Balaguer re-elected

May 17, 1974

THE POPULAR COLONY BEGINS. The Ahome city council will materialize before the end of this year, the ambitious project to resolve the housing needs of middle-income families, by signing the agreement for the execution of the program that includes the first stage of Colonia 72, with 250 homes of Three bedrooms. Mayor Nicanor Villarreal signed the construction agreement. The project will be financed by the Serfin group, according to an agreement made by municipal authorities. At the beginning, a thousand homes had been programmed.

BALAGUER REELECTED. Sto. Sunday. The Dominican electorate elected President Joaquín Balaguer, 66, for a third four-year term in office, but the discontent reflected in a low vote seemed to portend a difficult future for his new administrative management. The Central Electoral Board said that there was great enthusiasm on the part of the voters, but a tour of the polling stations and reports from the interior allowed them to calculate that between 35 and 40 percent of Dominicans eligible to vote preferred to stay in their houses. Balaguer, a moderate politician, actually had no rivals in these elections. The main opposition candidate, 63-year-old Antonio Guzmán, withdrew three days ago alleging lack of guarantees for equitable competition. 26 senators, 15 deputies and more than 1,190 municipal authorities were also chosen. A man was shot dead by a police chief, and two homemade bombs were also reported to have exploded, but they said the events were not politically motivated. Around 95 percent of the commercial premises remained closed to the public and with the exception of a few restaurants, there was little activity in this capital, subject to intense military patrol. It is considered that the vote favored Balaguer with 90 percent of the votes. His running mate is the current vice president, Carlos Rafael Goico.

ROSA ISABEL GASTÉLUM COMMUNICATED. In the parish of the Sacred Heart, the beautiful little girl Rosa Isabel Gastélum Beltrán, daughter of Messrs. Alfredo Gastélum Orejel and Rosalinda Beltrán de Gastélum, received the Bread of the Angels. The ceremony was very well attended, as friends and family came to accompany Rosa Isabel in such a momentous event. She served as godmother, the young Mrs. Laura Elena Beltrán of Hubbard. At the end of the ceremony, a delicious breakfast was offered.

May 17, 1999

MASS FOR IT TO RAIN. The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe left Sinaloa to continue her pilgrimage through Baja California, after hundreds of Catholics said goodbye to her in a mass, after thousands of Mochitenses worshiped her and asked her to intercede before God so that there would be a good weather, with abundant rain that grants peace and tranquility to families and endows humans with a priestly vocation. The mass was at the Ibarra Almada Stadium in which priests led by Monsignor José Luis Muratalla participated.

TANKER TRUCK EXPLODES. Pakistan. Large columns of flames and smoke arose after the gasoline load carried by a tanker exploded, causing some 65 deaths and at least 75 injuries in Adda Rodu. The truck was moving at high speed when it overturned, its contents beginning to leak. About 150 people came with buckets to collect the gasoline, but minutes later an explosion occurred, the cause being unknown. People were trapped in the inferno of flames, but no one could help them as they died.

More from the same author:

Sylva Mónica Ruffo Kelly, who completed her basic and high school studies in Los Mochis, stayed two years in El Centro, California, where she perfected the English language. She joined El Debate in September 1994 as a translator and later, in 2000, she became an assistant to the Editorial Team of El Debate de Los Mochis, tasks that led her to take charge of the entertainment page for more than 10 years and the newspaper archive. Upon the death of the City Chronicler, Don Evaristo Fregoso, in September 2003, who wrote the Los Mochis column 50 and 25 years ago, Ruffo Kelly took over the history column, which he later changed to Mi Ciudad 50 and 25 years, in which he narrates what happened in those years on the same day of publication of the newspaper EL DEBATE of Los Mochis.

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