Archive for August, 2019
According to Leonel Castellanos Duarte, president of the Herrera National Association of Business and Industry (ANEIH), the 4.7% economic growth in the first half of 2019, as announced by Héctor Valdez Albizu, governor of the Central Bank, confirms that the economy of the Dominican Republic is slowing down.
The economy had grown 5.7% in the first three months of the year. Growth in the second quarter was 3.7%. In June, growth was scarcely 2.6% that is half of the 5.25% the authorities had forecast.
Castellanos said that the results from the Central Bank measure that lowered interest rates are below expectations.
He spoke with concern on the increasing level of debt in the country. The public debt is now equal to payments on the debt of US$3.37 billion during the first half of the year, an increase of 34.4% over the same period last year when it was US$2.51 billion. This was over half of the state income, thus limiting the money available for other programs.
Source: DR1, Almomento
Aug 16, 2019
The Dominican Republic ended its participation in the Lima, Peru Pan American Games with a medal count of 40, including 10 gold, 13 silver and 17 bronze. This is the second-best participation of the country in a Pan American Games. The best was in 2003, when Santo Domingo was the host. Back then, the Dominican team won 41 medals, including 10 gold, 12 silver and 19 bronze. In Toronto 2015, the country had won 24 medals, including three gold, 11 silver and 10 bronze.
The gold medal winners for the Dominican Republic in the 2019 Pan Am Games were:
Beatriz Pirón, weightlifting
Robert Pigozzi, water skiing
Audrys Nin Reyes, gymnastics,
Rodrigo Marte, boxing
Estefanía Soriano and Wander Mateo, judo
María Dimitrova, Sacha Rodríguez, Francher Velázquez (team medal), and Tanya Rodríguez and Pamela Rodríguez in karate
Dominican women’s volleyball team
Source: DR1, Lima2019
Aug 16, 2019
The Dominican Republic defeated Colombia in the finals of the Pan American Games held in Lima, Peru. While Colombia is ranked 30th in the world, the team competed as one of the top 10 in the world. The Dominican Republic is ranked 9th by FIVB.
The mastery of the “Queens of the Caribbean” prevailed, and the Dominican women’s team won 3-1. The score was 25-20, 19-25, 25-23 and 25-16. Bethania de la Cruz was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
To reach the finals against Colombia, Team DR had defeated Argentina 3-1 (25-18, 28-26, 25-13, 25-21). In the preliminary round against home country Peru, on 9 August, the DR won 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-17) at the Multisport Complex El Callao in Lima, Peru.
The Dominican team has already defeated Colombia in the preliminary match 3-1 on 7 August, with scores of 26-24, 27-25, 22-25, 27-25.
This was only the second time that the Dominican Republic had played the gold medal match at the Pan Am Games. The first time being against Cuba, a match the country won in the 2003 Pan Am Games played in Santo Domingo.
http://www.norceca.net/Dominican%20R…20Champion.htm
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Aug 16, 2019
An investigation by a commission of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) determined the suspension and sending to the justice of five law enforcement agents that acted in a drug raid on a Villa Vásquez barbershop. The agents are Major Víctor Ignacio Encarnación, Captain Juan de Dios Heredia Martínez, Sargeant Martires Cuello Ramírez and corporal Adan Maurito Rodríguez Pichardo and Air Force recruit Juan Antonio Arias Peguero. They are accused of violating all the protocols during the raid and of planting drugs in the barbershop. The case became a trending topic after the owner of the shop uploaded a surveillance video in his defense showing the operation.
An investigation is ongoing into the participation of Montecristi prosecutor Carmen Lisset Núñez. Núñez acted in the raid on the barbershop and later resigned. There had been speculation she had left the country. The PGR said she was not allowed to leave because a routine alert had been sent to Migration.
The PGR said that the prosecutor’s husband Anderson Gago Manaset was allowed to leave for New York on Monday, 5 August, after being retained for an hour in Migration. The PGR did not establish if Núñez is under arrest now. Lawyers representing the barbershop had notified the PGR that the woman would attempt to leave the country.
Núñez’s lawyer says she was just at the airport to accompany her husband. She told the press that drug traffickers were trying to remove her from office. She defended her innocence.
A surveillance video showed how the law enforcement agents and the prosecutor violated all raid protocols and allegedly planted drugs to customers and in the barbershop. A youth who entered as a supposed customer for a haircut uploaded a second video explaining he acted on instructions of the prosecutor and others to plant the drugs.
The CNCD president, Navy Vice Admiral Félix Alburquerque Comprés, had at first stated the video could be a setup and the barber owner could be tried for defamation. He defended the integrity of the DNCD above all. Alburquerque also defended the Montecristi prosecutor saying: “If you see her résumé, she is a flawless prosecutor; her transparency and her actions are not in question”.
Source: DR1, Elnuevodiario
Aug 16, 2019
The National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) announced a pilot program whereby agents would wear small cameras in their uniforms during their actions. The announcement comes at a time when the reputation of the institution was affected when a surveillance video showed a drug raid of a barbershop in Montecristi where agents planted drugs.
