“Country’s owners” strike again; hapless Assistant DA is latest victim

Santo Domingo.- An assistant DA was attacked by a group of drivers of the bus owners union Fenatrano on Thursday, when he tried to execute a lien for RD$6.4 million against that organization, the National District Office of the Prosecutor said today.

National District assistant prosecutor Sonne Beltre went to the site to execute a San Cristobal Criminal Court manslaughter conviction in 2010 against Fenatrano member Leivis Rosario, for the killing of the also bus driver Ruben Dario Montilla in Villa Altagracia (central).

It said Beltre, accompanied by a bailiff, was rushed by Fenatrano leaders and dozens of drivers, who halted the proceeding. "The prosecutor Beltre was pushed by union leaders and hundreds of drivers who stopped the execution of the lien."

According to local media, the police agents assigned to the assistant prosecutor left him alone and was then pushed out of the building by Fenatrano drivers.

The bus owners grouped in Fenatrano and other similar associations have been called “the country’s owners” for the violence they often unleash and the fear they strike on the authorities.