DR News
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
He did it. He became the first Dominican to win a gold medal in the Lima Pan American Games in gymnastics. He won in the vault category. To win the gold, he dared to do the Dragulescu vault, one of the most difficult in the sport.
Nin Reyes will now participate in the World Gymnastics Championship (4-13 October 2019) in Stuttgart, Germany, a qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. He needs to win a medal or qualify by placing in the top 12 in the championship.
His Pan Am medal is the third gold won by the Dominican Republic. Others are the gold won by Beatriz Pirón in weightlifting, and the gold won by skier Roberto Pigozzi.
The Dominican Republic is now in 10th place of 15 medalist countries with 16 medals. The country has won three gold, four silver and nine bronze medals. The Pan Am Games began on 26 July and will continue through 11 August 2019.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Aug 3, 2019
The Ministry of Environment issued Resolution 0017-2019 with the “Red List” of species in danger of extinction, threatened or protected, according to the standards of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The document specifies that “hunting, fishing, capture, harassment, mistreatment, death, trafficking, import, export, trade, manufacture or manufacture of handicrafts of these species and/or illegal possession thereof is not allowed.
The Red List includes 69 critically endangered, 95 endangered and 260 vulnerable species.
Among the protected species are corals, including starfish, oysters, sea snails, conch (lambí), bulgao, sea cucumbers, crabs, tarantulas, beetles, butterflies, giant Hispaniolan sea horse, sharks, rays, eels, groupers. Also protected are marlin, parrotfish, blue tuna, sea horse, toads, snakes, turtles, ducks, herons, partridges, pigeons, hawks, owls, crows, swallows, canaries, ciguas (Dulus dominicus), Black-crowned Palm-Tanager, parrots, parakeets, bats, hutia, solenodon and manatee, among others.
Source: DR1, z101digital
Aug 3, 2019
PUERTO PLATA.- Four sea turtles that were in captivity inside a pool in a businessman’s house, were released in Playa Grande of the municipality of Luperón.
These animals were rescued from captivity by park rangers and workers attached to the protected area Luperón Bay Wildlife Refuge, which Pablo Rodríguez manages.
After confirming the welfare state of these species that belong to the family of chelonioideos (Chelonioidea), they were released in open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sea turtles are protected by national and international laws because these reptiles are in danger of extinction.
It was specified that the four sea turtles were released in the presence of the provincial director of the Environment in Puerto Plata, Danilo Morrobel, and the president of the City Council of Luperón, Douglas Pichardo.
Source: Puerto Plata Digital
July 27, 2019
More money is now needed to buy some essential food products. According to Antonio Cruz Rojas, executive vice president and secretary-general of the National Board of Shopkeepers and Businesses in the Dominican Republic (Conacerd), several goods are now more costly. Among these is the 125-lb sack of brown sugar, which has increased by RD$300 to RD$2,700, and white sugar, which has risen by RD$250. Garlic is up by RD$40 a pound to RD$150. Factor in an additional 20-25% as these are wholesale prices.
Cruz Rojas said that he thinks that the increases are due to the depreciation of the peso to the US dollar. The peso is now at RD$50.96 to the dollar. Prices for beans, onions, potatoes, rice and spaghetti have all increased as well along with powdered milk, oil, soda, corn, peas, cigarettes and rum.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
July 25, 2019
Authorities in Puerto Plata arrested John David McAfee, his wife and four people that accompanied them, early this week. They were on board the yacht, “The Great Mystery” that docked at the Ocean World Marina in Cofresí. They carried several high caliber weapons and thousands of US dollars. With McAfee was his wife Elizabeth McAfee (Janice), UK citizen Richard Alan Gibson, German Robert Whitfield, Bahamian Oral Thompson, Haitian Vasner and dog Axel. Reports are that they arrived from the Hemingway Marina in Havana, Cuba.
The 73-year old McAfee is best known for developing the McAfee antivirus software in the 1980s and for helping to pioneer instant-messaging in the 1990s. McAfee is a British-US citizen. He has been on the run living in Cuba, Bahamas and Belize. As reported, US federal law enforcement agents were on his trail for tax evasion and other allegations.
