2001 – Page 177

The Minister of Culture Tony Raful confirmed that 49 Indian objects confiscated by the Customs Department of Miami and returned to the DR were fakes. He said that a study of the objects carried out by the Museum of Dominican Man showed they were copies of Taino artifacts. Supposedly, the items would have been sold …

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Given the uproar over the untimeliness of the reform, Dario Gomez (PRD-Santiago Rodriguez) now favors opening talks with different sectors. He agreed with Cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez that the time is right to initiate debates on the subject. He told the press that Congress is not in a hurry. But he said, as quoted in …

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Runner up Alejandrina German refused to decline her aspirations to secretary general of the Dominican Liberation Party to Reynaldo Pared Perez who received 48% of the vote. Pared Perez is said to represent the interests of the Danilo Medina group, while German represents those of former Vice President Jaime David Fernandez. German received 32% of …

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The former President of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery said that feasibility studies that have already been carried out discard building a second refinery in the Dominican Republic. President Chavez promoted the idea of building a refinery in Monte Cristi and another in Cabo Rojo for re-export of refined petroleum products to the Caribbean during his …

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A spill of petroleum reached the Andrés, Boca Chica coastline spotting yachts parked in the Santo Domingo Yacht Club. The Navy was alerted and quickly went to work to remove 55 gallons of petroleum residuals, employing brigades of 80 men at a time. The petroleum stain alert coincided with the announced start of a course …

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The president of the Association of Commercial Banks, Andres Aybar called the attention of the government to reactivate the economy. He said in an interview with the Listin Diario that the government instead of thinking of new rulings and charges for banks should focus on developing the economy so that bank clients do not have …

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Jose Florentino, chief executive of Telecable, the largest local cable TV company, says they have provided the Police with information on suspects that could have caused the sabotage to three points of their optic fiber connections. Reportedly, the cut affected 90% of Telecable users in Santo Domingo, as well as communications of Orange and Centennial. …

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Representatives of free zone employees are back at the Ministry of Labor to discuss a larger wage increase. A 12% wage increase had been approved for these, but this was impugned by the labor unions after the workers of the tourism sector received a 15% minimum wage increase.

President Hipolito Mejia signed into law the Free Trade Agreement between the DR and Caricom. Trade between the DR and the English-speaking Caribbean is primarily between Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica. The DR imports natural gas, propane and metal products from Trinidad. It exports industrial inputs for the chemical and plastics industries. Overall trade is …

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