Jacobo Majluta, the presidential candidate for the Partido Revolucionario Independiente, considered the fourth most important political party in the Dominican Republic, will remain in the United States until February to continue with his medical treatment. He left for the United States in mid-October, and while it has been said he is being treated for problems related to his years of intense chain-smoking, no concrete information on the state of his health has been released.
The announcement that he will return in February was made by the presidential candidate of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez. The PRD has already declared an alliance with the PRI. Dr Peña Gómez said that Mr Majluta will, within a few days, send a taped message to members of his party and the community in general. He said that Jacobo Majluta will also send a message to the convention of the party that will be held on 26 January, and that he expects to be in the country in February to participate in a large rally.
Jacobo Majluta, was vice president of the country for 43 days following the suicide of President Antonio Guzmán at the end of the latter’s term in 1982. He was also presidential candidate for the PRD, but was defeated by the PRSC, principally because of the opposition of his predecessor, Dr. Salvador Jorge Blanco, also a PRD man. He later fought with Dr. José Peña Gómez over who should be the presidential candidate of the PRD, and then left to form his own party, the PRI. In the 1994 election, he received less than five percent of the vote.