Dominican Republic population ripe for “turmoil,” ex guerrilla warns

Santo Domingo.- Former Metropolitan Transit Authority director Hamlet Hermann on Monday called the Public Works Ministry one of the country’s most corrupt agencies, and even called a former minister a “shareholder” of the company that built a major road.

He called government corruption rampant, which has led to a population ripe for “turmoil.”

“Victor Diaz Rua (former minister) is a shareholder in the Colombian contractor that built the Samana-Santo Domingo highway,” Herman said, and noted that as few as 3,750 cars use that road per day.

The former guerrilla said many corrupt Public Works officials “are anything but stupid,” and cited the contract to build and operate the Samana-Santo Domingo highway as an example of “kickbacks.”

“Freddy Perez (former Public Works minister) and (former president) Leonel Fernandez got together to bring that Colombian company here and the sad results are there,” Hermann said, interviewed by Amelia Deschamps and Huchi Lora on Telesisema, Channel 11.

The prominent civil engineer also slammed current Public Works minister Gonzalo Castillo’s “militarization” of the department, with the use of high calibre weapons by employees of its road safety unit.

He called the country’s business of tolls “dog-neutering,” in which “the public always gets the short term of the stick.”

Hermann warned that the country’s population feels threatened by the government and could unleash “social turmoil."