Virgilio Sierra Perez. File photo.
SANTO DOMINGO.- The opposition PRD party, just hours after the release of the latest poll which gives incumbent candidate Leonel Fernandez a 19 percentage-point win in the first ballot, on Monday announced the formation of “an army” it calls the “PRD Vote Defense Bloc,” whose leaders are retired military officers, including former heads of the Dominican Air Force, Army, National Police and the Navy.
The former military leaders were presented in a press conference held in PRD campaign headquarters in Santo Domingo, headed by that party’s presidential candidate Miguel Vargas.
"This army of men who’ve worked for more than one year in the formation of a military defense structure will be defending the vote next May 16, but without the intention of doing anything wrong, but also without allowing anything bad to be done to our candidacy,” Vargas said.
The former Chiefs of Staff, all with the rank equal to major general, are Jorge Zorrilla Ozuna (Army), Eurípides Uribe Peguero (Navy), Virgilio Sierra Pérez (Air Force), Jaime Marte Martínez, Police), and Rafael Betances Nivar, of the Military Assistance Corp.
Zorrilla said they’ll demand transparency on the day of the voting and respect for the poll results. "The plan of the retired military consists of deploying men in the voting places so as to prevent the official backers from carrying out plans which affect the PRD candidate," added Uribe.
Written by: Cacique, 12 May 2008 3:48 PM
From: Dominican Republic
This guy Sierra, isn't he the one in bed with Qurino, with the "private" airstrip built in the middle of nowhere with our money???
Written by: MrDom, 12 May 2008 3:52 PM
From: Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, DN
"they’ll demand transparency on the day of the voting and respect for the poll results".
Well, that is what we also expect: respect for the poll results..... So we can rest for some months... if they don't start right away the propaganda for the election of senators for 2010...
I hope they don't......
Written by: Jander, 12 May 2008 5:47 PM
From: Dominican Republic
You can search the site by copy and paste Virgilio Sierra Pérez on the search window at the top of the page. He has quite a legacy ?
From: Canada
Curtains for the PRD its over ......come back in 20 years like the plague
From: Canada
this is a reason to vote for anybody but these losers...throwback to military tinpot dictators.....in Lionels first term he fired them .....Hippo comes back and hires even more of them...this is truly the past...like the brown shirts
Written by: DennisC, 12 May 2008 6:18 PM
From: United States
I just can believe this, amazing the nerve of this PRD people,
imagine!!
AN ARMY !!!, guess they are trying to be back to steal everything again no matter what,
Goulet, good words , this people are worst than the plague,
and you gave them 20 years?
damn, I would give them all the years for the rest of this planet until they all dissapear, damn them all.
From: United States
Simply put, just another act of desperation on the part of the PRD. If they get into power, everything that was constructed by the PLD administration will suffer dire consequences (just like when they assumed power in 2000 when all public works were abandoned). They have a duo agenda, to steal the public funds and to defamate the character of the PLD. Who knows what they would do to the Metro other than let it rot only to say that it was a waste of money. The irony is that they do nothing to improve things for the public, only for their pockets. And yet it still amazes me how they can even have the following that they still do. Go figure...
From: Canada
they are a fugu.....and the public is masochistic every 20 years
Written by: BASTA, 12 May 2008 8:11 PM
From: Dominican Republic
And the PLD is any better; Please
Written by: DennisC, 12 May 2008 8:35 PM
From: United States
BASTA:
no matter what you believe , which might be the same thing I believe,
for us my friend in that our country,
ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN PRD,
I take you over anyone in the PRD, all of them are proven a...holes,
nonetheless, with your name you say it all,
BASTA WITH PRD.
From: Canada
basta you will be in the minority and the wilderness for a long long long time......Praise the Lord ....thank you Jesus......it is CURTAINS for the PRD
From: United States
Ignorance stupidity. His statements would have been better received had he chosen to express himself a little more poignantly. Again it reflects ignorance and lack of eloquent articulation on behalf of the party and the constituency that supports the party.
Written by: Belial, 12 May 2008 10:39 PM
From: United States, Texas
"whose leaders are retired military officers"
oooo
So, the followers of the retired officers are something far less regal than "former heads of the Dominican Air Force, Army, National Police and the Navy...." The retired leaders impart a bogus air of respectability and legitimacy to the thugs who follow the retired leaders.
The question is whether this move is poll watching or voter intimidation.
If poll watching, no problem.
If however the move is voter intimidation, the followers of the retired leaders must show the voters either for whom to vote or not to vote at all if the voter is unfriendly to retired officer.
Thus, the end at which the move aims is to lower the PLD turnout, giving the PRD at least a shot at an upset.
