2000 – Page 165

The Follow-up Commission for the Election Ethics Pact charged that the Central Elections Board (JCE) is fostering the impression that next month’s presidential election is "a carnival." The accusation was one of several included in the commission’s "second monitoring report," released yesterday. Harsh words were heaped on all the political parties for desecrating trees, traffic …

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The three major parties, the Charge d’Affaires of the U.S. embassy, the Bishop of San Juan de la Maguana and the head of the Central Elections Board (JCE) all denounced the accusations of fraud brought by Marino Vinicio Castillo. Yesterday it was reported that Castillo, who currently serves as the country’s anti-drug czar but is …

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A coordinated effort will be mounted among agencies of the DR and the US to combat drug smuggling, weapons contraband, and illegal immigration along the frontier with Haiti. Armed Forces Minister, Manuel de Jesus Florentino, announced that the first contingent of soldiers will soon be deployed in cities and military outposts along the 360 km …

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The DR is among a group of eight Latin American nations that neither has sufficient food to feed its people nor sufficient money to import it. So says a report published by the UN’s agricultural organization (FAO), which places the DR alongside Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua as living with "alimentary insecurity." …

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The government of Japan will spend US$45 million to construct two towers to replace the aging and cramped Luis E. Aybar Public Health Hospital, which will be demolished. Construction will begin "late this year or early the next," and will increase the facility’s in-patient capacity to 450 from 262 beds. Ambulatory services will be housed …

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Senate president Ramon Albuquerque received the proposal of the chief executive to create and empower a National Committee Against Money Laundering, in order to detect and prevent the practice and punish the perpetrators. The bill also establishes the country’s obligations to collaborate in bilateral and multi-national agreements concerning money laundering to which the DR is …

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The U.S. government will spend US$159 million over the next two years in reforestation and environmental protection. The decision was announced by U.S. Ambassador Charles Manatt after he returned from a tour of the southwest where he observed the effects of deforestation in dry river beds and bald mountains. Some 9.4 million perennials will be …

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The man who represents Duarte Province in the senate is also a Spanish aristocrat. So says Senator Julio Gonzalez Burel, who claims to be the Count of Torremata. Senator Gonzalez, known to friends as "Machacho," said that his uncle, a Spaniard, who flew an airplane during the Spanish civil war, brought the title with him …

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Radio, the internet and the essence of Dominican culture will come together when "www.radiomerengue.com" takes over a spot in cyberspace, later this month. The new on-line address will feature merengue music broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The innovative site is sponsored by two local firms, OneSource Creative and La 91.1FM, a …

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"Fraud" is a word heard frequently both before and after Dominican elections, and the current campaign season is no exception. PRSC party leader and former SD District Attorney, Alexis Joaquin Castillo, charged that every act of the Central Elections Board (JCE) accords with "the directives" of the PRD party. Castillo referred to the "distortion and …

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