Dominicans spent most of 2020 between a state of emergency and a March overthrow due to COVID-19, a year that ended with 170,785 infected with the virus, with 2,414 people dying for the same reasons.
However, the Dominican Republic has been marked by more events than the deadly pandemic. At the beginning of the year, the citizens faced an important stage in the history of the nation: the suspension of an electoral process.
On February 16, the municipal elections were postponed due to the decisions presented by automatic vote, which were used for the first time in a Dominican electoral process.
The decision was made by the plenary session of the Central Electoral Council (JCE), whose president at the time, Julio César Castaños Guzmán, said that the problem was rooted in the ballots presented by some of the teams.
In fact, the inconvenience began the night before, when JCE staff returned to the polling stations after 5:00 pm to try to “solve the problems with the electronic ballot paper” after noticing the problem.
That Sunday, opposition political party delegates reported that the teams had trouble filling out the ballot paper.
According to reports, the provinces with the highest number of complications were the National District, the rest of the cities of Santo Domingo, Santiago and Puerto Plata, places where from the beginning of that day they had long queues at the polling station.
Due to these technical issues, many people were unable to vote. This led to multiple protests in the Plaza de la Bandera, in front of the JCE headquarters.
The new municipal elections took place on Sunday, March 15, where the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) prevailed at the polls, a result that extended to the congressional and presidential elections, where this neophyte political organization not only came to control Congress, but took over and the presidency after Luis Abinader’s victory over the candidate of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Gonzalo Castillo, in the July 5 elections.
These results ended 16 years of PLD rule, after the administrations of Leonel Fernández and Danilo Medina.
Middle High School
One of the most memorable tragedies of the year was the explosion of the gas bottling plant “La Económica” Multiple Production and Services Cooperative (Coopegas), in the Licey al Medio community of Santiago.
This tragedy left at least 11 dead and more injured. The event shocked the country.
Hurricane season
Equally atypical has been the usual hurricane season in the Dominican Republic, as, despite the fact that cyclonic activity in the Caribbean, Central and North America has broken records in terms of the number of such phenomena that have affected the aforementioned areas, our island remained relatively unharmed.
This was reflected in the data provided by the National Meteorological Office (Onamet), where the entity indicated that no hurricane directly affected the island.
However, this did not mean that there was no damage. Multiple floods and five deaths have occurred in several areas, mainly due to two tropical storms.
“I had a direct impact with Laura and Isaías, even like a tropical storm. In addition, there was an indirect influence from Hurricane Teddy (Category 3) that generated dangerous waves on the north coast and distant indirect effects of Hurricane Eta (affected Central America), with heavy rainfall on the south coast of the Dominican Republic for November “, said the director of Onamet, Gloria Ceballos.
Another tragedy occurred around kilometer 22 of the Duarte highway, where the collapse of a wall cost the lives of three people.
Two of these people died directly due to the aforementioned incident, while the third was due to the fall of a tree, although all were caused by the winds of storm Laura during its passage through the country.
Operation Antipulpo
One of the most recent cases was that of Operation Antipulpo, where the prosecution arrested several people, including two brothers of former President Danilo Medina, for an alleged social network that defrauded the Dominican state with billions of pesos.
After an extensive hearing to hear the coercive measure, Judge José Alejandro Vargas ordered seven of the 11 defendants in pretrial detention.
Among them are Juan Alexis Medina Sánchez, the brother of former President Medina and the alleged leader of the aforementioned social network, who is serving a three-month pre-trial detention at the San Cristóbal Correction and Rehabilitation Center.
He also ordered the same measure for Francisco Pagán Rodríguez and Aquiles Alejandro Christopher Sánchez, former director general and inspection director of the Office of State Works Supervising Engineers (OISOE), respectively.
He did the same with the former director of the Heritage Fund of the reformed company (Fonper), Fernando Rosa Rosa; Julián Esteban Suriel Suazo, from whom an illegal arsenal of weapons was confiscated; José Dolores Santana Carmona and Wacal Vernavel Méndez Pineda.
For Carmen Magalys Medina Sánchez, the sister of Juan Alexis and Danilo, Lorenzo Wilfredo “Freddy” Hidalgo Núñez, former Minister of Public Health, and Rafael Antonio Germosén Andújar, former Comptroller General of the Republic, ordered three months of house arrest with a bracelet if possible or under the supervision of the Public Ministry.
In addition, Medina Sánchez and Hidalgo Núñez had to present a bond of 10 million pesos under contract and will be unable to leave the country.
100 million
Similarly, one of the most discussed was the government donation of 100 million pesos that about 70 artists received from the government’s Social Policy Office and its director Francisco Antonio “Tony” Peña Guaba.
The initial contract provided that the artists would participate in virtual concerts in exchange for the money received, a form of aid to the music industry that was severely affected by the coronavirus.
But this announcement was met with criticism from the population, prompting the Government to reverse this measure and cancel the contracts offered, although it could not recover the money invested, leaving everything as a “solidarity support”.
Child marriage
As for the positive left until 2020, there is the approval of the bill that would amend the Civil Code and prohibit child marriage.
It was received in the Lower House of the National Congress during the session last Wednesday, December 30, so the only thing left is for the Executive Branch to officially adopt the abolition.