2000 – Page 86

President Hipólito Mejía converted into law the bill that creates the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales). He also formalized the appointment of Frank Moya Pons as the first minister of the newly created department. Moya Pons is probably the best known Dominican historian. An author of 20 …

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President Hipólito Mejía created new departments in the Armed Forces. These are the Human Rights Military Institute (Instituto Militar de los Derechos Humanos), the Program for Education and Professional Training (Programa de Educación y Capacitación Profesional) and the Institute for Defense and National Security Higher Studies (Instituto de los Altos Estudios para la Defensa y …

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The National Police intervened to re-establish through traffic at the Haina Occidental Port. Fenatrado truckers’ union attempted to impose a ban on entry to the port of independent truckers and trucks belonging to Maersk-Sealand in order to maintain its monopoly over most of the cargo transported from national ports. This time around, Fenatrado has met …

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President Hipólito Mejía held his first government session in Azua, a southwestern province. There he announced the construction of a modern public hospital and that he would make RD$55 million available for farming in the region. He also announced his government would rebuild 30 schools, repair streets and rural roads. He declared that Azua would …

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Seems the escorts of President Mejía need urgently to take driver’s ed classes. A jeep part of the presidential escort suffered a major accident along the Baní-San Cristóbal highway on its way back from Azua. The injured were on board a Ford Explorer jeep. El Siglo says that the escort vehicle hogged up the road …

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Attorney General Virgilio Bello Rosa announced a program to hold trials of minor crimes in jails in order to advance on the processing of inmates. One of the problems affecting the backlog of cases has been the difficulty in transferring the inmates to courthouses. Bello Rosa says that the program seeks to decongestion the jails. …

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EGE-Haina spokesman Radames Martinez Aponte announced the installation of a 150 megawatt power plant in San Pedro de Macoris. He said the company would be investing US$135 million in the power plant that should be operational by August 2001. He also announced that they had been successful in increasing generation of the Haina power plant …

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Cesar Sanchez announced that this government foresees the installation of an additional 1,650 megawatts per day. This would double the present capacity of power plants in the DR, and would resolve the present power deficit, he said. He also announced that the US$300 million received for the capitalization of state utility divisions needs to be …

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News reports say that the political agreement signed in 1998 with several town mayors and congressmen is affecting government today. The Partido Revolucionario Dominicano came up with the so-called 2 x 2 formula in the 1998 congressional and municipal election in order to guarantee a unified position in that election. Then party leader Jose Francisco …

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President Hipólito Mejía announced that he favors that Congress pass the bill that would automatically index petroleum prices locally to international market prices. This would relieve the President himself from having to increase fuel prices. The bill was submitted in October 1999, shortly after then President Leonel Fernández decreed an increase in local fuel prices. …

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