana, and with him in his jeep was his one year and a half son. The boy was recovered unharmed inside the vehicle. News …

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El Siglo reports that the plan being implemented to modernize the National Police calls for the installation of an AFIS automated digital finger print identification system, such as is in use in the US. The RD$150 million modernization program calls for the entire computerization of the National Police to make it more effective at combating …

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Traffic across the Ozama River is again flowing, after the Ministry of Public Works completed the repair of a 42 meter stretch of the Mella Bridge. For the 26 days the bridge was closed, crossing the river was a driver’s nightmare, with gridlock and bottlenecks causing delays of whomever was headed east or west. Relief …

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