Archive for December, 2018
According to Defense Minister, Lieutenant General Rubén Darío Paulino Sem, in the last year the Dominican government has invested around RD$10 billion to reinforce the border area. He said that around RD$6 billion had been paid in salaries and social security and the rest are investments in border security.
He highlighted that in February 2018, 50 additional vehicles had been sent to the border, two drones which can transmit images both during the day and at night over a 12 square kilometer area. In addition, new inter-agency checkpoints in Jicomé and Los Pilones have been established.
In October an additional 360 members of the Army were sent to the border area along with motorbikes and last week a frontier patrol began.
Contrastingly, a recent kidnapping of a prominent local doctor, Pedro Ureña and friends on a motorcycle adventure tour on the border, and the comment by two border guards armed with M15 rifles that they could not take action to help the doctor and friends, revealed the incongruities between the billions spent on the border security and the actual security impacts of the investment.
Source: DR1, Eldia
Dec 7, 2018
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said Thursday that the death toll from an explosion at a plastics company rose to five and they continued searching for at least one missing worker.
Meanwhile, the number of injured rose to 66, with five people in critical condition following Wednesday’s blast in the capital of Santo Domingo, according to a statement from the National Health Service. Among the injured are 13 children who were attending school nearby.
Edwin Olivares, sub-director of the Emergency Operations Center, told The Associated Press that at least one person is still missing. He also said that officials have not been able to identify three of the five victims.
Olivares said many workers survived the large explosion at the Polyplas company because they followed security protocols.
Business owner Manuel Diez Cabral tweeted that 98 percent of staff members were evacuated following what he said was an “uncontrollable” gas leak. He said the company has always followed strict security protocols in its more than 50 years of existence.
During a brief press conference on Thursday, Diez said company officials were cooperating with authorities.
“The recovery work is just beginning,” he said. “We have a difficult road ahead of us.”
Diez said he could not comment further until authorities finalize their investigation. He declined to answer questions including how many employees worked at Polyplas and what would happen to those who survived the blast.
“Our organization is in mourning,” he said. “Once again, we express our sincere condolences to the families of the victims.”
Initial reports are that the explosion occurred because of mishandling of natural gas. The heat wave emanating from the company’s boiler ignited the escaping gas that was being loaded into a factory storage tank. The factory and several constructions and vehicles in the area suffered major damages.
The explosion was felt for several blocks. The area around the factory is a mix of industrial, commercial and residential properties. Schools and businesses in the area were evacuated. The fire that had began at around 11:40am was put out at around 3:40pm.
Source: Listindiario, beaumontenterprise.com
Dec 7, 2018
According to President Danilo Medina’s spokesman, Roberto Rodríguez Marchena, on Friday, 30 November 2018, the President created an inter-institutional commission to analyze the documents and offer details about the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration the country would be signing in Morocco. The commission was ordered to make final recommendations to the President as the head of foreign policy.
According to Rodríguez Marchena, the commission is made up of the Ministry of the Presidency, Ministry of Interior and Police, the legal advisor to the President and the director of the Office of Information, Analysis and Strategic Programming (DIAPE). Rodríguez Marchena said that once the President has the report and has taken a decision he will let the public know.
Information on the signing of the pact was only known in the Dominican Republic after international media, including El Pais of Spain, revealed that several countries had rejected to sign the pact for matters of sovereignty and national security. The United States, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Croatia have said they will not sign during the Marrakesh, Morocco conference, the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The conference is scheduled to take place in Marrakesh, Morocco on the 10th and 11th of December. The Global Compact is being promoted by the United Nations as the link between migration and development policies.
After the news of the pending pact signing broke in international and national press, the signing has met with widespread local opposition from opposition politicians and business people, primarily on grounds of national security. The Dominican Republic shares a 300-km border with Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere that is marked by political, social and economic instability and is described as a failed state. In reality, there is little security and controls on the border with regular widespread crossing of undocumented Haitians a normal occurrence for commerce, education and health and work purposes.
