Ah yes...Freedom of Speech.....counsel the BrigGen, drop a letter in his personal file, suspend him without pay...nope let's arrest him.......in the DR there will be no opinion other than the policy

Police general had the constitutional right to express his opinion and should not be penalized.
In most countries the police is not a militarized institution, except in DR.
The arrest disposition is an extreme measure and should be revoked, and the general freed.

yes you would think he would be fired for insubordination but not jailed ....these guys must be political rivals in Lionels banana republic .....maybe they should have put him on a plane to Costa Rica

Freedom of speech?
Where is the OAS now?
Where is Chavez & Castro defending this man's right to speech?
Is the DR becoming a failed state?

And just when you think a Dominican authority can’t get much more moronic.

Send the Police chief to jail to take Democracy 101 especially the chapter on “Freedom of Speech”. That is if the guy can read.

Wake up. The DR is not becoming a failed state. IT IS A FAILED STATE.

All of you are wrong...

This general committed a violation of institutional policy and must pay for it somehow... Even in the United States, officers are not allowed to speak to the media without prior approval or speak in a negative manner...

Take it from someone who has been in the US military... So if DR is a banana republic for jailing an officer who violated a principle, then so is the United States, and i am pretty sure that this laws can be found in other western countries...

FREDCOBBS = IGNORAMUS

Thank you Carlos Franco. To some discipline is a strange concept, they would rather live in a disorderly manner.

The coup will not be far behind now,
Leonel in Israel signing treaties and dancing with the Arabs.

Carlito when you were an E3 in the army after 8 years you remember the UCMJ yes it provides for punishment after courts martial not arbitrary jail time without a hearing Just remember like when you got the homo discharge{{not that there is anything wrong with that}} they had to courts martial you first article 125 UCMJ

Wake up. The DR is not becoming a failed state. IT IS A FAILED STATE. *******************lol

Exactly, the Chief dispensed swift and uncontested discipline. He never said the General was wrong or lying. Just that he violated a General order not to express opinions without clearing it thru the HQ. Who would have said. No you can not say that.

But I see it as positive: at least they arrested somebody for something last week.

For the retired PFC who wants to tell us about the US Military having the same rules. Yes son, we know that. Gen MaCarthur > President Truman. Gen Shenseki-Rumsfeld,. LTG Haig- Everyone above him.

Quote ( All of you are wrong...

This general committed a violation of institutional policy and must pay for it somehow... Even in the United States, officers are not allowed to speak to the media without prior approval or speak in a negative manner...

Take it from someone who has been in the US military... So if DR is a banana republic for jailing an officer who violated a principle, then so is the United States, and i am pretty sure that this laws can be found in other western countries )

He speaks the truth police and fire are not granted free speach in the US either it must be approved when it comes to public comments you wont get jailed but it will cost you

firefly you and the guy that got the " Homo " discharge {not that there is anything wrong with that } Forget one thing that the American justice system allows for which is due process Trial by your peers or Courts Martial this guy got jailed by a senior officer for a specific charge with no due process .....thus Banana Republic

I dont think its right I was just pointing out it happens , and over here it usually only amounts to shifts off or not being promated stuff along those lines

carlito it is not to late to appeal that BCD you got for you know what ...give it a shot

I was being polite by pointing out what we all know or at least should know. How do you, complain about being insulted by Fred and then insult me.

PS: ABR is not the abreviation for APRIL. The 2nd letter is a "B" like in BRUTO not a "P"as in PENDEJO..

Now to continue a worthwhile discussion on this thread.

The comment that got the GENERAL in trouble, is one he wrote in a NEWS media where he has a recurring role as a contributor and writes a column . (CLAVE DIGITAL).

So if the PN had never complained before and accepted all the GEN's positive columns, and now only takes action because they did not agree with what he said in this one article (recall, they never said he was wrong, just that he was not in accord with insitutional policy). Taking disciplinary action is wrong. He should have been charged with making unauthorized comments be they negative or positive.

Without getting into the merits/selections of the DR military rank structure, this guy is no idiot. So he knew what he was doing. Knew the possible consequences and who would not agree with his comments when he wrote the column.

The PD Chief FERMIN came out of this appearing as a weak leader more stubborn than strong.
He did more to project the counter points to his policy by taking it from a INTERNET site where a few thousand read it. To a 1st page article and commentary in all the National printed media.

I am certain, that his aides, staff and counsel told him to let it go, get payback later from Gen TAVARES. (revenge is a dish best served cold). Pushed by Franklyn ALMEYDA at Interior y Policia and using Hipolitistic thinking he decided to do it this way. He gave fodder to critics who disagree with restrictions of free speech in any institution.

They can not even follow the 1 good tactic LF uses, ignore dissent and controversy and it goes away faster.

