Archive for May, 2018
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana has booked Shakira’s “El Dorado” world tour for Thursday, 18 October 2018. She will be performing several of the great hits of her most recent album “El Dorado.” The tour begins on 11 October in Mexico City and ends on 3 November in Bogotá. She will be also performing in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Las Vegas. Locally, her show is a production by Producciones George Nader and Conciertos Saymon Díaz.
Listen to her music.
https://desktop.shakiraeldorado.com/
http://www.shakira.com/tour
May 15, 2018
This morning (May 30, 2018) a tragic traffic accident left 24 injured and 2 people killed on the road Sosúa – Cabarete, Costa Azul road section.
The victims were identified as Buenaventura Arias (Nino Arias), resident of the city Gaspar Hernández, renowned journalist and owner of the Sonido Alegre radio station and the cable channel, broadcast on channel 20 Tele Cable Atlántico, and Jazmín Rodriguez, 18 years old, who was the daughter of Arias’ wife, Dalkiris Mejía.
The accident occurred at 8:00 a.m., when there was a head-on collision between the Jeepeta Honda CRV, owned by the deceased journalist and the bus transporting employees of Lifestyle holidays hotel located in Cabarete.
According to the Public Ministry, in the accident there were 24 out of 40 people injured who traveled on the bus, 8 of them with blows and serious injuries.
Several citizens who witnessed the tragic accident, said that the Government should urgently have the total reconstruction of the road that connects Sosúa, Cabarete, Sabaneta de Yásica, Gaspar Hernández and Río San Juan, otherwise due to the deplorable conditions similar events will continue to be recorded.
Source: Detras del Rumor, Puerto Plata Digital
May 30, 2018
The Dominican Republic is nowhere near the path the first named storm of the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season has kept. Alberto is headed towards the Gulf Coast of the United States, carrying maximum sustained winds of 100 km/h.
The National Meteorological Office (Onamet), nevertheless, warns that thunderstorms are on the way and will be intense in the Los Haitises National Park in the northeast, the central mountain area and the northeastern Septentrional Mountain Range.
Temperatures will continue to be high during the day due to the hot breezes blowing in from the east southeast.
Source: DR1, Eldia
May 29, 2018
The Chamber of Deputies is studying a proposed bill that calls for sanctions up to one year in prison for those children who do not look after their elderly parents. The new bill has as one of its objectives a legal mechanism to mitigate the injustices committed against parents who have given birth to, fed, educated and raised their children and when they, the parents, are the ones who need help and care, it is discovered that the children have abandoned them.
On the commission reviewing the bill are deputies Luis Sánchez and also comprises the deputies Leivin Suriel, Adalgisa Pujols, Gloria Reyes, Sandra Abinader, Isabel De La Cruz, Lya Díaz de Díaz, among others.
Currently, according to article 205 of the Dominican Civil Code, the children are obliged to attend to the needs of their parents. Law 352-98 on the Protection of Elderly People says that family members are obliged to provide for the nutritional needs of the aging.
Source: DR1, Lisitndiario
May 29, 2018
The Attorney General Office (PGR) announced that it is making available RD$388 million that had been seized in asset laundering cases. Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez said this is the largest single distribution of resources recovered by actions against money laundering in the history of Dominican Republic. He attributed the rapid processing of the cases and the release of the seized funds to the modernization plan underway by the Public Ministry.
Rodríguez explained that as part of this plan for a new structure to fight crime, new agencies have been created, more specialized personnel has been hired and more resources are available for training, as well as more logistical support, a new technological platform, equipment and vehicles.
Through a press release, it was reported that both the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) and the National Drug Council (CND), to which 25% corresponds by law, each received an amount of RD$97,156,036.60 million, while the National Police was given RD$38,862,414.60 million, equivalent to 10%, and the other 15% was distributed among 25 NGOs, to which RD$58,293,621.95 million were delivered.
Source: DR1, pgr.gob
May 29, 2018
A report circulating on the Internet focuses on how the Dominican Republic is the victim of the huge demand for cocaine in the United States and Europe. The strategic geographical position of the country has made the Dominican Republic a connecting point between South American drug producing sources and the big markets abroad. Moreover, the dynamics of the economy make it an attractive site for drug money laundering, now in check with the recently passed Anti-Money Laundering Law.
The report especially focuses on the transit of drugs from Venezuela to Haiti to the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico or the United States and Europe. In the chapter on “The Dominican Republic and Venezuela: Cocaine Across the Caribbean”, the report states:
“For departing cocaine shipments, the Dominican Republic has a plethora of different routes to offer. For the US market, there is Puerto Rico, just 381 kilometers away. As a US territory, if smugglers can get cocaine onto this island, it makes for an easier ride to the mainland, being inside the US customs barriers. Similar dynamics apply with the French territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe for shipments into mainland Europe.158 British overseas territories like Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, as well as former colonies like Jamaica, are springboards into the United Kingdom. Yet thanks to linguistic advantages and a significant Dominican diaspora, Spain is still the principal entry point into Europe for drugs leaving the Dominican Republic. Spain has traditionally been the European nation with the highest cocaine seizures.”
The report plays on the country’s tourism slogan when it states:
“Drug traffickers have a problem exporting drugs from Venezuela. There are few commercial flights, little container shipping, no tourists and a collapsed fishing sector. But the Dominican Republic, 1,400 kilometers away, has it all. As cocaine pours largely unopposed across the border from Colombia, with production in the Andean nation at a record high, so organized crime has developed one of the region’s most prolific drug pipelines into the Dominican Republic. While there are some illegal flights that swing past, the lion’s share of the drug streaks across the Caribbean in go-fast boats. The Dominican Republic offers the drug trade some of the Caribbean’s biggest container ports, a lively tourist sector with commercial flights across the globe, and a booming property and banking sector, ready to wash narco-dollars.”
