A package of news briefs from the Caribbean

PUERTO RICO: Dozens of doctors arrested for alleged license fraud in U.S. territory

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Dozens of foreign-trained doctors accused of obtaining Puerto Rican medical licenses through fraud or bribery were arrested in raids across the island Thursday.

A federal grand jury indicted 88 doctors following an investigation into members of the U.S. Caribbean territory's medical licensing board who allegedly altered low-scoring tests to certify unqualified candidates.

The doctors, mostly Puerto Ricans who studied medicine in the Dominican Republic, Mexico or Cuba, paid board members bribes of as much as US$10,000 (euro7,300), according to the indictment. At least 75 of them were practicing medicine in Puerto Rico, including some at hospitals or emergency rooms, authorities said.

The arrests began near dawn. Some suspects _ including Pablo Valentin, a former executive director of the licensing board _ were seen on television being led away by local police and agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Drug Enforcement Administration also is checking pharmacy records to determine whether the suspects prescribed medications, which could prompt felony charges as violations of the Controlled Substances Act, spokesman Waldo Santiago said.

Most of the accused failed the licensing exam multiple times. One man who earned a medical degree in Spain failed the exam 16 times between 1974 and 2001 before he was granted a medical license in 2002, according to the indictment.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Police investigate psychiatrist who claimed he cured patients of AIDS

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) _ Dominican police shut down the laboratory of a prominent psychiatrist and former Santo Domingo mayor who claims he cured more than 50 people of AIDS by injecting them with an unknown substance, prosecutors said Thursday.

Police raided the lab of Jose Ramon Baez Acosta on Wednesday after receiving complaints from former patients, said Luisa Matos, a spokeswoman for the Santo Domingo Province District Attorney.

Investigators seized samples of the formula dubbed "Uman TS," medical equipment and two pigs and a donkey that Baez Acosta was apparently using for tests, Matos said.

Baez Acosta, who served as mayor of the Dominican capital in the mid-1960s, did not return phone calls to his office seeking comment. Last week he told the newspaper El Caribe he had cured 52 people of AIDS, and that God revealed the treatment to him in a dream.

Pan American Health Organization representative Ana Cristina Nogueira said Thursday that public health officials should track down AIDS patients who may have been hurt by the serum or who stopped other treatments because they believed they were cured.

"Every now and then these people appear saying there is a cure," she told The Associated Press. "It is difficult to control that when it goes out in a newspaper."

GUYANA: Illegal miners excavate road in remote town in search of gold, diamonds

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) _ Miners searching for gold and diamonds knocked out water service to thousands when they dug up the main road leading to a remote Guyanese jungle community, severing underground pipes.

Guyanese authorities traveled to the mining village of Mahdia near the nation's border with Brazil to stop dozens of small-scale miners from churning up more roads and leaving deep trenches in their search for diamonds and gold deposits.

"No mining of roadways will be allowed. This is unlawful," Public Works Minister Robeson Benn said Thursday in a phone interview shortly after ordering a halt to all unlicensed mining in the mountain community about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Georgetown.

Kellawan Lall, an adviser to Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo, said the government will have to cut a new road through dense forest due to the extensive damage by unlicensed Guyanese miners and Brazilian prospectors, or "garimpeiros."

"From what we have seen it would be too costly to repair the roads," he said.

The illegal prospectors used a mechanical dredger and traditional pickaxes in recent days to excavate sections of the main road leading into Mahdia, according to Lall.

Workers on Thursday were repairing severed underground water pipes that supply nearly 15,000 inhabitants. Authorities could not estimate when service would be restored.

PUERTO RICO: Prosecutors fear suspects could flee following collapse of bond company

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ The failure of Puerto Rico's largest bail bond company, which held guarantees on thousands of criminal defendants, is prompting fears that some of them may not show up for trial.

The local Justice Department filed emergency motions for courts across the U.S. Caribbean territory to instruct suspects covered by the Puerto Rico Bonding Co. to arrange for substitute bail this week or risk arrest.

"Obviously this has us worried," Jose Delgado, acting chief prosecutor, said Wednesday. "It becomes a public safety issue, given some of these people are accused of sex crimes and killings."

In exchange for vouching for defendants, bail bond companies charge an insurance premium and take a pledge of collateral, usually cash or real estate from family or friends. If a defendant fails to show up for court, those assets can be seized by the company.

After Puerto Rico Bonding collapsed in June under the weight of bad investments, the government gave notice it would honor its commitments until July 26 to allow suspects to make alternate plans for bonding.

The passing of the deadline left more than 200 defendants uncovered and potentially prone to fleeing without having to forfeit any collateral, Delgado said.