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The government has this month and part of the next to find a solution to the problem of rising waters of Lake Enriquillo that is forcing families out of their houses and off their farms. The rainy season will begin in about six weeks followed by the hurricane season in June, and most of this activity affects the south and southwest. Weather Department director Gloria Ceballos expressed her concern at the plight of the people living in the provinces of Independencia and Bahoruco due to the rising waters of the Enriquillo and Saumatre lakes on both sides of the border, because it starts raining in the region around mid-April and early May. Currently, the lakes are spreading, reclaiming much of their former size after years of shrinking. In a report in Listin Diario, Ceballos says that in years when the La Nina phenomenon is present, cyclonic activity is greater than [...]

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The governmental Emergency Operations Center (COE) has extended to nine from seven the number of provinces under green alert due to recent heavy rainstorms. The COE issued an alert for La Vega and Monsignor Nouel last Friday, but today they decided to extend the warning to Montecristi, Dajabon, Santiago Rodriguez and Valverde, all in the northwest, and in the north to Puerto Plata, Santiago and Espaillat. According to the weather office (ONAMET), the rains are the result of a prefrontal system over Haiti and a frontal system that has been located over eastern Cuba. Both systems will affect northern, northeastern and northwestern areas as well as the Central Mountains, according to the COE. Residents in the provinces under green alert should take precautions against flooding and landslides. The COE also issued small craft warnings for the Atlantic coast of the Dominican Republic.

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It seems that the Congress doesn’t get over one scandal before it enters another, and now the issue is the salary paid to the honorable legislators that is facing off senators and deputies for the difference of RD$50,000.
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Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) legislator Euclides Sanchez is questioning the fact that deputies earn a higher salary than the senators. He ignored the social fund also known as the little barrel that these legislators handle and that reaches between RD$10 and RD$18 million a year for each senator.
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Because of the difference in wage with the deputies, Sanchez urged Senate president Reinaldo Pared Perez to increase the salaries of the 32 senators with funds from the senate budget in order to bring the two salaries into line or for the Chamber of Deputies to reduce the salaries of its members.
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Sanchez said, This creates a problem, because we pay [...]

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Haiti’s new Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis has told Listin Diario that one of the major concerns of her term will be the civil registry of Haitian citizens. She stressed that this is not only those living in the DR, but Haitians in general. A priority for her government will be to consolidate the identification of Haitian citizens.
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On the question of migration, Pierre-Louis stresses that these are times to acknowledge the past, but look to the future. She said that it is fortunate for both Haiti and the DR that the two countries’ Presidents, Fernandez and Preval are friends, committed democrats and with the leadership to set these two nations on the right road.
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She said that with the re-launching of the Bilateral Commission institutions will be strengthened and this will provide a space for talking about the affairs that concern the two peoples. As president of [...]

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It became evident that the plea bargain that former Army Captain Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo worked out with the federal authorities in the United States included the dropping of charges against his wife Belkis Eliabeth Ubri in the Dominican courts. Yesterday, the Appeals Court for the National District withdrew all charges of money laundering that were pending against Ubri. While not pronouncing sentence, which was put off until 24 March, magistrate Carmen Alardo, prosecutor for the Appeals Court, did say that the decision was in response to the arrangement between the National District authorities and the Southern District Court of New York. The agreement calls for withdrawal of the money laundering charges. She said that …as a result, the Justice Department will no longer seek to press charges since there are no longer any charges pending against the accused. The magistrate did ask for a new trial for Pedro [...]

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Prosecutor General Radhames Jimenez Pena says that investigators from the National Police and the prosecutor’s office are organizing the evidence in the Paya Massacre case so that it can be presented when the case goes to trial. Fielding questions from reporters from El Caribe with the agility of A-Rod, Jimenez Pena said that any information that might be released could hamper the investigation or the work being done by the Money and Asset Laundering Commission. The commission coordinator told reporters that they would be meeting next week with specialists from the finance department of the DNCD and the National Police. He added that next week his staff would meet with other investigators to prepare the charges against the accused in the Paya case during the last week of March.

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In a ruling announced yesterday, the Supreme Court (SJC) Penal Chamber rejected a request for extradition to the United States of a person accused of violating the drug laws and attempted conspiracy to murder. Maximo Garcia Montero was favored with the decision after prosecutor failed to prove in the hearing that the case was dealing with the person mentioned in the extradition request, Jose Antonio Villalongo, who was arrested on 20 May 1995 and deported on 31 August 1998. The week before the same court rejected the extradition of cockfighting businessman Winston Riziz Rodriguez who was wanted in Puerto Rico on drug trafficking charges but was released under the excuse that the statute of limitations had run out on the crime mentioned in the indictment. During yesterday’s hearing magistrates ordered the immediate release of Garcia Montero providing there are no other charges pending against him. In the extradition request filed [...]

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The Santo Domingo East aqueduct, a project that has experienced fits and starts and stumbles for ten years, is closing in on the start of operations, and is processing water at 75% of capacity, according to the Aqueduct and Sewer Corporation of Santo Domingo (CAASD).
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Conceived to treat four cubic meters a second, some 90 million gallons a day, the infrastructure is pumping three cubic meters, because it started up the second of two modules at the water treatment plant. Thanks to the trial phase of the second module, there has been a significant improvement, CAASD sub-director of operations Luis Salcedo told Diario Libre.
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We hope that by the time the project is finished the water deficit will be diminished by 90%, because there will always be work going on and things to do, the population growth has been highly accelerated and there are sectors where that aren’t [...]

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In his 27 February state of the nation address on Friday, President Leonel Fernandez told his audience: Listen well - we will not allow drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic. He accepted there was widespread public concern about military and police involvement in drug trafficking and crime, including the participation of Navy officers in the murder of seven suspected drug traffickers in Paya last August, the alleged involvement of more than 20 members of the Police in a drug trafficking ring in Puerto Plata, and the raid on the Parmalat milk company installations apparently led by an Air Force officer. He said these recent events mean there has to be a permanent purge of the armed forces and the police.
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Shortly afterwards, several changes in the army were announced. The President retired 31 generals, although granting them the full benefits accorded to their rank. Standing out on the list [...]

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President Leonel Fernandez made even more changes to the Dominican Air Force and the Army after warning in his speech to Congress that he would not hesitate to clean up the social disgraces from the Armed Forces and the National Police. The President made 13 new designations in the Air Force and the Army and one in the National Police. In Decree 165-09, the President removed the Assistant Chief of the Air Force, Jesus A. Diaz Ramirez, and replaced him with Brigadier General Israel A. Diaz Pena. Decree 166-09 designates Brigadier General Ruben D. Paulino Sem as the commander of the Second Brigade of the Army, in substitution of General Justo Fernandez Tejeda, who was assigned to the command of the Combat Support Brigade. Fernandez Tejeda replaces Cirilo R. Escarraman Minaya who was not given a new role. Likewise, General Felipe A. Henriquez Molina was designated commander of the Fourth [...]

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