{"id":499847,"date":"2026-02-10T19:50:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/hecmilio-galvan-from-the-anti-corruption-speech-to-the-complaints-of-payments-and-labor-persecution\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:50:33","slug":"hecmilio-galvan-from-the-anti-corruption-speech-to-the-complaints-of-payments-and-labor-persecution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/uncategorized\/hecmilio-galvan-from-the-anti-corruption-speech-to-the-complaints-of-payments-and-labor-persecution\/","title":{"rendered":"Hecmilio Galv\u00e1n: From the anti-corruption speech to the complaints of payments and labor persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<strong>Santo Domingo<\/strong>.- In recent months, several officials of the Governmental Train have been involved in a series of questions about illicit activities in front of the institutions they lead.\n\nIn January, the rector of the Technological Institute of the Americas, Rafael Feliz, was dismissed by President Luis Abinader, after the N Investiga research program brought to light a series of accusations about mandatory discounts to employees of the institution in order to finance the political movement &#8220;J\u00f3venes Unidos por el Cambio&#8221;, founded by Feliz.\n\nAlmost two weeks later, a report was presented about the current director of the Special Fund for Agricultural Development (FEDA), Hecmilio Galv\u00e1n, who &#8220;<strong>forced<\/strong>&#8221; employees to transfer a fixed amount, depending on their salary scale, for various matters including <strong>&#8220;Set Up Your Councilor&#8221;<\/strong>, a scheme with which money was collected to buy vehicles for councilors of the Modern Revolutionary Party.\n\nThe <strong>FEDA<\/strong> is a dependency of the Presidency of the Republic that seeks to improve the quality of life of rural families through financing to associations of small and medium producers.\n\nHecmilio took over the reins of the institution on October 26, 2021, bringing with him a series of irregularities throughout his management that has given rise to public complaints and claims.\n\nGalv\u00e1n&#8217;s background dates back to 2022, when a video went viral showing him driving a vehicle while consuming alcoholic beverages, which prompted an investigation by the <strong>Digesett<\/strong> and generated widespread controversy on social media.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ab.deultimominuto.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OIP-2026-02-10T184706.690.webp\" alt=\"The image has an empty ALT attribute; its filename is OIP-2026-02-10T184706.690.webp\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8220;The video that has been circulated in which I appear with some friends was in\u00a0<\/em>Christmas<em>\u00a0of 2016, after concluding the party of my work, it was a mistake of that moment&#8221;, affirmed\u00a0<\/em><strong>Galv\u00e1n.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nAlthough the official apologized for the &#8220;<strong>irresponsible conduct shown<\/strong>&#8220;, he was quick to call the publication a smear campaign.\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reports of irregularities in the FEDA<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\nIn <strong>2023<\/strong> the FEDA came under scrutiny following a series of complaints about alleged purchases above market price, irregular distribution of agricultural aid, and possible conflicts of interest in the awarding of goods and services.\n\n<strong>The accusations against Galv\u00e1n have been recurrent<\/strong>. Among them, the purchase of laying hens imported from Israel at an alleged overprice and without bidding processes stood out, with the alleged aim of benefiting companies linked to his environment. Faced with these accusations, Galv\u00e1n <strong>responded in October 2023 denying the irregularities<\/strong> and assuring that he would present evidence to dismantle the accusations, even claiming that some events had occurred before his administration, but that process was never completed.\n\nIn 2024, a series of mass layoffs of employees occurred, including some <strong>sick with licenses and agronomists, several of them in the process of retirement<\/strong>. Around <strong>235 employees were laid off without justification<\/strong>.\n\nIn 2026, a new complaint emerged that linked FEDA employees to alleged salary deductions aimed at financing a political movement called <strong>The Machinery of Change<\/strong>. According to testimonies collected by investigative journalist Nuria Piera, the scheme would have operated within the institution under the direction of Galv\u00e1n.\n\nThe most recent investigations point to a system that would include <strong>mandatory financial contributions, job threats, suspensions without pay, and the use of the institutional structure for political purposes<\/strong>. The reported deductions would range between RD$3,000 and RD$20,000, and non-compliance or delays in payments would have resulted in dismissals or other sanctions against employees.\n\nThis case caught the attention of the head of the General Directorate of Ethics and Governmental Integrity, Milagros Ortiz Bosch, the Minister of Public Administration, Sigmund Freund, and President Luis Abinader himself, who opened an exhaustive investigation into Galv\u00e1n&#8217;s management.\n\nHowever, social media users called for the immediate dismissal of the director.\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Hecmilio: The Activist<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n<strong>Hecmilio Ar\u00edstides Galv\u00e1n Cruz<\/strong>, an economist by profession, dedicated his life to fighting for social demands and the fight against corruption, being an active part of groups such as &#8220;<strong>La Multitud<\/strong>&#8220;, where he served as national coordinator &#8220;seeking to transform the mentality of Dominicans and promote change in the country&#8221;.\n\nSince 2005, he has had a constant presence in the media to denounce <strong>acts of corruption that he understood were being committed to the detriment of public funds<\/strong>.\n\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/feda.gob.do\/despacho-del-director\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/feda.gob.do\/despacho-del-director\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the institution&#8217;s page<\/a><\/strong>, the director has been part of political and social spaces such as Juventud Rebelde, Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares, Foro Social Alternativo, Foro Ciudadano, Torrente Patri\u00f3tico, Frente Unido de Izquierda Revolucionario, among others.\n\nServed as General Coordinator and Executive Director of La Convergencia por un Mejor Pa\u00eds (2014-2015), an entity that grouped numerous political organizations in the country. He is currently the President of &#8220;La Maquinaria del Cambio&#8221;, a project composed of 150 sectoral movements that supported Luis Abinader in the 2020 campaign.\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What other public denunciation does President Abinader await to appease the irregularities of FEDA?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Santo Domingo.- In recent months, several officials of the Governmental Train have been involved in a series of questions about illicit activities in front of the institutions they lead. In January, the rector of the Technological Institute of the Americas, Rafael Feliz, was dismissed by President Luis Abinader, after the N Investiga research program brought [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133543,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-499847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2623","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","dum_api":{"author_name":"Carolina \u00c1lvarez","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cropped-WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-26-at-5.31.57-PM-96x96.jpeg","categories_name":["Uncategorized"],"featured_media_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133543"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}