What was he investigating?
During the funeral of Civil Aviation Board official Angel Cristopher Martinez, his son Eric Christopher said that his father did not accept bribes, and never allowed anyone who worked with him to do so either. Christopher's son believes that his father's incorruptibility at work was what sealed his death. The Police suspect that he was murdered by contract killers and are investigating leads related to possible conflicts of interest he might have had as part as his job as navigation director at the CAB. Christopher's brother-in-law Julio Soto told El Caribe that eight days before his death, Christopher said that he had grounded two airplanes, supposedly because they had expired craft records. Soto said that his brother-in-law was under a lot of pressure from the companies.
The 58-year old officer was in charge of coordinating airplane inspection and supervision and issuing licenses to pilots. He was working on an investigation into the quality of the aircraft used for domestic flights, especially those flying into the La Isabela International Airport (AILI - Joaquin Balaguer International) and had inspected three companies.
El Dia newspaper also mentions the controversial appearance of two full-page advertisements in the press recently, outlining the Civil Aviation Board's efforts to comply with US Federal Aviation Agency requirements for the country to return to the status whereby Dominican registered aircraft would be allowed to fly to the United States. The advertisements appeared last week, prior to Cristopher's death, and the newspaper cites these as evidence that there was a major conflict brewing.
This is the second suspected murder related to a government job to occur in recent months. Earlier in the year, a customs officer with a reputation for being incorruptible was also murdered. His death has still not been clarified.
Que Se Dice column in Hoy newspaper comments on these cases: "What is worst is that these murders can be legitimately interpreted as a message aimed at dissuading people who try to act with honesty and responsibility in their government jobs, as if it were not enough to have to observe the insulting impunity enjoyed by the looters of the nation's treasury who drive on city streets with their flashy respectability that was acquired with big bucks."

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