Archive for September, 2018
To honor the passion and contribution of Dominican Republic to the sport of baseball, ballparks across the United States are hosting a Dominican Republic Day at the Park. The series of events began on Wednesday, 29 August 2018 at Yankee Stadium in New York. In a press release, the organizers explained that the series salutes past and current Dominican players who have given so much to the game and helped make the sport what it is today.
As part of the event, videos honoring iconic players will be shown and there will be on-field presentations. Leading up to the game, attendees will have the chance to enjoy authentic Dominican music, with live bands performing before the game and also at select games. There also will be a raffle of a trip for two to the Dominican Republic.
Specific dates and locations still to come are the Houston Astros on 15 September 2018, the Philadelphia Phillies on 19 September and the Boston Red Sox on 26 September.
As of opening day for the 2018 MLB season, 30% of 864 players were born outside of the United States. Since 1995, Dominican Republic accounts for the largest percentage of those players with 93 players – representing 36% of all foreign players and 11% of all MLB starters.
Standout MLB players from Dominican Republic over the years have included Baseball Hall of Famer San Francisco Giants’ Juan Marichal and of the trio of Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez and David “Papi” Ortiz that propelled the Boston Red Sox to win the legendary World Series in 2004.
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-re…all-2018-09-04
Source: Marketwatch
Sep 6, 2018
3 September 2018, marked the 88th anniversary of landfall in Santo Domingo of powerful Hurricane San Zenon. The hurricane destroyed the nation’s capital city and caused over 4,000 deaths and thousands of injuries, just two weeks after General Rafael L. Trujillo had taken over the Presidency of the Republic. The hurricane hit the city from the south in the afternoon as a category four, leaving thousands without a home, and leading to floods that destroyed roads and bridges.
Many who had lived in wooden homes that were destroyed left for the countryside to stay with friends. It has also always been said that the reason for the high death toll was that many unknowingly came out of their shelters during the eye of the storm when it was calm, and were then killed as it resumed.
Following the passing of the hurricane the capital city was left in a disastrous state due to collapsed bridges, no electricity or telephone networks, no drinking water and collapsed homes.
Many victims were buried under rubble and the work of identification was hard with the bodies being taken to what is now Eugenio María de Hostos Park on George Washington Avenue, where due to the large numbers, they were incinerated.
The country received help from the International Red Cross and other Caribbean islands, especially Puerto Rico, as the Dominican Republic had helped them the previous year following another terrible hurricane there.
Source: DR1, Hoy
Sep 6, 2018
The director of the Dominican Port Authority (Apordom), Victor Gomez Casanova, has spoken up in favor of the construction of the new cruise ship terminal in Puerto Plata. The winners of the recent tender had announced recently in international travel press that President Danilo Medina would make the announcement of the winners of the tender at the end of July 2018. However, there has not been an announcement from the Medina administration. The results of the tender are contested in court.
Meanwhile, Gomez of Apordom, the government entity that organized the tender, said the new terminal would generate 6,000 direct jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs and that the cost would be upwards of US$100 million. He said that the terminal would make it possible for three cruise ships to dock at the same time. He said Royal Caribbean, MCC Norwegian, Virgin Cruises and Disney Line have announced an interest in sailing to Puerto Plata.
Gomez told the press that the winning company is Puerto Plata Port Investment that was created in November 2017 with a capital of RD$100,000 to participate in the tender. The company is associated with ITM MX,V.B. Promociones turísticas Mahahual, S.A. de C.V and Mauricio Hamui Hilwani. The companies are related to tourism port operations in Costa Maya, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Mexico and Roatan Island in Honduras.
The Procurement Agency (DGCP) has questioned the tender, in its note DGCP-2018-001666, dated 25 April 2018, when it notified the Dominican Port Authority should desist from offering technical assistance to the company in regards to the tender, as reported in Hoy.
The winning bid submitted by Puerto Plata Investment was contested by Aja Internacional, claiming that there were irregularities in the tender process.
The terminal would be the second on the north coast. A first, a Carnival Cruise investment, is operating in Maimón, 20 minutes away from the city of Puerto Plata. The new terminal would be located walking distance from many of the leading attractions of the city of Puerto Plata.
Source: DR1, Hoy
Sep 6, 2018
The Constitutional Court ruled that it cannot “declare that the Constitution is in violation of itself.” The opinion came after the highest court agreed to hear a request by lawyer Fredermido Ferreras Díaz that the court declare the Transitory Clause No. 20 of the 13 June 2015 Constitution was in violation of the Constitution.
The transitory clause was incorporated into the 2015 Constitution as part of a political agreement with the dissident forces representing former President Leonel Fernández in the ruling PLD party. Fernandez sought to run for President on the PLD ticket for the 2016 presidential election. Then the 2010 Constitution banned a president to serve consecutive terms. But President Danilo Medina’s followers pushed through the amendment allowing for a single consecutive election, US-style.
As part of the political agreement, the clause that specifically states that President Medina could not run for a third period was also incorporated.
The followers of President Danilo Medina are the majority in the ruling PLD party upper echelons of government and in both houses of the National Congress.
Art. 124 of the 2015 Constitution on the presidential election in the Dominican Republic states: “The Executive Branch is exercised by the President of the Republic, who will be elected every four years by direct vote. The President can opt for a second constitutional period and not being able to run ever again for the same position nor for the position of Vice President of the Republic.
Transitory Clause No. 20 states: “In the case that the President of the Republic elected for the constitutional period 2012-2016 be the candidate to the same position for the constitutional period 2016-2020, the person will not be able to run for the following period, nor any other period, nor for the position of Vice President of the Republic.