McAfee was accused by Belize authorities to be the lead suspect in the murder of his neighbor in Belize, Gregory Faull.
Cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee has said he fears for his life and is on the run after claiming the US government is out to get him. As reported in El Dia, McAfee had threatened in a Tweet in June 2019 that if he is arrested more than 31 terabytes of incriminatory data would be leaked with names and details on acts of corruption of US government related to foreign governments.
In a latter development, Diario Libre reported that McAfee was released. This was confirmed on McAfee’s Twitter account. He said the Dominican authorities treated him well. Puerto Plata prosecutor Osvaldo Bonilla told Diario Libre the case was directly handled by the Attorney General Office in the National District.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
July 25, 2019
The Ministry of Education reports that 73.86% of the 33,069 teachers that took the academic level test required to work in public schools failed. This was the Academic Orientation and Measurement Test (Prueba de Orientación y Medición Académica – POMA). Only 8,643 met the minimum requirements for the jobs.
Those who failed protested outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Education asking for a second chance to pass and qualify for the jobs.
Of 3,379 who sat for the test in Greater Santo Domingo, only 857 passed. In Santiago 822 passed of 2,539 teachers taking the test. In San Pedro de Macorís, 785 of 2,324 applicants passed.
On 24 June 2019, the president of the Dominican Association of Public School Teachers (ADP), Xiomara Guante, denounced that the job contests for teachers were not designed for Dominican education professionals. She asked that the Minister of Education take charge. In five of the regions where the test was applied, 100% of the participants had failed the exam.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
July 25, 2019
The governor of Puerto Rico became the first Puerto Rican governor to resign. He announced on 24 July 2019 his resignation is effective as of 2 August. He responded to the pressure exercised by the media and the local artists who joined the original protestors who demanded the resignation of Roselló.
There had been speculation in local news media that embattled Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Roselló had already traveled to the Dominican Republic the day before.
More than ten days of massive protests have demanded that Rosello step down from government in Puerto Rico.
When FoxTV interviewed Roselló earlier this week, he spoke of his intention to deal with the issues and not resign. On Fox TV Roselló said he apologized for the comments on the chat and said he would not run for a second term. He sought time to work beyond politics to fix the problems and make things better in Puerto Rico.
Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez is expected to be acting governor until the 2020 elections, according to El Nuevo Día newspaper in Puerto Rico. The second in command in government in Puerto Rico is the secretary of state. But he resigned days ago for his possible role in the series of scandals that have Puerto Rico in political chaos.
Protests in Puerto Rico escalated after the release of an around 900-page list of WhatsApp messages (RickyGate). These showed Roselló and his inner circle ridiculing political rivals with violent, homophobic and sexist language and making fun of Hurricane Maria casualties.
Ricardo Roselló is 40 years old and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in chemical engineering. He is the son of former Puerto Rico governor Pedro Roselló.
Source: DR1, Elnuevodia
July 25, 2019
The National Beer Brewery (Cervecería Nacional Dominicana), announced it will recycle all its plastic beverage bottles. Recicla 100+ will recycle bottles used for malt, water, energizing drinks, soft drinks and others produced by the company.
Franklin León, president of the CND, announced that for more than 30 years the company has successfully carried out a similar program with glass bottles that are collected at 550 recycling centers nationwide. These soon will be incorporated into the plastic bottle collection program. Bottles from any company product will be received at the centers. The company estimates some 580 million lbs of plastic waste is generated every year in the Dominican Republic.
The director general for the Caribbean and Central America for AB InBev, owner of the CND, Luciano Carrillo said that the program is part of the overall “Sostenibilidad 100+” company program. He said the company is working so that by 2025 their packaging uses recycled materials.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
July 25, 2019
Malaria cases have increased this year, with 281 cases so far in 2019. This is 115 more than over the same time period last year, for a 68% increase. From those cases identified, there have been two deaths according to official records.
According to the epidemiological report for week 26, there were 10 cases notified, coming from the National District, Santo Domingo West and East, Los Alcarrizos and Santo Domingo North.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
July 25, 2019
