NEW YORK.- Members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Dominican Republic urgently need a substantial increase in salary and a decent pension plan so that they can retire in dignified circumstances, says Dr. Ramón Arístides Madera Arias, former Chief Judge of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
The career member of the Public Prosecutor’s Office also points out that “even senior representatives of the current Government acknowledge this.”
He said that members of the judiciary in the country “need good health insurance, because many are sick and do not have the means to cover their medicines, a sad and regrettable situation.”
“They are suffering from hunger, hardship and forced to live with criminals, despite the dangers in which they carry out their duties; they cannot have fun, when they get paid they already owe up to three times the check, they have to live from loan to loan,” says the advisor of the “Dominican Association of Prosecutors” (Fiscaldom).
Madera Arias, who has been recognized by several institutions in NYC, sent the press document to this reporter, where he states that most of them do not have a vehicle to go at midnight to carry out raids, also asking for 30 years for a criminal and accusing him to his face, and then they have to go out without security.
Among the 1,287 prosecutors in the country, some of whom are 75 years old or older, with 45 years of service, there are more than 100 with terminal illnesses (cancer, heart and kidney failure, hepatitis, depressive illnesses, stress, anxiety, and gastritis, among others).
He says that many live in marginalized neighborhoods such as Los Guaricanos, Sabana Perdida, Villa Mella, Los Alcarrizos, Catanga, Gualey, Guachupita, Cristo Rey and Capotillo, and their children study in public schools coexisting with the children of criminals.
“There are many prosecutors who have been killed in the exercise of their duties, others shot, wounded, slapped and threatened,” recalled Madera Arias.
He specified that in the Constitutional Court (TC) all judges leave, regardless of the short time they have held office, with a full pension and international health insurance.
“At the TSE, the current members created a secret pension plan only to benefit from their full salary. The members of the Judiciary since 1999 have a pension plan. They leave with their salary and a Platinum-type medical insurance with 100% coverage for medications, procedures, consultations, hospitalizations and so on,” says Madera Arias.
He explained that in addition to the salary, they leave with a driver and other incentives.
“Judges are paid substantially more than prosecutors, and we work in dangerous situations, dealing with organized crime, femicide and rapists,” she said.
He recalled that drug traffickers, human traffickers, murderers, thieves, robbers, irresponsible parents and all those who commit any type of crime are pursued and charged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“It is a shame that people like Yeni Berenice Reynoso and Wilson Camacho, among others, who do such dangerous, honest and dedicated work, barely earn 180 thousand pesos in salary and have no right to a pension or good health insurance,” he said.
He said that, on the other hand, his peers, before the Judiciary, earn 421 thousand pesos. “They leave with their full pension, with their salary, as well as with their international health insurance and a good national health insurance with high coverage.”
“Given the real and described situation, the Government must provide the Attorney General’s Office with the resources to cover a pension plan, a salary increase and guarantee good medical insurance for prosecutors, because they are demoralized, this is the reality they are living,” said former judge Madera Arias.
