Press freedom is generally respected in the Dominican Republic, and
journalists reported few problems covering the year's major news stories
-- from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Georges to the strikes and protests
that followed the municipal elections in August. The only violent incident
occurred during the visit of Cuban President Fidel Castro in August, when
television commentator Rafael Bonilla Ayber was injured in a clash between
pro- and anti-Castro demonstrators.
In December, U.S. federal authorities, acting at the request of Dominican
authorities, arrested Mariano Cabrera Durán, a liquor store owner
in the Bronx, New York, and charged him with participating in the 1975 murder
of reporter Luis Orlando Martínez. Cabrera is expected to go on trial
in Santo Domingo in January 1999. Martínez, who worked for the magazine
Ahora, was killed after he published articles critical of President Joaquín
Belaguer. |
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