I looked up the General's articles in CLAVE DIGITAL and he has been writing a column since 2005 and has over 80 articles on file.

Do these facts change anything in your opinion.

what say thee?

Carlito contesta !

ABR - thanks for the research. Interesting indeed.....

The military, in almost all countries around the world, is there to protect a country's sovereignty & not get involved in political matters. It doesn't matter how corrupt or how wrong a governent is. It doesn't matter what the government says. The point of the military is that it is there to protect the state. It is there to stay away from it's affairs. The military is not a business. The military does not make negotiations or is involved in negotiation talks with other governments or citizens. They are a security force. Just that. There are no politicians in the military (at least by law) Any opinion coming from a general can lead to something way more serious & costly. That's like running a corporation and having the CFO speak to the CEO of a rival company on the internal workings of his own company. A general should do what he is there to do. SERVE and that's it. when he is done with service then he can speak. Remember, he doesn't represent himself. He represents DR.

it is agreed that if a general has the ppl's best interest in mind that the ppl would definitely support his opinions. However, it is not the best option. Let a general speak his mind and you are opening the door for a general to dictate policy. You are also opening the door for a general to defy the government. If he can say & do as he pleases on paper, then what stops him from critizing the policies that he himself is suppose to enforce? if he feels so ill willed toward certain positions then why is he still a general carrying out those same positions? don't forget that a general has access to alot more things than you guys can see in the public light. God forbid he sees something that could cause a serious diplomatic issue & he dissents on his opinion of the matter, then it will be chaos. if the US generals all stood up and said they didn't want to go to war in iraq what the hell would happen? a government saying 1 thing & the military doing another. who would respect it?

the military is not an elected body. It is not something the ppl installed. It is not an organization that has no boundries. It is a bureaucracy. Ppl enlist in the military not to change politics or to change the country but to serve. That is it. A president, regardless of how corrupt, runs for office because there is a reason and a means to that office. You do not take a job at dunkin donuts as a security officer thinking that you are going to change the way that dunkin donuts does it's business. That's like having an senatorial aide dictate to the senator that his policy that he just signed into law is horseshit. So why are you working for him? A general comes out and speaks against government and only submits himself to the same criticism since he was appointed by that government and breaks bread everyday with that government.

"Carlitos contesta"

now now carlito the Boricuas were part of Spain when you were shining the Haitians shoes Grandees and Dukes walked the streets of San Juan until the Spanish American War and into the 20th century ....Carlito you just show your envy of the Boricuas and probably the Cubans also

We shall continue with the worthwhile conversation and ignore the idiot behind the curtain. He appears to have that CABLE GUY effect, keeps showing up, when no one actually wants to hear from him.

DOMINICA I am in complete agreement with your points. Until all the facts about GEN TAVARES having a column in the NEWS since 2005 came out. So either his superiors were wrong on not having stopped the writings before they promoted and assigned him. Or wrong for permiting him to do it and then only punish him when they did not like what he says.

The US military as you say has dissenters in all ranks. The last Army Chief of Staff, Gen Peter SCHOOMAKER, was recalled to active duty by RUMSFELD, as there was dissent about the IRAQ war plans. The only Gen willing to take the job was SCHOOMAKER as ACTIVE Gen's had declined to thro"w out the plans in place for RUMMY's plan (time proved them right).

RUMMY eventually appointed NAVY Admirals in CENTCOM and SOUTHCOM. Where 80% of the forces are Army. They just recently appointed Gen PETREAUS to CENTCOM, but he had done it all in IRAQ. So those places are slowly getting back to where they were, prior to RUMMY.

So, I agree, but a no talking to the press and stay on message policy is used for everyone all the time. Not just for the Generals you dont like, or the comments you dont like.

Gen TAVARES had a 2 part colum, after the 1st one came out, he was told do not print the second half. There in lies the problem Cool Hand LUKE, "seems like we have a failure to communicate.

Pay no attention to carlito he is still angry about having to clean latrines the whole time he was in the army before he got that unusual discharge

I do not need to refer to anyone by name, they tend to ID themselvs. They counter reason and logic with offensive language. It's a BATTLE of WITS and the poor guy is unarmed.

Welfare checking PR's. Does it imply that we have PR's that check those who are collecting welfare. Most likely I should just dumb it down and infer his intended statement was to (once again) offend PR's, as "WELFARE CHECK CASHING PR's"'.

"MIRROW" Mirrow, mirrow on the wall who is the dumbest of us all.

Seems like they should be using, the time on this forum, to improve their English skills and be able to pass the Englsh Vocabulary portion of the US Citizenship test. This may permit them to qualify for a welfare check, and not wait until they are 50 to have the test in spanish.