Santo Domingo Este.-The President of the Republic, Leonel Fernandez (1996-2000. 2004-2012), stated this Sunday that the Government does not know how to understand and seek solutions to the problems that affect the Dominican Republic, and instead is justified by the international crisis.
Fernández acknowledged that there is a crisis, but said that those who govern cannot be justifying themselves. “For those who lead their people, those who lead nations, crises are not justifications for failure. History teaches us that great leadership is built in the midst of great crises. When everything flows normally, great leadership is not required, anyone can do that, those who transcend are those who turn crises into moments of progress and advancement for their respective peoples”, specified the three-time president of the country.
Referring to the defeats that governments have suffered since the crisis began in Latin America, Fernández said that “when governments do not know how to solve problems, what awaits them is electoral defeat, it is the result of those who do not They know how to solve crises.
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“For not knowing how to understand and seek solutions to the problems that affect the Dominican Republic, is that the People’s Force is constantly growing, because what people say is that in the face of this rise in prices that is happening in everything, it is chicken, it is milk, it is bananas, it is eggs, it is sweet potatoes, it is yams, this is not no one can stand this, no one can stand this, ”he specified.
Fernández spoke in this way at a ceremony held at the Framboyán Sports and Cultural Club, in the Los Mina sector, where he swore in deputy Rafael Castillo and aldermen Wilson Báez and Walkia Medina, both from constituency number two, from Santo Domingo Este, who They resigned from the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and join the ranks of the political organization that the former president is president.
The former president recalled the words of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, in his speech in the spring of 1940 before the outbreak of the Second World War, when he said: “we have to prepare ourselves because times are difficult, the only thing I offer you is it is, blood, sweat and tears, but as I offer that, I say to the English people, we will see it through to the end; we will fight in France; we will fight in the seas and oceans; we will fight with increasing confidence and increasing strength in the air; we will defend our island, whatever the cost; we will fight on the beaches; we will fight on the airfields; we will fight in the fields and in the streets; we will fight on the hills; we will never give up…”, and thus they defeated the Nazis during World War II,” he said.
He said that when, in 2004, he came to power, “all of you remember that we came from a banking crisis, bank failures in the Dominican Republic, the peso was devalued against the dollar and everything went up in price, but we faced the crisis and the value of the dollar, from 58 to 1, fell to 28 to 1 and at the same time the prices fell for all the products in the family basket”.
“Another crisis broke out, they started to fail banks in the United States, they started to fail banks. In Europe, the global financial crisis raised oil to 147 dollars a barrel, food prices were rising, but what did we do? We subsidized food prices, we supported the Presidency’s Social Plan, we invented some mobile units of the popular soup kitchens that circulated throughout the republic, and they were so useful that when the earthquake hit Haiti, it was the Dominican Republic that helped Haiti solve the food problem with those mobile units,” added the leader of People’s Force.
He went on to say: “Today faced with a crisis, what is sought is a justification, there is inflation because there is inflation throughout the world, there is inflation in Mexico, there is inflation in the United States, there is inflation in Guatemala; perfect, now explain one thing to us, why inflation in the Dominican Republic is three times higher than that of Costa Rica, it is higher than in Colombia, it is higher than in Peru, it is higher than in Chile, it is higher than in Honduras, it is higher than in Panama; for what reason. Because in the Dominican Republic mistakes are being made where the cost of living becomes a permanent hardship for the poor of the Dominican Republic.”
In his speech, Fernández based himself on the mention made by the legislator who passed to the FP, about the bill sent by the Government to the National Congress, “they call it the Zero Tariff Rate Law, for the importation of a series of goods and services, to supposedly mitigate the effects of the crisis, of inflation in the Dominican Republic, which states that taxes will not be collected at customs; but for the meats that can be imported, and that pasta and powdered milk will be brought, and that will not pay taxes in customs, something that seems intelligent apparently seems wise”.
He also recalled that “we do not have a free trade agreement with Brazil, with Argentina, or with Turkey, or with any of those countries that are going to export to the Dominican Republic,” for which he said that the Government has made a mistake. , “they have been wrong, we produce chicken here, what has to be imported at zero rate is corn, so that chicken and eggs are produced in the Dominican Republic, so much chicken and eggs are produced, that the supply is greater than the demand and prices decrease and we are helping the producers of the Dominican Republic, take note from the Government so that they learn to govern”, he emphasized.
He continued calling on the Government about the measures taken, “the issue is not to import powdered milk, the issue is to support farmers to produce more milk, and by increasing the volume of milk production subsidized by the Government, there will be milk cheaper consumption for the Dominican people. The issue is not to import pasta, import wheat, so that in the mills it can be processed and bread is produced in the Dominican Republic”.
sworn
During his speech, Fernández valued and highlighted the importance that the group of sworn in this Sunday has for the FP.
“It is not possible to obtain victory in the DR, without the support of Santo Domingo Este, because as a municipality, Santo Domingo Este has a greater number of voters than all the provinces of the DR; therefore, the comrades who are sworn in today are helping to take the Municipality of Santo Domingo Este by storm, to turn it into the main bastion of the People’s Force to guarantee victory in 2024”, he said, evidently moved.
The people sworn into the FP were, the deputy Rafael Castillo, the aldermen Walkiria Medina and Winston Báez; the member of the Central Committee of the PLD, Ramón de los Santos, who was also president of an Intermediate Committee.
Together with Castillo, who in addition to being a deputy was a member of the Central Committee of the purple party, the former presidents of the Intermediate Committees, Ramón Peralta, Julio de la Rosa, Marcial Alcántara, Hilario Ortiz, Germán Paredes, Andrés Castillo, are sworn into the People’s Force. Rafael Reyes and Misael Lachapel, who was also youth coordinator.
With the integration of these cadres, the strength of the People surpasses the purple party in the number of councilors of District No. 2 in the SDE Mayor’s Office, and in the Chamber of Deputies, it leaves them with only one legislator from this demarcation.
