The State Department of the United States denounced in its Report on Human Rights in the region, corresponding to 2019, that the Dominican Government has not correctly implemented the laws to apply criminal penalties against public officials accused of corruption.
“The government took some measures to punish officials who committed human rights abuses, but there were widespread reports of official impunity and corruption, especially among senior officials,” explains the annual report released yesterday.
It indicates that despite Dominican laws establishing an independent judiciary, the Government “did not respect judicial independence and impartiality.”
The report notes that there were selective prosecutions and dismissals of cases amid allegations of bribery or undue political pressure.
“The judiciary routinely dismissed high-level corruption cases. Corruption of the judiciary was a serious problem, “says the study.
It details that in September 2017 the Supreme Court of Justice began the trial against six of the 14 linked in the bribery case of the Brazilian company Odebrecht, accused of having paid $ 92 million as a bribe for state works contracts.
“The six defendants included a senator, a representative from the lower house, a former senator and a former minister of public works. Civil society welcomed the trial as a step forward in the fight against corruption, but activists highlighted what they perceived as a lack of political will to fully investigate the case, which involved the country’s political and economic elites, ” details the US report.
According to a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in addition to the $ 92 million, Odebrecht distributed another $ 39.5 million in bribes during the construction of the Punta Catalina coal plant.
“After this report was made public, the Attorney General’s Office questioned financial consultants involved in the plant’s bidding process, but did not file additional charges. The attorney general and a commission appointed by the government previously dismissed the allegations of irregularity in the plant’s contracting process, ”he points out.
Monitored calls and emails
Another point discussed reveals that the Dominican Government monitored unauthorized phone calls, as well as emails to infer in the private lives of individuals and families.
Important human rights problems include reports of illegal or arbitrary killings by government security forces; torture by police and other government officials, arbitrary detention, severe and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary interference with privacy, serious problems with the independence of the judiciary, criminal defamation of individual journalists, serious government corruption and police violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.
Threats to journalists
Another issue indicates that Dominican journalists received threats and physical attacks for reporting criminal groups and corruption cases in the media.
It highlights the threats that a Monte Plata television commentator received in October 2019 after criticizing alleged connections of local politicians with drug traffickers.
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) reported that Dominican journalists suffered violent attacks by the military and police from government officials, particularly in covering protests led by civil society.
Another case is the dismissal of Marino Zapete from Teleradio América after reporting that the sister of the Attorney General of the Republic, Jean Alain Rodríguez, Maybeth Rodríguez, had received government contracts without a bid for 750 million Dominican pesos.
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