With Chavez gone, what do his young opponents want now?
The groups are filled with young people raised in a Venezuela in which Chávez was the defining figure. Many came from families who fled the country or whose businesses or lands were expropriated as part of Chávez’s so-called 21st-century socialist revolution.
Read more at CSMonitor.com
The Man Behind Sen. Menendez’s Troubles
In recent years, the containers have become one of the favored methods for drug traffickers operating in the Dominican Republic, security officials say. Perhaps that’s because the country’s sole X-ray machine scans less than 5% of the containers.
Efforts to solve that problem are at the root of a growing scandal surrounding a powerful U.S. Senator, New Jersey’s Robert Menendez, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, and a high-flying Florida ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen, who is among the Democratic Party’s biggest donors.
Read more at TIME.com
In the Dominican Republic, sex trade flourishes
BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic – By day, Italian tourists pack the beach of this Caribbean seafront village. By night, prostitutes fill its streets.
“Prostitution is everywhere here; on the beach, in the bars, in the clubs,” said Antonio Guzman, 36, a hustler who has worked the beach for 15 years and regularly connects tourists with prostitutes. “This place runs on it.”
Read more at MiamiHerald.com
Trujillo’s Voudou Legacy
DAJABÓN, Dominican Republic – A river called Massacre flows on the western edge of this town, crossing under bridges that connect Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haitian women wash clothes in its shallow, clear waters, while their children play nearby. Haitians who refuse to wait for the official border crossings to open, walk across it, carrying baskets on their heads, filled with anything they can sell.
It’s a peaceful scene that masks the river’s history. Seventy-five years ago, bodies of Haitians killed under orders from the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo were thrown into this very river. Dominican soldiers and civilians chased down thousands of Haitians – or dark-skinned Dominicans – and killed them. They shot them, stabbed them with bayonets and slay them with machetes.
Read more at The Revealer
A new era of scrutiny for tax havens.
When Google established its international tax scheme, it followed a path well worn by other multinational companies. The company booked its sales from outside the U.S. at its international headquarters in Ireland. Most of that profit was then sent on to the Netherlands, largely free of tax. From there, the money went on to a well-known tax haven, the sunny islands of Bermuda. By the time the technology giant parked its money there, it had reduced its foreign tax bill to the low single digits. The scheme, known in tax avoidance circles as the “Double Irish” with a “Dutch Sandwich,” helped Google save billions in taxes. Last year, for example, Google registered $4 billion in sales in the United Kingdom, but only paid $10 million in taxes in that European country.