As the thugs go to work on the voters, the regal retired leaders will try to pull "rank" on active military and police assigned to the polls "Hey, that's my thug. I'm a former army general. And my pal here used to be an admiral. ."
From: Canada
Trujillos nickname was" chapitas " for bottle caps,that little boys would wear like the phony medals on El Jefes chest in his ridiculous uniforms.....these guys are the holdover of the latin American military tin pot dictatorships
From: United States
I serious doubt in todays day and age that Dominicans would be that stupid to allow themselves to be intimidated by these statements. I believe these guys are really living in the past and need to get in touch with the times.
But then again they are catering to like minds.
From: Canada
" nobody ever went broke underestimating the Dominican public " H.L. Mencken
From: United States
To: Basta
I really would like for you to tell me what were the PRD's great accomplishments while they were in power. They only further impoverished the people and practically destroyed the economy. You know, no political group is perfect and sometimes you're stuck choosing between the better of two evils. So unless you can offer me an insight into all the good the PRD has done for the people and the country, you need to come to terms that you have no clue what's going on and are probably one of these non-Dominicans who takes joy in the hope that the DR will collapse and bring its progress to a halt for the next 4 years. Are you a disgruntled Haitian by chance?
From: Canada
On this subject I totally agree with my good and great friend BELIALs last post........... these guys are thugs and this amounts to potential intimidation
From: Dominican Republic
As I reacall, in the last election, the plan was to confiscate all thevoting boxes and thereby declare Hioplito thewinner.
This plan was thwarted by the foreign overseers. What ever was said to Hipolito by these overseers remains to be disclosed, butI imagine it went along the lines of a total embargo against the DR which would have sounded a death-knell to an already collapsed economy with the consequential freezing of all assets, foreign and domestic of the government and the incumbent participants.
Whatever steps the PRD can take to recover their reputation is moot at this point in time. The PRD has lost all and just won't admit it. They would do well to abandon any hope of recovery in this lifetime and "silently fold their tents and steal away into the night".
As a viable political party, they are finished for this generation.
TB
From: Canada
Bravo Bravo Bill... "..the Truth Will Set You Free "
Smaller
Bigger
Close Gallery
Digg this
del.icio.us
Technorati
Yahoo
Well, that is what we also expect: respect for the poll results..... So we can rest for some months... if they don't start right away the propaganda for the election of senators for 2010...
I hope they don't......
imagine!!
AN ARMY !!!, guess they are trying to be back to steal everything again no matter what,
Goulet, good words , this people are worst than the plague,
and you gave them 20 years?
damn, I would give them all the years for the rest of this planet until they all dissapear, damn them all.
no matter what you believe , which might be the same thing I believe,
for us my friend in that our country,
ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN PRD,
I take you over anyone in the PRD, all of them are proven a...holes,
nonetheless, with your name you say it all,
BASTA WITH PRD.
oooo
So, the followers of the retired officers are something far less regal than "former heads of the Dominican Air Force, Army, National Police and the Navy...." The retired leaders impart a bogus air of respectability and legitimacy to the thugs who follow the retired leaders.
The question is whether this move is poll watching or voter intimidation.
If poll watching, no problem.
If however the move is voter intimidation, the followers of the retired leaders must show the voters either for whom to vote or not to vote at all if the voter is unfriendly to retired officer.
Thus, the end at which the move aims is to lower the PLD turnout, giving the PRD at least a shot at an upset.
As the thugs go to work on the voters, the regal retired leaders will try to pull "rank" on active military and police assigned to the polls "Hey, that's my thug. I'm a former army general. And my pal here used to be an admiral. ."
But then again they are catering to like minds.
I really would like for you to tell me what were the PRD's great accomplishments while they were in power. They only further impoverished the people and practically destroyed the economy. You know, no political group is perfect and sometimes you're stuck choosing between the better of two evils. So unless you can offer me an insight into all the good the PRD has done for the people and the country, you need to come to terms that you have no clue what's going on and are probably one of these non-Dominicans who takes joy in the hope that the DR will collapse and bring its progress to a halt for the next 4 years. Are you a disgruntled Haitian by chance?
This plan was thwarted by the foreign overseers. What ever was said to Hipolito by these overseers remains to be disclosed, butI imagine it went along the lines of a total embargo against the DR which would have sounded a death-knell to an already collapsed economy with the consequential freezing of all assets, foreign and domestic of the government and the incumbent participants.
Whatever steps the PRD can take to recover their reputation is moot at this point in time. The PRD has lost all and just won't admit it. They would do well to abandon any hope of recovery in this lifetime and "silently fold their tents and steal away into the night".
As a viable political party, they are finished for this generation.
TB