2019 – Page 262

It took three days for the Puerto Plata firemen to put out the fire at the Sosua municipal garbage dump that sent dense smoke clouds affecting health, transport and educational activities. Two public schools had to be evacuated. Province governor Iván Rivera, in his condition as president of the Prevention, Mitigation and Response Committee of …

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The Dominican Electricity Industry Association (ADIE) has issued a call for improved management and distribution efficiency by the nation’s electricity distributors (the EDEs). The distributors are all state owned and operated. The association says that the major challenges facing the National Interconnected Electric System (ENDI) are in management and efficiency in the distribution of electricity. …

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First lieutenant Leidy Jhirianny Tapia Díaz, became the first Dominican woman to captain a helicopter in the Air Force. She soloed on 7 February 2019 piloting the OH-58A helicopter of the Rescue Squadron of the Air Force. Tapia was admitted to the airport 12 years ago. She dreamed of being a pilot and studied at …

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The headquarters of the Superintendency of Banks is flying Dominican flags of the wrong color blue. Astute photojournalists noted that the blue on the Dominican flags flying at the offices of this government agency looked faded, and they posted pictures on social media and in the El Nacional newspaper. The Dominican Constitution defines the national …

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PRSC sent acts of bailiff to order the Central Electoral Board (JCE) and the Ministry of Hacienda from allotting funds to political parties for their primaries to choose their political candidates for the 2020 general election. The president of the PRSC, Federico Antún Batlle said that the recent decision by the JCE to authorize that …

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The automated voting system that the Central Electoral Board (JCE) wants to implement in the primaries set for 6 October 2019 would cost around RD$711.2 million, or 49% of the budget planned for these elections (RD$1.449 billion). The money would be spent to purchase the equipment and on the educational campaign to inform the public …

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The bilateral legislative committee that is studying the Electoral Regime Bill announced agreements on five key points that have been under discussion for a very long time. In the presence of 21 legislators, the committee accepted the creation of a special prosecutor who would investigate electoral crimes and be responsible to the Justice Department. The …

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Observing there is negligence of the Ministry of Environment, Diario Libre carries a front page report on 11 February 2019 on the building of land at the north end of the Ozama River. The newspaper speculates that now that the Santo Domingo Skylift has made the area visible, landowners may be preparing the land for …

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The formal sector that imports cell phones into the Dominican Republic protests the announcement of an increase from 3% to 8% of the tariffs on these phones. The increase was announced last week by the Customs Agency (DGA). Representatives of the businesses says that this slams the formal sector and will take them out of …

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Diario Libre executive editor Adriano Miguel Tejada in the newspaper’s editorial on 11 February 2019 observes similarities between Stevenson’s Gothic novel’s two antagonistic characters (the good Dr. Jekyll and the evil Mr. Hyde) in the Medina cabinet. He writes: “Both terms could succinctly define the government of President Medina, who acts as a kind of …

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