2014 – Page 4

In Diario Libre today, Monday 22 December 2014, Tourism analyst Juan Llado writes about the challenges and the opportunities that Cuba represents for the Dominican tourism industry. Cuba received 2.8 million tourists in 2013 compared to the DR’s 4.7 million. Due to the restrictions on US citizen travel, an estimated 170,000 US citizens visited Cuba, …

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Local demand for orchids is around 45,000 plants a month, or around 540,000 units a year, with peak sales for Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Orchids Dominicana president Roger Espaillat told Acento that the company supplies 40% of the demand. He said it places 85% of its production on the local market, and …

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Haiti has appointed Public Health Minister Florence Duperval Guillaume to the post of interim prime minister. She replaces Laurent Lamothe who resigned on 14 December after several weeks of popular protests. The Haitian Constitution allows 30 days for the interim appointment. During that time, President Michel Martelly needs to present the nominations for selecting a …

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The husband and daughter of Bernarda Castillo, who is the director of the Institute of Innovation in Biotechnology and Industry (IIBI), were killed yesterday when their vehicle slid off a cliff on the Barahona highway and was totaled. Castillo herself and the boyfriend of her daughter, Rafael Eduardo Leadanet, who was also traveling with them, …

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Preliminary reports from AMET say that a group of friends died of severe burns when their vehicle crashed into a coconut palm at Km. 17 Las Americas Highway and caught fire in the early hours of Sunday, 21 December 2014. The driver was identified as Victor Manuel Mercedes who was among the dead. The vehicle …

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The National Drug Control Department has reported the confiscation of 499 packages of cocaine or heroin, an AK-47 rifle, and ammunition at sea. They were being transported by a Colombian and Dominican ring that allegedly imported the drugs to the coasts of Cumayasa, in La Romana. In the operation on Saturday, 20 December 2014, 11 …

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Poland’s public prosecutor announced on Friday, 19 December 2014 that it has suspended the pedophilia investigation against former papal nuncio in the Dominican Republic Josef Wesolowski due to lack of cooperation from law enforcement authorities in the Dominican Republic, where the alleged incidents of sexual abuse of minors took place. “The Dominican side has failed …

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Neither of the two capital city professional baseball teams, the Leones del Escogido and the Tigres del Licey, have made it to the next baseball round robin that will decide the two teams to play in the playoffs in mid-January. There is speculation this could be a Macoris round robin between the cities of San …

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