Archive for August, 2018
On Monday, 20 August 2018, the former directors of the Municipal District Board of Cabarete, Puerto Plata province, Gabriel Antonio Mora Ramírez (Canoa) and Eddy Ramón Morfe, were arrested following the decision by the Supreme Court of Justice to confirm the two-year prison sentence following their conviction for embezzling RD$185 million while they were in charge of the district of Cabarete from 2004 and 2010.
The Specialized Prosecution Service for the Persecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca) said in a press release that the Supreme Court had rejected an appeal to annul the ruling.
The two were convicted last year by a Puerto Plata appeals court after a previous court had found them not guilty.
Source: DR1, Hoy
Aug 26, 2018
Three hundred Dominican police are participating in a 12-week long “Your Ideal Weight” program seeking to put their body, mind and emotions into better shape. The program includes sessions with experts on nutrition, body training, and mental conditioning. Colonel Licurgo Evangelista Yunes Perez, in charge of human development at the force, said the program was developed to teach the agents how to live a healthy life. Lab tests in support of the program will be carried out at the National Police General Hospital. There they will work with nutrition expert, Dr. Mery Ogando. The challenge is for the agents to lose at least 10% of their current weight. Studies show that 32% of the Dominican population is obese.
Source: DR1
Aug 26, 2018
American Theodore Symonds traveled frequently to the Dominican Republic to sexually abuse children, a United States attorney’s office said last week. There, his victims reportedly included a 13-year-old girl who had Symond’s name tattooed on her skin.
Symonds, 51, received a sentence to 17 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to traveling overseas to have sex with minors, the attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida announced.
He last traveled to the Caribbean nation on March 20, 2017, to the tourist hotspot of Puerto Plata, the office said. Authorities there arrested him three days later for crimes tied to child sexual abuse.
An investigation followed from federal agents that uncovered “proof of Symonds’ sexual abuse of children, both in person and using the internet,” the office said.
According to the Miami Herald, Symonds admitted to using Facebook to contact the girls in between trips to the Dominican Republic. He directly referenced the 13-year-old girl’s age in a message to her in February of last year, the newspaper reported, and he asked for nude photos of her a week later.
Similar messages to a 15-year-old girl began after they met earlier in January 2016, according to the Herald, which reported that Symonds admitted to having tattoos of both girls’ names on his skin, as did they of his.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not clarify Symonds’ place of residence, which remained unclear.
“This sentence should send a powerful message to child predators who believe that they can evade law enforcement by using international travel to engage in this type of reprehensible behavior,” said Mark Selby, a Miami special agent overseeing Homeland Security Investigations.
“Sexual exploitation of children is a despicable crime that will never be tolerated.”
While prostitution is illegal in the Dominican Republic, The New York Times reported, the age for consent is 18.
A report in 2003 from a United Nations agency estimated as many as 35,000 prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, the newspaper noted, about 60 percent of whom began prostituting as minors.
Source: wcnc.com
Aug 26, 2018
Puerto Plata mayor Walter Musa Meyreles has announced that the central government will buy the land necessary to build a waste landfill and recycling plant that will cost RD$550 million. He said that President Danilo Medina had told him and that the project would be carried out as part of an agreement between the Ministry of Tourism and Puerto Plata City Hall.
Musa Meyreles, said that Tourism Minister, Francisco Javier García, would be travelling to Puerto Plata this week to give all of the project details which would solve the problems at the current garbage dump.
He explained that President Medina had asked on several occasions about the purchase of the land where the dump operates but the option was rejected as the land owners are asking for RD$298 million, although at the last minute they had reduced it to RD$110 million.
Meyreles said that both prices were too high, as owners had originally offered the land to City Hall for RD$82 million. However, the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (Codia) valued the property at a mere RD$23 million.
Given that stalemate the authorities decided to look for another location near the current dump at a more sensible price that would at last provide a definitive solution to the garbage situation in Puerto Plata.
