Earthquake felt in Cibao

SANTIAGO - An earthquake which had its epicentre in the island of Martinique was felt around 3 o’clock in the afternoon of yesterday in Santiago, in Espaillat, El Valle, San Francisco de Macorís, Hermanas Mirabal, María Trinidad Sánchez and Dajabón without any damage.

International news services indicated that the intensity of the seism was of 7.4 degrees on the Richter scale and had its epicentre in the island of Martinique, where it caused the death of a man, several wounded people and the collapse of buildings.

The seism was also felt in Venezuela and in other islands of the Caribbean, in Puerto Rico, in Barbados and in Guadeloupe.

The tremor caused panic in the population of Santiago where tens employed and people who were in the buildings of the Power Company (Edenorte) gave up the places.

In front of the fear which the telluric movement can cause crumblings, a lot of people decided to go out in the streets.

In the same way, tens of people called the institutions of assistance to report the situation and to inform themselves of the daamges or to obtain other information concerning the seism.

The director of the Institute of Seismology of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), Felix Martínez, indicated that the seism occurred very far from the country and the counterparts will not be felt, the population should not be alarmed .

According to the Institute of Geophysics of the United States the epicentre of the seism was localised to 145 kilometers depth at latitude 14.9 North and longitude 61.2 West.

The international agencies indicate that the depth of the phenomenon prevents that it can be described as Tsunami.

El Caribe, 30.11.07

The Cibao complains about garlic smuggling

SANTIAGO - the garlic storekeepers of the area of Cibao denounced that they are close to the bankruptcy because of a hypothetic millionaire smuggling of garlic through the Dominico-Haitian border.

To face this situation, the stallholders of the zone requested to the Secretaries of Industry and Commerce, Armed Forces and Agriculture to confiscate the produces and to give them to the victims of the tropical storm Noel.

They express that because of this practice the Government ceases receiving the considerable resources of the taxes, in addition to the fact that they cannot be competing on the price level of the smuggling garlic.

While referring to this practice, Julian Antonio Parra supported that every day trucks full of garlic are introduced to the country through the border with Haiti thus flooding the Creole market, and harming the stallholders who work in a legal way

All the Cibao is full of smuggling garlic, Santiago, Salcedo and other communities. Every day the smuggling garlic is coming from Haiti without any intervening to stop the people devoted to this illegal practice underlined the leader of the stallholders.

He said that it is possible that there is complicity in the garlic transfer because the smugglers operate like at home.

Listín Diario, by Pedro Jimenez, 30.11.07