Source: DR1, Eldia
Dec 4, 2018
National Police spokesman, Frank Durán Mejía announced the “Preventive Plan for Christmas Security 2018” kicked in on Monday, 3 December at 9:30am. More officers have been added to the patrols. Last year there were 24,023 police officers and 2,900 members of the Armed Forces patrolling the streets during the Christmas season. National Police director, Major General Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte, says this year there would be 26,238 police officers on the streets and more than 3,000 military for a total of 29,538 people. The holiday season lasts all December and ends after Three Kings Day, on 6 January 2018.
The team of men and women includes the National Police men and women, but also members of the General Department of Terrestrial Transit Security (DIGESETT), and the Departments of Investigation and Antinarcotics. Also involved would be the tourist police (CESTUR) and the Military and Police Commission (COMIPOL).
Source: DR1, Policianacional
Dec 4, 2018
It would seem Dominican taxpayers have already paid for the construction of the Samana-Santo Domingo toll road. But the contract is obliging to pay for it many more times over.
Diario Libre looks into how since 2016, every year the amount paid from the National Budget to the Ministry of Public Works to pay the subsidy for the tolls for the Santo Domingo-Samaná Highway has increased. Samana has the country’s first and last concession roads. For 2019, the amount is thought to RD$3.57 million, or RD$978.8 million more established in the budget, according to a report in Diario Libre.
When the contract was signed between the Dominican State and the concession Autopistas de Nordeste, it was agreed that the government would pay a guaranteed minimum to cover any revenue shortfalls due to a lack of traffic. As has happened, there has not been a year when the vehicular traffic on the 106 kilometer toll road from the Las Americas Highway to Samaná has been sufficient to avoid the government of having to pay the subsidy.
However, in August 2018, Public Works Minister Gonzalo Castillo said that they were making progress with a review of the contract, which is due to last 30 years. In an interview with Diario Libre, he said that the road would in the future be administrated by RDVial, the trust created by the Medina administration and involving international investors.
The prices of the tolls have increased over time. In 2013 the Marbella toll was RD$55 for light vehicles; now it is RD$59. In Naranjal, the same vehicle used to pay RD$166 and now pays RD$189, and in Guaraguao it used to cost RD$195 and now is RD$222.
The road, officially called Juan Pablo II, was inaugurated on 12 December 2008. A second stage was the Boulevard del Atlantico from Nagua to Samaná, where the toll is RD$552. This road was built by Boulevard del Atlantico.
Director General of the Budget, Luis Reyes, has said that the receipts for the tolls should be audited especially given that the number of vehicles using both roads has never reached the budgeted figure.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Dec 4, 2018
Miss Dominican Republic will be costumed as a carey turtle on occasion of her participation in the Miss Universe 2018 contest in Bangkok, Thailand on 16 December 2018. The pageant will be televised in Santo Domingo.
Miss Dominican Republic will be wearing the “I Love Carey” costume in honor of the Hawksbill sea turtle (carey) that lays its eggs in the Dominican beaches, according to a feature in Diario Libre.
The costume is designed by Dominican designer Leonel Lirio who has had received praise for his innovative, stylish and uniquely Dominican costumes worn by the contestants representing our nation. He designed the costume for Ruth Ocumarez who was the Miss Universe runner-up in 2002 and the first place attire worn by Amelia Vega when winning Miss Universe in 2013.
He says Miss Aldy Bernard, Miss Dominican Republic, participated in the design of the costume she will wear in Bangkok during Miss Universe 2018.
Source: DR1, Diariolibre
Dec 4, 2018
Since the beginning of this year there have been 3,065 neonatal deaths compared to 2,763 in the same period last year, which is a 10.8% increase. According to the Epidemiological Bulletin for week 45, published by the Ministry of Public Health, 74% of these deaths, some 2,259, happened during the first 28 days of the babies’ lives.
In the last four weeks, 277 babies died in their first month after birth, as reported. There has, however, been a small reduction in the number of maternal deaths with 174 recorded to this date in 2017 and 165 recorded to date this year. In the last week there were five maternal deaths of women between the ages of 16 and 40.
