Dominican Republic leader’s corrupt laissez-faire breeds murders

Santo Domingo.- The preliminary results of the investigation into murder of attorney and university professor Yuniol Ramírez suggest that an alleged extortion of RD$4.0 million is behind the gangland-style execution last week.

Ramirez’s murder adds to the numerous killings linked to corruption in various government agencies, in which president Danilo Medina has either ignored previous warnings or whose reaction came to late to avert tragedy.

On Sept 25, 2015, the government contractor David Rodriguez took his life in a bathroom of the corruption-plagued State Works Supervisory Office (OISOE), reportedly accosted by a ring of loan sharks operated by its senior officials, and which forced Medina to fire then director and close collaborator Miguel Pimentel Kareh.

Perhaps the most stunning government-linked murders was that of radio announcers Luis Manuel Medina and Leo Martínez, on Feb. 5, 2017, in connection with fraudulent sales of lands of the State Sugar Council, despite years of corrupt practices in the anachronistic agency.

Odebrecht

And while Medina seems to be corralled by corrupt officials, when he challenged then US ambassador James W. Brewster over claims of extortion of US-based companies by some cabinet officials, the Odebrecht and Super Tucano brie scandals fell on the President’s lap.