Read a summary and the full report at:
https://es.insightcrime.org/wp-conte…Crime-2018.pdf
Source: DR1
Coinciding with repeated visits by President Danilo Medina to the border area to make announcements of support for community groups, the Ministry of Energy and Mines announces it has approved a new exploration concession for Unigold. The company has been exploring the region since it was first authorized in 2012.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines has issued authorization to Unigold Inc. for the Neita Fase II Exploration Concession in Restauración, Dajabón province. The Concession is valid for a three-year period after which there is a possibility to two additional one-year extensions. The approved concession has a 21,031 hectare footprint and hosts several gold and copper surface geochemical anomalies, most of which have not been extensively explored.
Joseph Del Campo, interim president and CEO of Unigold commented in a recent press release: “We are very pleased the Dominican Government has approved our exploration concession and we are anxious to resume exploration of the Neita Concession to follow up on the promising results at the Candelones Extension returned from our 2016 exploration drilling program. That drilling, targeting higher grade areas of the inferred mineral resource, was undertaken to evaluate the potential to delimit a higher grade resource amenable to underground mining. The results included some of the highest grades intervals to date at the Candelones Extension deposit. It also intersected, high grade, massive sulphide mineralization within the mineral resource footprint. This copper-gold rich massive sulphide zone remains open at depth and offers an opportunity to increase both the quantity and quality of the mineral resource at Candelones.”
Source: DR1, DiairoLibre
May 29, 2018
Diario Libre publishes today the annual top 20 bank ranking, an analysis carried out by Alejandro Fernández of Argentarium. In its 10th year, the ranking covers 97% of the bank assets in the Dominican Republic measured by 24 variables.
According to the report, the top three banks are the Reservas, Popular and BHD that together have 67.7% of all the bank assets.
The Superintendence of Banks says the solvency index of the banking sector is 18.3%, much higher than the minimal 10% required by the Monetary Law.
The top most efficient banks, those that spent less compared to their income, were Citi, BHD Leon and APAP.
The most profitable banks (for their shareholders) in 2017 were the Citi, Adopem, Banreservas, BHD Leon and Santana Cruz, with yields above 19%.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
May 25, 2018
Three Venezuelans were remanded to three months pre-trial custody on 23 May 2018, by a Santiago city judge. The trio is charged with taking RD$3.2 million pesos in just three days from ATMs throughout the country.
Venezuelans Daniel Alexander Gonzalez, Carlos Eduardo Moronta and Jesus Enrique Formayor are being held in the Rafey Correctional And Rehabilitation Center in Santiago. The three men were arrested in Matanza, in the south part of the city.
According to details offered by the lawyer from the affected Banco Caribe, Luis Leo Nardo Felix Ramos, the three foreigners apparently were part of a gang that preyed on financial and savings-and-loan system In the Dominican Republic.
Banco Caribe lawyer Felix Ramos said that between the 15th and 18th of May these individuals withdrew the amount of RD$3,290,000 pesos using an advanced technology that tricks the ATMs into thinking that the withdrawal is for RD$100 when in reality the sum withdrawn is RD$40,000.
The lawyer for the Banco Caribe told reporters that in Santiago when they were arrested they had carried out six withdrawals of RD$40,000 each and this same operation had been carried out in other parts of the country such as San Francisco do Macoris and Santo Domingo.
He said that the RD$240,000 that had been withdrawn in Santiago had been recovered and will be used as evidence in the case.
Source: DR1, Elnacional
May 25, 2018
The Santo Domingo Teleferico was inaugurated on Tuesday, 22 May 2018 at 4 pm by President Danilo Medina who rode to the Gualey station for the ceremony.
The Teleferico stations are Gualey, Los Tres Brazos, Sabana Perdida and Charles de Gaulle. Over a path of five kilometers, the skylift connects the municipalities of Santo Domingo north and Santo Domingo East with the National District. The stations are located from the “Puente de la 17” in western Santo Domingo to Av. Charles de Gaule in eastern Santo Domingo.
The skylift will serve a population of 287,000 people when facilitating their commute from east to west Santo Domingo.
Speaking at the inaugural, the director of the project, Jose Miguel Gonzalez Cuadra said that it is one of the most modern systems in Latin America and will benefit a population of 287,000 persons that will see considerable reductions in cost and time of their commutes. Estimates are that the service will benefit 132,773 people that live in Gualey, 57,510 in Los Tres Brazos, and 97,149 in Sabana Perdida. 80% of the population in these communities rely on public transport to get around.
Barrios that are benefiting from the collective transport system are Villa Blanca, Salomé Ureña, La Nueva Barquita, Los Guandules, Espaillat, María Auxiliadora, Urbanización Moisés, Los Mina Norte, Brisa de los Palmares and La Victoria.
The system cost US$8.4 million per kilometer and each cabin has capacity for 10 persons. There is free wifi service in the four stations. The skylift is estimated to transport 16,553 persons per day in its first year.
A first month of free service at peak hours has been announced. The peak hours are 6-9am and 5 to 8pm. Afterward the month, the cable car will cost RD$20 per journey and will connect with the Santo Domingo metro for no additional charge.
The skylift was built by the Urbe office, but now will be operated by Opret, the Santo Domingo Metro office. The sky lift has connections to four stations located on Charles de Gaulle Avenue. It allows for connecting to Line 2A and 2B of the Santo Domingo Metro. From there, commuters can connect to Line 1.
Many Santo Domingo residents affected by the construction complained the builders have not met their promises.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
May 25, 2018
