DR News
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
Sundays are considered by Dominicans as days of rest and peace for many, but Sundays are actually the day when the highest number of homicides take place, according to a statistical report on the homicides in the country from January to September this year. The data was provided by the Observatory of Citizen Safety and reveals that on Sundays at least 188 murders were committed across the country, out of a total of 801.
Mondays was second in number of murders for a weekday, with 122 through September. The list follows with 112 murders on Saturday, 111 on Friday, 108 on Tuesday, 82 on Wednesday and 78 on Thursday 78.
Most crimes, 48%, were committed with firearms and 37% the assailants used knives. Some 9% of victims were attacked with heavy instruments such as pipes and baseball bats, while weapons for the remaining 6% of assaults were not specified.
Compared to the same time period in 2017, there has been a reduction in reported homicides of 145, representing a 15% decrease.
The data goes on to show that more than half of the homicides, 505, happened between people who lived together, 237 were at the hands of criminals and 58 for unknown reasons.
Looking at the sex of the victims, 86% were men and 14% woman, and by ages, the highest group was the 15 to 29 age group with 276 homicides.
Most of the crimes took place on public roads with 587. One hundred seventeen murders were committed in homes, 48 in commercial centers, 23 in farms or scrubland, 6 inside jails, 3 in hotels and 18 in unknown areas.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Dec 4, 2018
According to the Ministry of Public Health, there has been an increase in the cases of dengue and malaria, over the last four weeks. Both tropical diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes.
In the last four weeks, health officials have registered 176 probable and confirmed case of dengue, a 21% increase over last year. The epidemiological bulletin for week 45 highlights that so far this year there have been 1,101 cases of dengue notified and in the last week, some 38 probable cases, with around half affecting minors under 10 years old.
As far as malaria is concerned, in the last four weeks there have been 15 cases confirmed, 13 within the country and two brought in from abroad. The locations of the outbreak of the disease were in La Ciénaga, in the neighborhoods of Hato Nuevo, Nigua and La Guáyiga, in Santo Domingo West.
The two cases brought into the country were a man and woman, aged 22 and 35 respectively who had arrived from Venezuela.
So far this year there have been 438 cases captured in the system, a number that is 78 more than at the same time last year.
Most of the malaria cases are coming from Santo Domingo west and Public Health is warning the population to keep water sources covered to prevent the mosquitoes from breeding.
Source: DR1, Listindirio
Dec 4, 2018
An editorial in El Dia on 28 November 2018 raises the national concern over the efforts of the Medina administration under Foreign Relations Miguel Vargas Maldonado to sign visa free travel relations with countries known for 24/7 security issues. Now, Dominicans can travel visa free to 27 countries around the world.
“Many of these are true paradises for sightseeing. Others, without the complete information being offered, present a level of violence more barbarous than in the Dominican Republic, and which translates into citizen insecurity at all hours of the day,” reads the editorial.
Since Monday, 26 November 2018, there is no need for Dominicans to have a tourist visa to go to Russia, bringing the total number of visa free countries for Dominicans to at least 27. During this year, the new countries to become visa free for Dominicans are Russia, Qatar, Uruguay, Brazil and Belize.
The other visa free countries are Korea, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Georgia, British Guyana, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Paraguay, Botswana, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Morocco, Ukraine and Vietnam.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Dec 4, 2018
