2005 – Page 192

Tales of how, when and where Shlomo Ben-Tov alias Sam Goodson, the Israeli-American businessman involved in the Plan Renove transportation scandal, have speculated on his leaving the country. Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito insists that Goodson departed on the 24th via Haiti, from where he took a flight to Miami. But Diario Libre says that …

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The Attorney General of the Dominican Republic defended the Police round up of suspected gang members last weekend that netted 300 people. He said that they were a warning that the authorities would do all that is possible to fight the gangs that are attacking people that are hard working. Dominguez Brito denied that the …

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Visiting IMF officials reviewing the performance of the stand by arrangement warn that the fiscal institutions of the DR are still weak, that there are persistent problems of tax evasion and the administration of tax revenues, the electric deficit is large, while the debt of the Central Bank might complicate monetary policy. According to El …

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The president of the Dominican Association of Free Zones (Adozona), Arturo Peguero disputed the reported 3.5% growth for the free zone sector posted by the Central Bank for the first quarter of the year. He said the bank has not revealed the details that support the growth. He says this is hard to believe when …

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The Dominican exporters are initiating a series of talks with the DGA (Customs Department) in order to establish a program of random checks for those exporters that are registered as low-risk exporters by the Customs Department. This will move merchandise and commodities through the docks much faster and reduce costs. The president of ADOEXPO, Jose …

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A new-old hurdle has cropped up in the process of getting the DR-CAFTA agreement approved in the US Congress. Senator Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota, www.senate.cov/~conrad) announced that he was going to introduce an amendment to the DR-CAFTA legislation that would remove sugar from the discussions. Yesterday, Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, and the Under-Secretary …

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The large trucks that haul propane gas around the country came to a halt yesterday as the SACTPA teamster’s union called a strike to try and get better working conditions. As a result the union organizers halted the trucks from Gas Caribe, Crediga, Rally Gas, Cocigas, Cinco Estrellas Gas, and Cocaleca Gas from entering the …

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Diario Libre reports today that a study carried out by the Coalition for the Defense of the Environment shows that more than 30 Dominican beaches have been irregularly privatized by hotel companies or individuals that have restrained the access to non-authorized persons. Dominican law establishes that all beaches are public. Development plans have established that …

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Architect Oscar Imbert called for a more tropical architecture, during the Primer Convite de Arquitectura Caribena Contemporaria held at the Fundacion Global, as reported in El Caribe. “We have forgotten about the breeze of the Caribbean,” he said. “We are erecting buildings in glass, typical of large cities like New York. I do not want …

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Howard Wiarda, a noted political scientist and writer, currently at the University of Georga, told his audience at the Funglode conference center that small countries like the Dominican Republic don’t have the capacity to bring a person like Hugo Chavez to the presidency and take on a foreign policy that is independent of the United …

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