2009 – Page 49

The National Drug Control Department (DNCD) seized a stash of 935 kilograms of cocaine at the Caucedo Multimodal Port in Boca Chica last night. This is the third seizure made by the drug agency at the container terminal in the last three years. The raid took place in coordination with the Venezuelan Anti-Narcotics Department. DNCD …

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Last night no games were played in the Dominican Winter League Championship, dedicated to the three Alou Brothers. Tonight there are games in Santo Domingo, San Pedro de Macoris and in San Francisco de Macoris. In the venerable old Estadio Quisqueya, the Aguilas’ Jose Lima will bring “mambo” to face the Tigres del Licey. The …

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Il Divo in Altos de Chavon (La Romana), Julio Iglesias in Santiago, DR Jazz Festival in Cabarete, Puerto Plata, Merengue vs. Bachata at the Moon Palace in Punta Cana, and much more are scheduled for this weekend. For details on ongoing and upcoming events, see http://www.dr1.com/calendar  

Speaking at the American Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday, Celso Marranzini, vice president of the State-run Electricity Companies (CDEEE), called for ridding the energy sector of politics, as reported in Listin Diario. In his talk on the “Present and Future of the Electricity Sector in the DR”, he mentioned the installation of new meters using …

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November 17 looks to be a day of reckoning for the DR’s energy sector. It will confirm whether Celso Marranzini can actually back up his big reform talk. On that day the 15-day period for consumers with illegal electricity connections to “standardize” their situations will come to an end and, according to Marranzini, who says …

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The DR’s non-financial public debt for the third trimester was registered at US$11.435 billion, an increase of US$117.4 million. This is a 1% increase from the levels registered on 30 June. In a report given to Congress by Hacienda Minister Vicente Bengoa, the DR has received US$505.9 million in foreign direct investment. From those funds …

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Business and civil society experts agree that the size of government is already at a fiscally unsustainable scale. But now proposed changes to Law 176-07 could make matters even worse, according to Central Electoral Board (JCE) president Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman. Castanos says that the modifications would mean an increase in the number of municipal …

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In today’s Diario Libre, editor Adriano Miguel Tejada writes that Dominican political parties have become estranged from democratic ways. “They are, in themselves, instruments of manipulation and political mobilization of the elite, feeding on the entities that control them, and for that reason and because they have no fundamental ideological reasons among them, they have …

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The DR’s doctors have left the picket line once again and are resuming talks with the government in a latest attempt to resolve their ongoing wage and benefits dispute. The doctors had been barricaded in a health center opposite the Presidential Palace. The doctors at the center had some minor confrontations with police, but after …

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Dengue has once again become a cause for concern, but Dr. Clemente Terrero Reyes of the Robert Reid Children’s hospital says the spike in dengue cases could have been prevented had there been better coordination between the Ministry of Public Health and the municipal authorities. Terrero says that had there been efforts to fumigate and …

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