Santo Domingo.- One of the members of the guerilla group headed by Francisco A. Caamaño which came ashore in the country’s south coast on February 2, 1973, today revealed that the boat they arrived in is at the center of several million pesos missing in the restoration project, involving senior Navy officials.

Hamlet Hermann, in a detailed chronology published in listin.com.do of the guerrilla group which used the boat “Black Jack” to disembark in Ocoa bay, Peravia province, said he spent as much as $600,000 to personally rebuild it, but was ransacked while anchored in the Boca Chica Yatch Club, without the Navy having conducted any investigation.

He said on August, 1973 then Armed Forces minister Ramon Emilio Jiménez took the sailboat for his personal use and had it for five years.

Hermann said he asked president Leonel Fernandez to assign him what was left of the Black Jack, resting at Sans Souci beach, next to the Officers Club in the 27 Febrero Naval Base.

The former guerilla said after the request was granted on October, 1996, the only survivors, accompanied by Caamaño’s relatives and companions sailed the Black Jack on February 16, 2000, to conclude the restoration effort.

Hermann said despite denouncing the sabotage with the possible involvement of military to then Armed Forces minister Jose Miguel Soto Jiménez in May, 2002 and the official’s pledge of an investigation on the matter, then Navy Chief of staff, Luis Humeau never conducted a probe.

He said in March, 2010 Fernandez allocated nearly RD$4.8 million for the Navy to again restore the Black Jack and on April 24, Navy Chief of staff Homero Sola Lajara hands the partially restored craft since it can’t even sail, to Vice president Rafael Alburquerque

Hermann adds that the Navy stated having spent RD$1.48 million in the project, but General Treasury records show the figure disbursed was RD$5.0 million.