|
|
| Error. No record found with that identifier |
|
|
|
|
|
National Dialogue reopens After a hiatus of over a month, the National Dialogue has been reconvened by Monseignor Agripino Nuñez Collado. The opening session, slated for today at the Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra, will be attended by President Hipolito Mejia and will feature the input of two international speakers. The Center for the Study, Prevention and Solution of Conflicts, headed by Flavio Dario Espinal, is the sponsor of today’s session and the Inter American Development Bank is acting as co-host. Monseignor Nuñez called the opening session a preamble to the renewal of the work sessions within the National Dialogue and an opportunity to study one of its main themes: medium- and long-term national development. Nuñez Collado said that once the electoral issues have been settled, the National Dialogue must revert to the remaining issues on its agenda. Professor Espinal, who also heads the Legal Sciences Department at the PUCMM, told Listin Diario reporters that today’s session will help focus on ways to avoid the institutional conflicts that are affecting other countries in Latin America. |
|
President Mejia praises communications high tech Hipolito Mejia gave the opening speech at the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Ministers Conference on the Information Society. The world conference is scheduled to take place in Geneva, Switzerland at the end of 2003. According to the Diario Libre, Mejia emphasized the need to provide telecommunication access for as many people as possible, in order to achieve sustained development and democracy. He pointed out that his government had already created the broad-based National Committee on Information. |
|
The “new” CDEEE That is not a misprint. Yesterday, Minister for the Presidency Sergio Grullon swore in the members of the Dominican Corporation for State Electrical Enterprises, which is to replace the old Dominican Electric Corporation (CDE). The new entity will be authorized to produce, distribute and sell electricity, but it will not have the power to establish the electricity rates. The rate making will remain a function of the Superintendence of Electricity. The CDEEE was spawned by Law 125-01, which was approved just last December. |
|
New GM? The government has approved the creation of the new industrial free zone in La Canela, Santiago. The new industrial area will assemble cars, motorcycles and electrical appliances, all destined for the export market. The report on the new free zone in the Listin Diario, however, does not detail the brands of vehicles that could be manufactured there. The investment to the infrastructure of the industrial park is calculated to be RD$42 million, with yearly rental values estimated at US$4.2 million. The businesses within the new free zone, once fully operational, could provide employment to 1,490 people. Industry & Commerce Minister Sonia Guzman de Hernandez, and the head of the National Council of Free Zones, Jeanette Dominguez, were present at the endorsement ceremony, for which Jose Octavio Perez Zapata signed for the new free zone company. |
|
The cost of money The Central Bank announced yesterday that it will cost US$60 million to replace all defaced currency in the Dominican Republic, once the final deadline has passed. According to an article in the Listin Diario, it costs the Central Bank US$0.20 for each bill of paper money in the RD$10, RD$20, and RD$50 denominations. The press release also said that as much as 40 percent of paper currency still in circulation is damaged or altered. In the past, the Central Bank had not prohibited this money, preferring to instead remove it gradually from circulation. The rationale behind the new procedures is unknown. |
|
Two major pension plans open their new offices The PopularGroup and the Banco Progreso/BBVA Group opened their offices for the new pension fund management services that go into effect on 1 February, with President Mejia on hand for the inaugural ceremony of the Popular Group AFP. According to the AFP Popular’s administrator, Eduardo Grullon, the savings plan will handle a portfolio of about RD$8 billion. President Mejia praised the internal savings that the new system will uphold. At the ceremony for Banco Progreso/BBVA, which will administer the AFP Crecer, it was announced that there are 15 offices and 1,000 employees at work in the pension fund system of BBVA and the Banco Progreso. |
|
Orphanages to be closed Today’s Hoy newspaper carries the story of the closure of two orphanages in the San Cristobal province. Dr. Luis Veras Jimenez, the head of the Office of Boys, Girls and Adolescents, told reporters that centers in Madre Vieja Norte and La Suiza were to be closed because they did not meet security standards. Several children, accused of abusing other children at the orphanages, have been ordered to appear before the Children’s Court. The adult supervisors will be sent to the prosecutor’s office in San Cristobal. |
|
Dominican-Canadian trade workshop Fernando Rainieri, president of the Dominican-American Chamber of Commerce, said that nearly 100 people have registered for the First Canada-Dominican Republic Workshop set to open on the morning of Tuesday, 4 February in Santo Domingo at the Hotel Melia on the Malecon. The event is being organized by the Dominican-Canadian Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada to prepare Dominican businesses for the new opportunities and challenges expected to be brought about by the signing of a free trade agreement with Canada later this year. Participants may register at the door until 8am on Tuesday, where President Hipolito Mejia has been invited to join the opening session that morning. Speakers will focus primarily on the tools and mechanisms available in Canada and the Dominican Republic to promote trade. The Canadian Embassy in the Dominican Republic estimates trade between both countries at US$500 million a year, and Canadian investment in the DR is said to be close to US$1.4 billion.
The four leading Canadian agencies to be introduced to Dominicans at the seminar are:
The Canadian Agency for International Development, which supports foreign-aid projects.
