SANTO DOMINGO.- The Government’s spokesman today warned that the measures designed to fight crime, including the closing at midnight of businesses which sell alcohol could be expanded and others added.

Roberto Rodriguez said the Government has not set a date to conduct an final evaluation of the program aimed at reducing the crime levels and guarantee the population’s security. "It could be that in the end, when the plan is evaluated, some measures are expanded, or that new measures are added," the official said in a televised interview with Diario Libre’s director Adriano Miguel Tejada, on Channel 7.

He said that the Government expects the citizens’ support for the measures’ success, and clarified that decree 308-06 forces businesses which sell alcoholic beverages to close at midnight from Sunday to Thursday, and at 2:00 AM Fridays and Saturdays.

Rodriguez affirmed that criminality has been significantly reduced and stressed that Police chief Bernardo Santana estimates that drop at 95 percent.

"Although some say that the criminals have retreated, they are biding their time and betting on the fatigue of the Government, because from the high cost that the operations mean to the Government, to then return," he said, adding that he doesn’t want to think that that would suppose a perverse, Mafia style orchestration, which can as a central agency direct criminal activities.

He said that the decree excepts tourism resorts, Patron Saint, New Year and Christmas celebrations.

In another topic, Rodriguez reiterated that the Government has made clear that it has no interest in the Artificial Island project, and stressed that president Leonel Fernandez’s position has been firm in that regard.