Activist Sergia Galván attributes the high number of neonatal deaths in the country to a Dominican public health system that is on the edge of collapse due to a low level of investment and its focus on treatment of disease and not prevention, with a lack of treatment of environmental factors and malnutrition. Galván added the statistics also reflect the lack of compliance with protocols and the lack of existence of a regime of consequences and sanctions following neonatal deaths.
Others consider that the lack of legalization of abortion contributes to the high number of deaths when births are due to rape or incest or when the pregnancy is not viable.
Source: DR1, Almomento
Dec 4, 2018
While the local case by failed Banco Peravia deposits for fraud of over RD$1.4 billion has stalled in the courts here in the Dominican Republic, international media have carried the news that a former owner of the bank, 50-year old Venezuelan Gabriel Arturo Jimenez Aray, was sentenced on Thursday, 30 November 2018 for his participation in a major money-laundering scheme. In addition to the three-year jail sentence, Jimenez agreed to forfeit US$38 million.
The court established that the Venezuelan and other partners purchased the bank in Santo Domingo to help launder money and use it to pay bribes to Venezuelan government officials in exchange for contracts to conduct currency-exchange schemes and to launder the money gained from running those schemes.
Jimenez admitted to having facilitated illegal transactions and bribe payments to foreign officials and others via bank issued credit cards, cash disbursements, wire transfers and other financial transactions.
Jimenez, who resides in Chicago, had already pled guilty last 20 March 2018 to a charge of conspiracy to commit money-laundering after reaching a plea bargain, in which Raul Gorrin Belisario, the owner and president of the Venezuelan TV channel Globovision, was also involved and is fugitive of US justice on charges of foreign bribery and money laundering through US banks and real estate.
Last Tuesday, 27 November 2018, Alejandro Andrade, the former treasurer in the administration of the late Hugo Chavez, was also sentenced to 10 years in jail for his implication in this multi-million dollar case. When he pled guilty in December 2017, Andrade admitted that he had received more than more than $1 billion from Gorrin and other persons implicated in the case in exchange for using his position as National Treasurer to allow them to carry out currency exchanges at favorable rates according to the prosecutor. As part of his plea deal, Andrade accepted the seizure of US$1 billion together with all the assets involved in the corruption scheme, including real estate, vehicles, horses, watches, airplanes and bank accounts.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Dec 4, 2018
Dominican artistic skaters on wheels six year old Daniela and her sister eight year old Letizia García Medina, won gold in the Third International Panama Open Artistic Skating on Wheels Competition held in Panama. Dominican Sofía Carballo Sigarreta won silver in the event. They competed against skaters from Uruguay, Colombia, Chile and Panama during the championship.
The event took place at the Arena Roberto Duran of Panama City from 18 to 24 November 2018, with the participation of 200 skaters from six countries, including Panama, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Dominican Republic.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Dec 4, 2018
The Dominican Republic authorities have not been available for comment on whether the country will sign the 2018 the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in during the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration scheduled to take place in Marrakesh, Morocco on the 10th and 11th of December. The Global Compact is being promoted as the link between migration and development policies.
Nevertheless, the United States, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic and Australia have said they will not sign the compact, citing that entering into the compact would create serious problems for their national security. The Dominican Republic has a major national security problem with migration pressures at the border with Haiti.
The agreement would commit the Dominican Republic to not return to their country of origin thousands of illegal migrants, aspiring refugees, long-term residents and laborers who at present do not qualify under the Dominican Migration Law. The Global Compact is due to be ratified by UN member states in December for its implementation beginning in 2019. It includes a compromise on return, readmission and reintegration of the illegal immigrants.
The Dominican Republic is at present the most affected country by the political and economic instability in neighboring Haiti. As per Dominican Migration Law, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Haitians have been provided with work permits.
In recent days, migration issues have been hotly debated in the country, including the government’s recent granting of residence to Cuban drug kingpin Willie Falcon. The pre-clearance US Customs agreement amendment that would oblige the country to admit to Dominican territory individuals arriving by air to Punta Cana who are not eligible to enter the United States. Both controversial matters have been requested by US agencies to the Dominican government.
The final draft can be read at:
https://migrationdataportal.org/site…20Republic.pdf
Source: DR1, Un.org
Dec 4, 2018