In presenting the motion for an opinion, attorney Ferreras argued that the transitory clause was in violation of articles 22, 39, 124, 68, 69 and 110 of the Constitution that protect citizen’s right to elect and be elected, the right to equality, the rights of the present head of government and the principle of no retroactivity of laws.
Despite the transitory clause, Medina has said he will wait until March 2019 to tell whether he would seek reelection.
President judge Milton Ray Guevara announced the entire ruling would soon be available on its web page. There were no dissident votes in the decision on the transitory clause.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Sep 5, 2018
QUITO, Ecuador –– Government officials from across Latin America and the Caribbean are meeting in Quito to coordinate a response to the regional humanitarian crisis caused by Venezuela’s economic collapse.
Representatives from Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic and Ecuador are meeting through Tuesday to discuss how to respond to mass migration from Venezuela, and how to protect vulnerable migrants from xenophobia and exploitation by black-market employers and criminal gangs.
More than 2 million Venezuelans are now living outside their homeland as part of a migration crisis that’s become particularly acute across Latin America this year. Colombia and Ecuador have been most affected, though Brazil recently authorized the use of its armed forces to help contend with an increase in Venezuelans crossing into its territory, while Peru declared a border emergency on health and sanitation concerns due to increased migration. Nations as far away as Uruguay are getting more Venezuelans.
Millions have “been obliged to leave Venezuela, affected by a profound economic and political crisis,” said Santiago Chavez, Ecuador’s deputy foreign minister, who is chairing the meeting.
Until recently, Ecuador had been one of Venezuela’s main allies in the region. But the government of President Lenin Moreno, which took office in 2017, has distanced itself as Venezuela has become gripped by mass hunger and political repression.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s failed policies and unchecked government spending have turned what once was one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries into a disaster. Shortages of food and medicine are ongoing, public transportation is erratic and lack of electricity and water has become much more commonplace.
A decade ago, Venezuelan migrants tended to have more resources, often making it as far as Miami or Madrid. Now, they are arriving in regional cities malnourished. Some are even trekking across Colombian highways on foot.
Source: dailyrepublic.com
Sep 5, 2018
For the first time, avocados and mangos from the Dominican Republic are on sale in Russia. The Russian market is regarded as an opening for export growth given that the country has 160 million consumers.
José Manuel Castillo Betances, Dominican ambassador in Russia, said that the Dominican mango and avocado exported to Russia are of high quality.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Sep 2, 2018
The official death toll on Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, the most powerful storm to strike the Caribbean island in almost a century, was raised on Tuesday from just 64 to nearly 3,000, based on a study ordered by the governor of the U.S. territory.
The report found that an estimated 2,975 deaths could be attributed directly or indirectly to Maria from the time it struck in September 2017 to mid-February of this year. The figure was derived from comparisons between predicted mortality under normal circumstances and deaths documented after the storm.
The emergency response to Maria became highly politicized as the Trump administration was criticized as being slow to recognize the gravity of the devastation and too sluggish in providing disaster relief to Puerto Rico, an island of more than 3 million residents.
The study, conducted by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health and released Tuesday, also found that the risk of death from the hurricane was substantially higher for poor people and elderly men.
Researchers said they adjusted for various factors that could account for fluctuations in mortality, most notably the population flux from some 241,000 residents who fled the island in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
The second phase of the study will examine causes and contributing factors behind the deaths, said Carlos Santos-Burgoa, a professor of global health who was the lead investigator of the study.
Nevertheless, Santos-Burgoa said the high death toll, ranking Maria among the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, was evidence that “we lack a culture of preparedness.” He also said that financial instability and a fragile infrastructure made Puerto Rico especially vulnerable to such calamities.
The report was conducted in collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico Graduate School of Public Health and was commissioned by Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello.
Speaking at a news conference from in Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, Rossello said his government was adopting the findings as the official account of human life lost in the disaster.
“Even though it is an estimate, we are officially changing, we are putting an official number to the death toll,” he said. “We will take the 2,975 number as the official estimate for the excess deaths as a product of the hurricane.”
A study in May from a Harvard University-led research team estimated 4,645 lives were lost from Maria on Puerto Rico, and a Pennsylvania State University study put the number at 1,085.
The Harvard study was based on extrapolations from random surveys of about 3,300 households, with a wide margin of error.
Penn State researchers used a methodology similar to the GW University study but made comparisons with a smaller set of historical data and did not account for demographic and populations changes in the same way, Santos-Burgoa told Reuters.
The storm made landfall on Puerto Rico with winds close to 150 miles per hour (241 km per hour) on Sept. 17 and plowed a path of destruction across the island, causing property damage estimated at $90 billion and leaving much of the island without electricity for months.
Source: rawstory.com
Sep 2, 2018
The authorities have identified the man who was shot and killed while he was travelling as a passenger inside a bus on the San Pedro de Macorís-La Romana highway. He is 29-year old Héctor Cruz Báez, from Bonao, who had boarded the bus at 5:40pm, taking seat number 19. He was employed at a Punta Cana hotel to where he was headed at the time of his death.
When the bus reached the crossroads of the Autovía del Este, the highway connecting San Pedro de Macoris and La Romana, it appears that someone shot from the opposite side of the road. The bullet killed Cruz Báez. Following the incident the remaining passengers panicked and fled from the bus.
Agents from the criminal investigations center (Dicrim) of the Police are investigating the matter but suspects it was a stray bullet.
The man was taken to the Dr. Antonio Musa in San Pedro de Macorís, but he was died on route to the hospital, say the physicians who received him.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Sep 2, 2018
