2009 – Page 105

PLD vice secretary general and Central Committee member Rafael Antonio “Cheche” Luna has been shot in the chest and is in intensive care after emergency surgery. Hoy reports that Luna was shot by a man named as Leocadio Mejia Puello following a heated argument. Details of the shooting are still coming to light, but Hoy …

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Columnist Leo Hernandez, writing in El Caribe, says that the recent confiscation of US$4.6 million, 4 SUVs, including one armor-plated SUV, weapons, cell phones and several confidential documents expected to lead to drug dealers, is being regarded as the biggest blow to narco-trafficking in the DR since Captain Quirino Paulino Castillo was arrested in 2004, …

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The increase in drug trafficking and the growing links between the Colombian drug cartels and the DR has led Marino Vincho Castillo, the presidential advisor on drug issues, to call for a census of Colombians resident in the DR, estimated at close to 4,000. Castillo estimates there are 25,000 Colombians living in Haiti. Lawyer Castillo …

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Sobeida Feliz Morel is denying ownership of the SUVs in the parking lot of the Esperilla apartment building. She said that only the Rover is hers. The judiciary ordered her temporary arrest for a year, as the case is heard in court. She says that she lives in Apartment 14B with her children, and not …

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Former director of the National Symphony Orchestra Carlos Piantini will have the main hall at the National Theater named in his honor by presidential decree. Piantini, who was the Theater’s first director, is currently in the US undergoing medical treatment and says he is happy at the recognition. He has thanked President Leonel Fernandez and …

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An earthquake registering 4.1 on the Richter scale was felt in the eastern province of Higuey yesterday, according to the director of the Seismology Department at the UASD University, Eugenio Polanco. Polanco said that there is constant seismic activity in the DR due to the country’s geographical location, but that often people don’t even feel …

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In Decree number 659-09, the Executive Branch appointed Ruben Bichara as head of the Electricity Distributor of the East (EdeEste). Bichara formerly served as the head of the Center for Industrial Development and Competitiveness (Proindustria). In the same decree, the President sent former Santiago province governor Jose Izquierdo to head Proindustria. Meanwhile, in Decree 688, …

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The government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team want to conclude a new Stand-by arrangement by the end of this week. The ongoing talks center round how to improve tax collections, given that the government feels it would be politically unacceptable to raise taxes. The IMF mission that arrived last week is made up …

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Today’s Hoy editorial comments that IMF representatives are saying that the Dominican economic situation is complicated. “For over a year the Dominican authorities have begun to lift the subsidies on industry, electricity, farming and the impoverished population that was draining the government resources. Meanwhile, infrastructure is being built with foreign borrowing, almost always contracted on …

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The Fernandez administration is facing a major budgetary deficit, but there have been no announcements that the government is considering any reductions in its current spending. Opposition party PRD vice president Luis Abinader expressed concern that the government is seeking new borrowing to reduce the fiscal deficit that the Ministry of Hacienda says is at …

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