News – Page 7344

The assistant director of the cultural center Museo de las Casas Reales, 47-year old artist Maria Nieves Sicart was found dead at her home in the El Cacique neighborhood on Saturday afternoon. She had been brutally beat to death with a bat. The police arrested her former 17-year old maid and 15-year old boyfriend who …

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The ruling Partido de la Liberaci?n Dominicana announced it will chose on 11 April the party’s official pre-candidates for the presidential election of year 2000. The announcement was made when Jos? Tom?s P?rez was sworn in as new secretary general of the party. He replaces Lidio Cadet, who had been secretary general for 15 years. …

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The former president of the Junta Central Electoral, Cesar Estrella Sadhal? was chosen presidential candidate for the Partido Revolucionario Independiente (PRI) during an assembly of the central committee of that minority political organization. Estrella Sadhal? apparently seeks to attract the vote of those that reject the traditional political parties, presenting himself as an alternative. Political …

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Yesterday’s session of the political dialogue between the three major political parties – the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD, which currently controls Congress) and the Reformist-Social Christian Party (PRSC) – produced no breakthrough on the two thorniest agenda items, the composition of the Central Election Board (JCE) and who should …

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The President of the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP), Celso Marranzini, publicly advised the Dominican government to refuse to sign any market access protocol with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) if the latter continues to insist on a long list ("negative list") of products exempt from the August 1998 Treaty’s trade liberalization measures. He said …

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In interviews published in the news daily El Siglo, managers of the Dominican subsidiaries of Texaco and Exxon called on the government and the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (REFIDOMSA) to establish true transparency in the prices they pay for imported petroleum and petroleum derivatives. Texaco Caribbean General Manager Angel Rivera and Esso Sales Manager Jaime Mart? …

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Yesterday Central Elections Board (JCE) President Morel Cerda accused Migration Director-General Danilo D?az of fabricating false voter identity cards ("cedulas") in order to discredit the JCE. He accused Migration of secretly using JCE’s own equipment to fabricate the cards. Counterfeiting cedulas is a "grave" criminal offense, he warned, and if the JCE had to take …

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The Senate yesterday approved in first reading the bill which would authorize the Government to issue bonds to pay off RD$500 million in its debt to suppliers and contractors of public works. Passage had been delayed because of complete opposition to the measure by two Democratic Union (UD) Senators, members of the Santo Domingo Agreement …

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The administrator of the state-owned Dominican Electricity Corporation (CDE) announced this week that the process of "capitalization" (Dominican officials insist that the term "privatization" is inappropriate) of CDE will restart in April. Radham?s Segura said that the bidding for the distribution units of CDE will commence on April 15th, while that for generation units of …

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The President of the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (ASONAHORES), Rafael Blanco Canto, yesterday released the final statistics of his organization on tourism in the DR during 1998. He cited the statistics during a presentation to the Caribbean-U.S. Forum on Investment and Trade. According to ASONAHORES: (a) 2.3 million tourists came to the DR …

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