Paul Imbert Brugal, vice president of the Blue Jack Tar hotel said that the problem had to be solved as the garbage dump is on the way from Amber Cove cruise ship terminal into the city and the smoke caused by the burning of the garbage was affecting the population and the visitors. For decades, the business community in Puerto Plata has lobbied for a solution to the waste situation. The government had committed to resolve the situation prior to the start of operations of the Amber Cove terminal.
Source: DR1, Hoy
Aug 26, 2018
The Mark Penn poll for August 2018 showed President Danilo Medina with a 59% positive rating. 59% of those polled said they are satisfied with his government, 41% said they are unsatisfied and 1%. This is comparative to the 60% vote President Danilo Medina received in May 2016 to win the presidential election. The May 2016 Mark Penn Poll had revealed that President Medina would win the 16 May election with 62%. 63% had voted for Medina in 2012.
Despite the relative high popularity of Medina, the same Mark Penn poll revealed that 71% of those polled said the country is headed in the wrong direction. In 2016, 52% felt the country was headed in the wrong direction.
Likewise, the Mark Penn poll indicates that Medina’s favorability or approval rating has been sharply on decline. Mark Penn polls show sliding from 82, 69, to 51% at present.
Medina has a 43% disapproval rating. The politicians with the highest disapproval rating are Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas (PRD), former President Hipolito Mejia (PRM) and former President Leonel Fernandez (PLD), all with 60% disapproval ratings.
The best regarded politicians are Vice President Margarita Cedeño, President Danilo Medina, former PRM presidential candidate Luis Abinader, and National District Mayor David Collado.
The Mark Penn 2-8 August 2018 poll data was compared to the Mark Penn poll of 1,000 eligible voters in 30 September- 3 October 2017. Both polls showed a margin of error of ±3.1.
Source: DR1, Acento
Aug 26, 2018
In a televised interview with TV host Jatna Tavarez, President Danilo Medina said he would not say whether he would seek reelection until March 2019. The electoral calendar establishes that political parties need to select their candidates to the 2020 general elections by October 2019. To run for a second reelection, President Danilo Medina would need to promote an amendment of the Constitution. This would be a second time, because he already did so in 2016 in order to run for reelection in 2016. The 2015 Constitution impedes a President from office for more than two terms.
“The new Political Parties Law establishes deadlines for everything, including … a date on which the parties have to register the candidates and establishes a date for the primaries and that is in the second semester of next year. Now, we inside the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) have decided that we would talk about it in March of next year, and at that moment I will fix my position before the country; meanwhile I want to make a good government,” said the President speaking from the Presidential Palace. He expressed his opinion that once the PLD chooses its presidential candidate, all members of the party would rally in support.
He defended the checks and controls his government has instated to control corruption, and stressed the Judicial Branch operates with complete independence.
He defended his reticence to stand for questioning by journalists. He said these generate controversies and said that he prefers “to work.”
While President Medina is not available for interview by the working press, the administration is best known for its major spending in government propaganda to highlight the work of the President through multiple channels in all media. Just last Monday, 13 August 2018, the Presidency published four page spreads in the leading Dominican print media to highlight government achievements during the first two years of the 2016-2020 term. The publication coincided with the successful happening of the Green March on the previous Sunday that was the leading story of the Monday newspapers. The front pages highlighted the success of the protest were covered by the advertising feature paid for by the Presidency. Media analysts considered the promotion cost taxpayers upwards of RD$10 million.
Coinciding with the President’s conversation with TV host Tavarez, the leading opposition party, the PRM, published a report on the two first years of President Danilo Medina’s second term. The report mentions the Medina administration has managed US$78 billion in resources from 2012 to 2018, but criticized major deficiencies in security, combating corruption, jobs, child mortality, quality of education, access to eating, and public debt.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Aug 20, 2018
Official news coming from the Ministry of Public Health presents the sad figure of almost 2,000 infant deaths so far this year in the Dominican Republic. This is 431 more than during the same period last year, according to the most recent bulletin on epidemiology from the Ministry of Public Health.
