DR News
PUERTO PLATA.- Through a cocktail made last night, the Spanish chain Senator Hotels & Resorts, unveiled the recently opened facilities of the Senator Puerto Plata Spa Resort 5 Stars, located in the Bay of Maimon.
Eduardo Centeno was in charge of the welcome part for the guests and representatives of the media. He is responsible for entertainment and sports of Senator Hotels & Resorts, accompanied by a corporate team explained the details of the new hotel.
“We are very excited about the opening of this new luxury product in Puerto Plata that will offer some 567 renovated rooms, specialty restaurants, a gourmet restaurant and a Premium Al Inclusive service, which will not only delight the palate, but also the sensory experience and musical of our visitors, “said Centeno.
While the vice president of operations, Gema Nieto, detailed that the Senator Puerto Plata Spa Resort 5 stars, has an attractive program of activities for adults and children that will complete the stay of its guests and mark a differentiation in what has been seen so far in the sector of entertainment.
The refurbished hotel located in front of the beautiful and historic Maimon bay, has a fitness center overlooking the sea and a spa of one thousand square meters that will soon be open to national and international public with innovative services for relaxation and comfort of its guests.
Source: Puerto Plata Digital
Dec 7, 2018
The Dominican Orthopedics and Traumatology Society is demanding that the sale of alcoholic beverages be banned at shows. The physicians say audience members who consume too much alcohol during events represent an unacceptably high risk to public safety when they take the wheel after the show while under the influence of alcohol.
Dr. Julio Landrón said every year between 3,000 and 3,500 Dominicans die in traffic accidents. He said that 12 out of 14 persons involved in traffic accidents are left with permanent injuries. He said bad driving practices and alcohol consumption are major causes of the traffic accidents.
“This is the only country in the world where you can call on the telephone to order alcoholic beverages and that are then delivered by a motorcyclist whose does not have a license, insurance or a no protective helmet,” he complained. He said this is the only country in the world where there is an alcoholic beverages drive in where you can purchase alcohol right from the comfort of your vehicle,” said the orthopedist during a press conference.
Source: DR1, diariodesalud.com
Dec 7, 2018
The 911 Emergency System is now available to service the communities of Punta Cana, Veron, Las Lagunas de Nisibón, San Rafael del Yuma, Boca de Yuma and La Otra Banda in the eastern province of La Altagracia. Presidency Minister Gustavo Montalvo was present for the start of the service. He is the general coordinator of the 911 Emergency System. He explained the emergency services logistics includes coastal services in speed boats. He said the Dominican Armada already has a speedboat docked in Palmilla, but two more units are being added. He also announced an Air Force helicopter will be stationed in Higuey for air emergency services.
Montalvo said that likewise, service for the La Romana area has been improved with two speedboats assigned to the area. One of these will patrol Catalina Island and another larger vessel will be located in Saona Island this December 2018.
Source: DR1, Noticiassin
Dec 7, 2018
Actress Nashla Bogaert, and producers Gilberto Morillo, Tuto Guerrero and David Maler, are together to present Dominicana’s Got Talent, the local version of the reality show that is aired in 69 countries around the world.
The talent scouting show will be aired from September to December 2019 on Color Vision, Channel 9. There will be 16 chapters of 120 minutes each. Nashla Bogaert will be the host of the show.
To participate, go to www.dominicanatiene talento.com or www.dgt.com.do and register online sending videos of a recent performance. The grand casting for the event will be held in March 2019.
Dominican-American Amanda Mena and the local hip hop group AGT Da Republik recently made waves having succeeded in lasting several rounds of stiff competition in America’s Got Talent on NBC.
Source: DR1, Elnacional
Dec 7, 2018
The United States Embassy has revealed to Listin Diario that it was the United States National Security Department that contacted the Dominican Government and asked them to allow the convicted Cuban drug dealer Augusto “Willie” Falcon to come to the country. Falcon had completed a 20-year jail sentence for drug dealing in the United States and arrived in the Dominican Republic on 6 November 2018.
According to Tammy Spicer, public affairs official from the Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) of the United States, Falcon was in the custody of ICE since June 2017 having had a deportation order issued in March of that year, which he appealed, but it was denied.
Falcon did not want to return to Cuba, fearing for his life following his supposed involvement in an alleged plot against Fidel Castro in the 1990s.
The Dominican government had said that Falcon arrived in the country following a request from the United States, which has now been confirmed by the United States embassy in the Dominican Republic.
According to the Minister of Interior and Police, José Ramón Fadul, Falcon is only in the country temporarily and is in the custody of the Department of National Investigations (DNI) awaiting a decision on his final destination. The Dominican government has not given details of the reasons for accepting the convicted felon known best for his building a South Florida empire as cocaine smugglers for the Medellin and Cali Colombian cartels in a deadly drug trade that played out on Miami’s streets.
UPDATE: Willie Falcon said to have left the Dominican Republic
The Attorney General Office, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Interior and Police and the National Police in a joint statement announced that “cocaine cowboy” Augusto (Willie) Falcon has left the Dominican Republic. Dominicans learned in mid-November that he was here after the revelation that he had entered with a deported Dominicans on 6 November 2018 following an agreement reached by US authorities with the National Investigations Agency (DNI).
When following the publication of a Miami Herald story it became known to the general public that Falcon was residing in the country, the Dominican authorities said he had been admitted only temporarily. The Dominican authorities say that for security reasons they are not revealing where he was sent.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Dec 11, 2018
The Dominican government announced it is pulling out from the signing of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, responding to major rejection for the agreement nationwide. The Global Compact is being promoted by the United Nations as the link between migration and development policies.
The announcement was made by legal advisor to the President, Flavio Darío Espinal, speaking at the Presidency. He said the country would not participate in the upcoming Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration to be held 10-11 December 2018 in Marrakesh, Morocco.
A committee of experts had reviewed the government’s initial decision to sign after pressure to not sign reached a high level. Espinal announced that the government determined that the signing would generate commitments to the Dominican state that could undermine its ability to enforce its migration rules and effectively implement the migration policies that compliance with those standards requires. Espinal said that the implementation of a pact of that nature, for what it involves and for the implications it has, requires a basic consensus in the Dominican society that he said does not seem to exist in the current circumstances.
Migration experts had said that the pact that would create a new paradigm for mass migration, raising migration to the level of a human right. This analysis alarmed many politicians, business representatives and even many Dominican citizens causing a generalized backlash in rejection of the signing in Marrakesh.
Most Dominicans learned about the pact only recently, after the El Pais newspaper reported that several countries would not sign over concerns of national security. The United States was one of the countries that had announced it would be part of the Pact. Other countries that have said have said they will not sign are: Australia, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Israel, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Croatia. Like the Dominican Republic, Switzerland and Italy just recently announced they would not be party to the Pact.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Dec 7, 2018
The Chamber of Deputies authorized the governmental Banco de Reservas to issue loans for up to RD$1.2 billion to decentralized government entities and non-financial autonomous government entities to pay the 13th Christmas wage to their employees. The authorization covers social security system institutions and city governments. The money had been budgeted by these organizations, but apparently was spent for other purposes.
Source: DR1, Metrord
Dec 7, 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