The spokesman for the DNCD, Carlos Devers said on Saturday, 10 August 2019, that the plan is first being implemented in La Vega. He said the actions will be monitored by a surveillance center in the headquarters of the institution.
“Everyone will have their portable camera on their chest or neck. Each operation will be recorded and if a camera is turned off, the agent carrying it will be suspended,” he added. Devers said the plan is to suspend agents who act irregularly immediately.
Nuria Piera used her investigative news show this week to present how the Villa Vasquez raid was not an isolated occurrence in Montecristi.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Aug 16, 2019
In the beginning of February, 2019, we found out that President Danilo Medina apparently can keep his promise to build a public hospital for Sosúa. And indeed, Saturday morning, February 2nd, Engineer Francisco Pagan arrived in Sosúa to inspect various plots of land that could be considered for the construction of such a hospital. He eventually opted for a site located near La Unión neighborhood of Sosúa. Now seven months later, we see that the hospital is nearing the final phase of construction. The workers said that depending on the weather, the project will be ready in two months.
After that, the hospital still has to be equipped with equipment and staff. In the spring of 2020, the hospital can be put into operation, at least that what is expected.
Source: Sosua News
Aug 16, 2019
The Central Electoral Board (JCE) has approved the 2020 general elections budget proposal for 2020 for RD$16.54 billion. The budget proposal passed at an extraordinary administrative meeting on 18 July 2019 presided over by the president of the JCE, Julio César Castaños Guzmán and attended by judges Roberto Saladín, Carmen Imbert Brugal, Rosario Graciano de los Santos, Henry Orlando Mejía Oviedo and general secretary Ramón Hilario Espiñeira Ceballos.
Also approved is that a presidential candidate can spend RD$1.39 billion on his campaign. Political parties will receive RD$3 billion of the taxpayer money allotted for the elections.
The JCE is funding the 6 October simultaneous primaries of the two leading political parties, the PLD and the PRM. Likewise, Art. 209 of the Constitution orders that municipal elections be held on the third Sunday in February (16 February 2020), and the presidential and congressional on the third Sunday in May (17 February 2020).
The 2020 general elections are costing three times more than the previous elections. An editorial in El Dia points out that while in the US each vote costs taxpayers US$11.67, in Mexico US$25 and US$58 in the DR.
Diario Libre puts the elections in perspectives. It headlines today that the 2020 general election budget is more than the annual budget for 15 government ministries.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Aug 3, 2019
The Constitutional Court (TC) declared that Art. 284-18 of Electoral Regime Law 15-19 violates the Constitution. The article had established a penalty of three to ten years in jail for defamation crimes against politicians.
The Constitutional Court ruled: “The imposition of custodial sentences for sharing propaganda affecting a candidate denaturalizes the exercise of free access to information and unreasonably and disproportionately limits the freedom of expression and dissemination of thought.”
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Aug 3, 2019
Retired Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz was sent home from Massachusetts General Hospital after an extended stay from 9 June 2019. Ortiz was hospitalized after he was shot at in the back when sitting at the Dial Bar & Lounge in Eastern Santo Domingo. He was first operated on in Santo Domingo, and then underwent two other surgeries in Boston.
An investigation into the shooting revealed a ruined plot intended instead to target a friend of Ortiz, Sixto David Fernandez, according to Dominican authorities.
25-year old Rolfi Ferreira-Cruz of New Jersey was arrested and identified as the alleged gunman who fired the shots at Ortiz. A dozen were also arrested for investigations in the case. Victor Hugo Gomez, a cousin of Fernández, was named by the authorities as the mastermind of the shooting. He was arrested on 28 June in the Dominican Republic. The Police said he was angry at Fernandez for naming him in a 2011 drug bust that led to his imprisonment.
Source: DR1, abcnews
Aug 4, 2019
The Attorney General Office has kept the weapons that were seized from The Great Mystery yacht in which John McAfee, his wife, and others docked in a private marina in Puerto Plata On Monday, 22 July 2019. When McAfee and his wife were deported to England on the next Thursday, the three dogs that came with them on the yacht were left behind. McAfee threatened the Dominican government to destroy the local tourism industry if anything happened to his dogs.
Later his wife would tweet: “Dogs are safe! They were taken to the farm of a French resident in the Dominican Republic. In the picture here are Tequila, Marley, Axel. The duchess does not appear in the photo, but I was assured that she is there with the other dogs. Thanks to our lawyer Carlos Olivares for making this happen.”
It is now known that Tequila, Marley and Axel, the three dogs that came with McAfee, are under the care of a veterinarian that McAfee himself authorized.
McAfee had complained that the dogs were left locked in the yacht for over 60 hours, without food, water or air conditioning.
His defense attorney Candido Simón reported that the dogs were safe and well cared for.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Aug 3, 2019
