HOLY SUNDAY.-The road chaos that paralyzed traffic in Santo Domingo between August 28 and 31, 2024 has been one of the reasons why the Public Ministry has arrested José Ángel Gómez Canaán, known as “Jochi”, formally accused of being responsible for an act of sabotage that severely affected the traffic light network of Greater Santo Domingo, putting the capital’s road safety in check.
All originated from the investigation process into the legality of the contract for the installation of the traffic light system initially assigned to Gómez Canaán’s company and which was suspended by order of the General Directorate of Public Procurement and Contracting.
clandestine operation
According to the authorities’ investigation, between March and August 2024, the company Transcore Latam SRL, under the orders of Carlos Peguero, Pedro Padovani and Gómez Canaán himself, carried out unauthorized installations of traffic light regulators equipped with advanced technologies. .
These modifications increased the number of regulators from 80 to 124, without the knowledge or authorization of the National Institute of Transit and Land Transportation (Intrant), which complicated network management and monitoring operations.
The story accompanying the arrest warrant request indicates that these installations were carried out at night, in an apparent attempt to avoid detection, subsequently generating a crisis in the traffic light system.
He adds that Intrant personnel, when trying to intervene in the equipment, were surprised to find that the regulators’ safe deposit boxes had locks changed without prior notice, which restricted access and made it impossible to adjust programming or respond to operational failures. .
The blackout of the traffic lights on August 30 generated chaos that affected the entire city.
A hijacked network
He goes on to say that the alleged sabotage not only consisted of the installation of new equipment without authorization, but that the new technology implemented prevented Intrant from making the necessary adjustments to guarantee the proper functioning of the traffic light network.
It points out that since the beginning of August, intermittent failures began to be observed in the traffic lights at critical intersections such as Winston Churchill and Núñez de Cáceres avenues, generating traffic jams and chaos during rush hours.
The request for a prison order issued by the Public Ministry indicates that the situation worsened on August 27, when, in a tense conversation between Jorge Luis Polanco, representative of Intrant, and Gómez Canaán, the latter threatened to suspend all technical support of the traffic lights if the installation of the equipment continued to be questioned. At 10:44 pm that same day, Gómez Canaán ordered his technicians, through a WhatsApp group, to suspend all services, leaving the city without the possibility of monitoring or correcting the failures.
The outcome of sabotage
The Public Ministry reports that on August 29, Intrant was forced to organize a joint operation with military personnel to regain control of the kidnapped network.
The actions were promoted after it was identified that the Transcore Latam SRL control center had deliberately deactivated 14 traffic light intersections, which were initially considered simple breakdowns.
In the following hours, the number of affected intersections increased to 44, which is considered by authorities as confirmation that the massive blackout was orchestrated by Gómez Canaán and his team, who took advantage of their control over regulators to wreak havoc on the capital traffic.
The audit carried out by the Comptroller General of the Republic revealed that these acts had been premeditated, aggravating the state of the system and directly affecting thousands of citizens who were trapped in endless traffic jams.
The trigger
The Public Ministry considers that the trigger for the conflict was an audit presented on August 26, 2024, in which the bidding process awarded to Transcore Latam SRL was questioned due to the irregularities detected in the installation of the traffic lights.
The warnings from Intrant technicians about sabotage took on greater relevance when it was discovered that the company had installed dozens of regulators without prior authorization, which seriously altered the operation of the network.
On August 30, after the forced departure of Gómez Canaán from the Intrant facilities, a team of technicians deactivated the six communication nodes of Transcore Latam SRL, taking manual control of the traffic light system.
However, the company responded by turning off 69 additional traffic lights, exacerbating the chaos on the city’s main arteries.
prison order
The request for a prison order recalls that in the following days, Gómez Canaán, using his “X” account (formerly Twitter), published threatening messages against the director of Intrant, Milton Morrison, and the team that was in charge of resuming the system control.
These threats, added to the sabotage actions, led the authorities to treat the case as a matter of national security, initiating legal actions against Gómez Canaán and his collaborators.
Award
1,317 Million pesos.
This is the amount of the contract awarded to Transcore Latam SRL for the modernization of traffic lights.
There is a lot to say, says Carlos Pimentel
Investigation. The Director of Purchasing and Contracting, Carlos Pimentel, indicated that there is much more to say about this case, but that it will be prudent for now.
The official specified that he will be available to go to any instance to defend his actions “as we have always done.”
He stated that Purchasing and Contracting issued five resolutions with which it annulled all documentation linked to that tender for the contracting of the traffic light system.
Hugo Beras recently said that the State control agencies failed regarding the process that was carried out to award the contract to the winning company.
