SANTO DOMINGO.- After acknowledging that she did not even know the figure of the Ombudsman, the colonel of the General Directorate of Traffic Safety and Land Transportation (Digesett), Ysabelita de los Santos Pérez said today that she went out with a golf club to defend herself because the information she had was that a mob of people had entered the Greyhound Track, a place where thousands of impounded vehicles are stored, many of which have become scrap metal by spend years outdoors.
The officer indicated that she had no refusal to receive the Ombudsman, Pablo Ulloa, she even admits that she did not know that figure from the State.
De los Santos Pérez added that when the Ombudsman and the members of the press arrived at the Dog Track, at the time, she did not know what was happening because she was in her office, but minutes later she was told that a mob had entered the place, as on other occasions has happened, to reclaim their vehicles.
Ysabelita de los Santos Pérez spoke when she was interviewed by telephone on the radio program El Sol de la Mañana.
The incident
The General Directorate of Traffic Safety and Land Transportation entered last Monday in contempt of the Law of the Ombudsman by preventing this official from inspecting the vehicle retention center located in the Dog Track to investigate complaints of illegal retentions by the attached body to the National Police.
Agents on duty at the Dog Track attacked the Ombudsman, his companions and a group of journalists as a way of preventing them from entering the facilities.
Initially, the Digesett tried to justify the action alleging that the Ombudsman, Pablo Ulloa, had not notified that he would visit the place, ignoring that the Law that creates that institution of guarantees of citizen rights empowers the incumbent to inspect any public facility without the need for notification. previous.
Article 3 of Law 19-01 that creates this institution establishes that “The Ombudsman or his Deputy may inspect public offices and those entities that provide public services, without prior notice, and request from them all the necessary documents and information to materialize their work, which will be provided free of charge.
After the incident and after a press release in which the Digesett said it regretted the event, but pointed out that it had proceeded in this way because Pablo Ulloa had not notified his visit (although the Law authorizes him to proceed in that way), she was dismissed. the person in charge of the Vehicle Retention Center, Colonel Ysabelita de los Santos Pérez. In her place, Lieutenant Colonel Hipólito Rijo Santana was appointed on an interim basis.
Newspaper Society
The Dominican Society of Newspapers, Inc. (SDD) deplored and condemned the aggression committed against several journalists, photojournalists, cameramen and the Ombudsman, Pablo Ulloa, during a day of inspection of the vehicle retention center called “Canódromo El Coco”. ”, on Monumental Avenue, National District.
Persio Maldonado Sánchez, president of the Dominican Society of Newspapers, said that it is an unacceptable and incomprehensible attack, since in the case of the press teams that accompanied the Ombudsman, they fulfilled the sacred mission of informing the the population about what happened at that time.
He stated that actions of this nature are the ones that will ultimately add to the list of events against freedom of the press, expression and dissemination in the Dominican Republic, which undoubtedly always end up affecting the image of the country and, consequently, that of the governments.
The Constitution
– Shield
Pablo Ulloa, the Ombudsman, invoked at all times article 190 of the Constitution, which enshrines autonomy and independence in the functions of this constitutional body.
These attacks cannot be ignored
Demand. The Dominican Society of Newspapers (SDD) considers that the transgression against the free exercise of reporting from the media cannot be allowed under any circumstances, and therefore demands that the events that occurred this Monday at the Dog Track be duly punished.
Facts like these, says the SDD, cannot be overlooked, because when the due sanction is not established, the conditions are created for a setback “in all that we have advanced in terms of the free exercise of journalism, which so much sacrifice and blood has been known to the Dominicans.”