The information that was published on the ministry’s website and revealed that during the most recent week some 49 newly born babies died versus 56 during the same period last year. Throughout the nation, 258 babies have died in the last four weeks. The highest percentage (73%) of the infants died within the first 27 days of life. In relation to maternity deaths, the Ministry reported that it has registered 110, just one less than last year. In a further note, the ministry says that some 32 persons have died this year from leptospirosis, eight from tetanus, three from whooping cough, two from meningitis, one from dengue and one from human rabies.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Aug 20, 2018
Reporters located in New York City have continued to gather more fallout after the inclusion of Haitians in the Dominican Day Parade last Sunday, 12 August 2018. One reporter said that the parade is part of all the conversations in Upper Manhattan where there is a huge concentration of Dominicans. The majority of the persons interviewed agreed and a general rejection of the Haitian participation in the parade. They demanded the resignation of Maria Khury as the president of the committee that holds the parade. Some 143 Dominicans were interviewed randomly and were asked the question: “What opinion do you have about the participation of Haitians during the Dominican Parade last Sunday, and why?” Some 67% of the responders agreed to reject the Haitian participation push for by Mayor DeBlasio. The persons polled noted that by accepting the participation of Haitians in the Dominican Parade, Khury showed an even greater lack of knowledge of what it is to be a Dominican. The observer says that Khury apparently ignores the fact that the parade isn’t an event for Dominicans to celebrate in order to show the world their music (merengue and bachata, not gaga), and their folklore (how they dance, not going into trances) and representing our beaches, not tigers, or lions or elephants. Likewise, the reporters compiled opinions that the Dominican Parade is about Dominican history (Duarte, Sanchez and Mella, and not Toussaint L’Ouverture), and traditions (that include going to churches,’s not practicing voodoo).
The people surveyed noted that the politicization of the event is due to the fact that the current leadership was not elected by the community nor does it represent the interests of the community because it was imposed by local politicians and the groups that participate have to respond to their interests. 20% of those interviewed were in favor of the Haitian participation saying “we are all Dominicans.” A small percentage (12.6%) did not wish to give an opinion.
Source: DR1, Elnacional
Aug 20, 2018
The Mayor of Puerto Plata Walter Musa announced that the central government has committed to provide RD$550 million for the purchase of land beside the Puerto Plata waste dump for the construction of a garbage recycling plant. He said President Danilo Medina authorized him to make the announcement. He said the project will be executed as part of an agreement between the Ministry of Tourism and the city government. He said the property had not been purchased previously because they had not reached an agreement with the owners.
Recently, Puerto Plata senator Jose Ignacio Paliza had urged a solution to the waste dump saying that it was endangering the advances made in tourism development in the area. Recently, a Carnival Cruise ship with more than 5,000 tourists aboard did not dock at the port. The reason given was technical reasons.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Aug 20, 2018
The Ministry of Sports says it has paid out more than RD$10 million in incentives for Dominican athletes who brought back 107 medals from the Central American and Caribbean Games that ended this August 2018 in Barranquilla, Colombia. The incentives include RD$125,000 in cash for each the 25 gold medal winners, RD$80,000 each for the 29 who won silver and RD$40,000 each for the 53 who won bronze. Victor Estrella, who won three gold medals, would receive a single bonus of RD$250,000. Gold Medal-winning volleyball and handball teams will receive RD$1 million each.
INVI director announced the government agency would be in contact to supervise the dwellings of the athletes. The media focused on the precarious housing situation in which gold medalist weight lifter Estefania Soriano was living. After the win, TV journalist Nuria Piera had reported on how Dominican top athletes live.
As part of the good news for the athletes, Sports Minister Danilo Diaz also announced that gold medalists will now make RD$20,000 a month as part of the PARNI program, silver medalists will receive RD$15,000 a month and bronze medalists RD$10,000. He said this increases the allotment to athletes from RD$1.8 million to RD$3 million a month. He also announced an increase from RD$4,000 to RD$5,000 for athletes already participating in the program and that did not win medals in the Barranquilla games. He announced increases would be forthcoming for the coaches.
Earlier, the Presidency had announced that all medal winners would be affiliated to the sports programs under the Ministry of Armed Forces, if they were not already. As part of this support, the recruits are on the military payroll without having to do active duty.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Aug 20, 2018
