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The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, will assume his second term determined to reform the Constitution

The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, will assume his second and last term of government next Friday after achieving re-election last May, and he will do so with a view to a constitutional reform, criticized by many, and a fiscal reform, which has been postponed for years.

Just hours before the results of the May elections were known, Abinader, of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM, liberal and progressive), announced his intention to change the Constitution, which would be the fourth reform of this century, and everything indicates that he will do so.

Trusting that this “is the last” reform, Abinader, a 57-year-old economist, should not have major inconveniences in bringing this proposal of changes in the Magna Carta to fruition, if it is taken into account that the PRM will mostly control the National Congress from Friday, after rising in the elections with 29 of the 32 senators and 146 of the 190 deputies.

The initiative, which will be presented to Congress coinciding with the investiture, has among its main objectives to prevent changes to the rules of the presidential election (limited to two consecutive terms), consolidate the independence of the Public Ministry (Public Prosecutor’s Office), reduce the number of deputies and unify the holding of elections, according to the proposal presented by Abinader a few days ago to the press.

It is not, he said then, “a conjunctural reform driven by partisan political needs or individual aspirations,” but it is “thought for the benefit of the community” and to consolidate the principles of democracy, transparency and institutionality, as “a shielding of democracy.”

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But, at the same time that the Government and the PRM defend the eventual reform, there is also a growing criticism from the opposition, which considers a change of the Magna Carta to be inopportune.

Among the critics is former president Leonel Fernández, who faced Abinader in the elections and who considers that the best way to protect the Constitution is not to touch it, although he already did it in 2010.

In return, the three-time president of the Dominican Republic, whose party, the People’s Force, is the second formation in the National Congress, proposes that the referendum law be approved, which is contemplated in the 2010 Constitution, but still without legislation in this regard.

The questions have also been joined by prosecutors, who fear that, through the reform, the Superior Council of the Public Ministry will be eliminated, which Abinader denies.

Along with the constitutional change, Abinader also has a tax reform in the sights.

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Dominican Republic – with an average annual growth rate of approximately 5% for decades and which, as reported on Tuesday by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), will lead the growth of the region with 5.2% in 2024 – has had a fiscal reform pending for years, a promise already of Abinader’s campaign for the 2020 elections.

In fact, just two months after assuming power for the first time and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abinader presented a plan with new taxes to face the crisis, but ended up withdrawing it due to criticism.

Representatives of the public sector, the private sector and even international organizations understand that the reform is urgent.
According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), fiscal reform can help the Dominican Republic attract more investment.

However, “beyond the much-needed increase in tax revenues,” the comprehensive tax reform “should include the adoption of a tax rule that establishes limits on long-term public debt, which would increase certainty and help safeguard fiscal sustainability,” says the IMF.

Another “critically important” reform, according to the IMF, is to address the failures of the electricity sector, which come from far away and have generated significant losses, which average between 1% and 2% of annual GDP in the last decade.

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Apart from these issues, Abinader will also have to face long-standing social debts in the next four years, along with the deficient health system, labor informality or insecurity.

And at the same time it will have to face the increasingly chaotic traffic, which every year causes between 3,000 and 4,000 deaths, making the country one of the first places in the world in road deaths.

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

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International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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