Journalist slams Dominican leader’s ‘political pillagers'(Update)

Santo Domingo.- The National Police on Tuesday said it shot and killed one suspect, arrested another and three are still at large in the case of the burglary, and also recovered Marino Zapete’s laptop.

FILE.“I remind the president that Pedro Corporan is a government official. So his actions aren’t just his own,” warned the journalist Marino Zapete on Tuesday, just two days after a brazen daytime burglary of his home where the only valuable stolen was his laptop.

Zapete again called Medina’s administration “political pillagers” and reminded him that despite his pledge not to seek reelection, “swallowed his famous putrid shark whole without even burping.”

The journalist however lauded the chief of Police Manuel Castro for his diligence in the wake of the break in, but warned that the daring daytime burglary, “in an area full of alarms,” is cause for suspicion.

“I’m telling the Dominican media that I don’t expect their solidarity because I’ve always denounced that it’s part of a cartel, which don’t defend us,” the journalist said in his program on Color Vision, Channel 9.

He also reminded Medina that despite denouncing the aggressions from Dominican Cooperatives Institute (Idecoop) director Pedro Corporan several months ago, the official has yet to be removed, and still continues his threats. “Corporan’s brother threatened me when he said ‘I know where your son plays basketball’, that’s a menacing attitude by the government that I won’t accept.”

“My house was attacked in such a violent manner, that it wasn’t just to steal by laptop,” Zapete said. “In my case, four locks were broken just to get a laptop.

He thanked the owners of Color Vision and Teleradio America for keeping him on staff despite his allegations against Medina and his officials, and admitted feeling “totally alone” in his struggle.

Politics

"Deputy Jorge Frias said he was offered 15 million pesos in the cafeteria of Congress to vote to amend the constitution to let Medina run again, those aren’t alliances, they are conspiracy of criminals,” the journalist said, adding that he regrets that the political parties have become big business and called their alliances “big money machines.”