2003 – Page 246

Diario Libre mentions that the construction of the palace to house the Supreme Court as well as other courtrooms in the Centro de los Heroes is rapidly deteriorating due to neglect and abandonment by the present government. The newspaper says the building, begun in 1999 with an investment of RD$200 million, was received by the …

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On the campaign trail over the weekend, former President Leonel Fern?ndez and former Vice President Jaime David Fern?ndez Mirabal attacked the administration of President Hip?lito Mej?a for reasons of incompetence and mismanagement.  ?The mismanagement of the government regarding fiscal and monetary policy has led to the devaluation of the peso,? said former President Fern?ndez, on …

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The director general of Customs, Vicente S?nchez Baret, highlighted that in two years and nine months in government, President Hipolito Mejia has collected revenues of RD$57 billion, an amount that he says was similar to the total collected by the government of his predecessor, former President Leonel Fernandez, during his entire term of office. S?nchez …

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El Caribe newspaper?s editorial focuses today on the increasing political activism on occasion of the approaching May 2004 presidential elections, and on the impoverishment of Dominicans with the marked loss in the peso?s value against the US dollar and Euro. The editorial writer urges the government to fulfill its commitment to the private business sector …

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Diario Libre reports that the government has had to pay RD$513.8 million in interest fees and capital payments on loans with the local banking institutions. The amount is 48% more than the amount paid by the government in the first quarter of 2002, when it remitted RD$167 million. The debt of the government with local …

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El Caribe points out that in just one week, construction materials have increased in price by 16.35%. Hardware store representatives say that these increases are due to the very high banking interest rates, the depreciation of the peso, and increases in fuel prices.

Former Dominican ambassador in Washington, D.C., Bernardo Vega, writes in El Caribe that while trade negotiations in Central America have been transparent, in the case of the Dominican Republic one must access documents and statements from the US negotiators to find out what is happening. He says that the local press has not reported on …

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Deputy Pelegr?n Castillo urges the government to put the interests of the Dominican Republic first and not give in to international pressures in regards to Haiti. Speaking on TV last night with Frederico Henriquez Gratereaux, he questioned how former Haitian police chief Guy Phillipe entered the Dominican Republic from Ecuador when there is a prohibition …

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Baroness Amos, who recently visited the Dominican Republic, has just been appointed to International Development Secretary in Tony Blair?s cabinet. BBC news reports that she landed the job following the resignation of Clare Short, and that the reconstruction of Iraq will be at on the top of her in-tray. In the Dominican Republic, the Baroness …

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Diario Libre reports on the nudists that paraded along Abraham Lincoln Avenue on Sunday afternoon and early evening. Five smiling youths aboard a SUV Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, with license plate GR 6302 toured that area of the city, stopping in front of the Haagen Dasz ice-cream store on Rafael Augusto S?nchez and Restaurant Lincoln …

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