Export Development Canada (EDC), which provides Canadian exporters with financing, insurance and bonding services as well as foreign market expertise. The Trade Facilitation Office (TFOC), established to assist Canadian importers and foreign exporters trading on the Canadian market. See http://www.tfoc.ca/tfoc/about_us.htm For more information, contact the Dominican-Canadian Chamber of Commerce by phone at (809) 685-1136 ext. 3351 or (809) 383-2763, or by email at ccdc@codetel.net.do. |
|
Widespread worry about violence Headlines in today’s El Caribe newspaper feature the report that people are increasingly worried for their safety. The recent deaths of two women in their own homes have shaken the residents of the quieter neighborhoods of Santo Domingo. Gladys Tavares de Macarrulla, the mother of a prominent businessman, was killed in her residence the day before yesterday. Earlier in the week, Lizabetta Santana Pimentel, a graphic designer for the Listin Diario papers, was found strangled in her apartment. The police announced that the killer of Santana Pimentel has been arrested and has admitted his guilt. Cristian Romualdo Sierra, presented to reporters as the killer of Santana Pimentel, was arrested after he tried to cash a RD$4,000 check that he had forced the six-week pregnant woman to write. He told police that he did not intend to kill her but became nervous when she received a phone call, as reported in the Listin Diario. A later search of his residence turned up bloody clothing and other items belonging to the victim. In the case of Tavares de Macarrulla, the police found her car along the Duarte Highway near Santiago. Law officers say that they have several leads that are being investigated. |
|
Largest drug bust in NYC history According to front-page news in El Caribe newspaper, a group of four drug traffickers, including Mexicans and Dominicans, were arrested in New York City in what police are calling the largest drug bust in New York history. 1,800 kilos of pure cocaine were seized in a bodega in Queens, N.Y. The street value of the contraband is estimated to be US$120 million. |
|
Officer sent to court The police officer who publicly beat an accused man in his custody has been sent to the Police Tribunal of the First Instance in the office of the National Police in Santo Domingo. A commission of high-ranking officers recommended this action against Second Lieutenant Arias Arias for his mistreatment of Kelvin Amadís Soto in a police station in Baní. The police report says that Lt. Arias Arias was summoned by civilians, who had pursued Amadis Soto after his attempt to commit armed robbery. Amadis injured himself while scaling a wall to escape the furious crowd that sought to “lynch” him, details the report. Amadis Soto escaped the wrath of his pursuers due to the intervention of the police officer, according to the commission’s report. The incident obtained the attention of the public after his subsequent beating by the police officer was captured on videotape, sent to various TV stations and televised nationally. |
|
|
|
Doctor, I have this pain… A man who had been wounded in a shootout six years ago received medical attention yesterday for the stomach pains that had kept him from working for the past two years. Upon opening the man’s stomach, doctors discovered a set of eight-inch forceps that had been there since doctors removed the bullet from his stomach six years ago. The original surgical procedure was performed at the Dario Contreras trauma public hospital in 1996, following the shooting incident at a gas station. The Listin Diario says that 20 stitches were needed to close the incision yesterday. |
|
Time served A 79-year-old man accused of a 16-year-old crime has been found languishing in the Dajabon jail. According to the Dominican Committee for Human Rights, he was arrested and accused of murder two decades ago but has never been tried. The man is being held in Dajabon as a “preventive” measure to await his court date. In a separate case, the human rights group located another man who has spent 12 years awaiting his due process in the Montecristi jail. Neither of these cases is eligible for pardon because there have been no convictions, says Virgilio Almanzar, a member of the Pardons Board. “Cosas veredes, Sancho” (True enough, Sancho.) From Don Quixote. |
|
Is this Bush senior’s third visit? DR1 correctly reported yesterday that former US President George Bush would be visiting La Romana next 4 February to play golf at Casa de Campo. Also included in the brief was the statement that it would be Bush’s first visit to the Dominican Republic, which was in error. Former Technical Secretary of the Presidency, Ramon Martinez Aponte, wrote to remind the service that Bush had visited the DR previously as Vice President during the Ronald Reagan administration. Vice President George Bush was in Santo Domingo on 11 and 12 October 1981, as part of an official visit to Brazil, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. The purpose of the trip was to demonstrate the commitment of the Reagan administration to its relations with Latin America. Correspondingly, another reader wrote to say that George H. Bush had visited the Dominican Republic prior to that, when he was head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the 1970s. This information could not be corroborated, but it lends credence to the fact that the upcoming February visit may be Bush’s third time in the country, albeit his first pleasure trip. |
|
The Caribbean Baseball Championship Aguilas and friends will send a powerful lineup to Carolina, Puerto Rico to compete for the 2003 Caribbean World Series which kicks off this Sunday. In addition to the already powerful lineup that swept Escogido in 4 games to win the Dominican Championship on Monday (featuring the reigning American League MVP Miguel Tejada and everyday Major League players Tony Batista and Raul Mondesi are Rafael Furcal (Atlanta Braves) Abraham Nuñez (Florida Marlins) Félix José, (Arizona Diamondbacks) Odalis Peréz (Los Angeles Dodgers), Dámaso Marte (Chicago White Sox) and possibly Octavio Dotel (Houston Astros). The Aguilas will be seeking their 4th Caribbean World Series championship. Their last title came in 2001 in Mexico. The Dominican Republic is one behind Puerto Rico in championship titles with 13. The Águilas have won 3 of the last six series dating back to their first title in 1997. The tournament runs until the 7th of February. |
| Error. No record found with that identifier |
|
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2009. DR1. All Rights Reserved. |
