The Listín Diario published an interview by Ana Mitila Lora with Dominican ambassador in Washington, D. C., Bernardo Vega, that focused on U.S.-DR issues of interest such as a recent Washington Post article, regional trade integration and the delays in the appointment of a U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic Washington Post articleAmbassador Vega clarified that a recent Agency for International Development (AID) study on drug addiction in the Dominican Republic showed that there are about 35,000 drug users in this country (of a population of around 8 million people), a number which is much less than the 400,000 figure used by the Washington Post in a recent article highlighting the use of the D.R. as a link used by drug traffickers to smuggle their drugs between Haiti and Puerto Rico. The same Washington Post article estimated that money laundering is at US$1,100 million dollars between the U.S. and the D.R. Ambassador Vega cites U.S. Treasury sources whereby money laundering is estimated at US$100 million a year. The US$1,100 million in remittances is acceptable given the large numbers of Dominicans living abroad, he observed this number is not far fetched. It is estimated that Dominicans remit about US$212 dollars to their families and friends in the D.R. Also indicated was that Dominicans living in Europe use U.S.-based companies to send their money to their families. As proof of the smaller volume of money laundering, the ambassador said that when the money controls were implemented, contrary to as what happened in Colombia, there has not been a significant decline in the remittances. The controls require the name and address of the sender to be listed. He also pointed out that five days after the article was published, the U.S. State Department certified the Dominican Republic and praised efforts for stopping the trafficking of drugs. Ambassador Vega says that the article points to Puerto Rico as the principle bridge between Colombia and the United States for the export of narcotic drugs. He said that "all the criticism that the Caribbean countries do not do enough to combat drug trafficking collapses when the reality is that an island that is part of the United States, with three military bases, where customs and migration is controlled by U.S. Federal government, is the main point from where the exports take place." If the U.S. cannot control the entrance of drugs from Puerto Rico, what can be expected of countries that do not have anywhere near its resources? Latin American nations have continuously said that it is futile to try to control the exporters, if the importers and the consumers continue strong in the United States. Trade issuesAmbassador Vega also commented that Latin America has taken the lead in regional integration and free trade, originally proposed by the United States in the Miami Summit of the Americas, at times U.S. foreign policy is crippled by internal protectionism. The region will meet in April in Chile for the II Summit of the Americas. He commented that open regionalism continues in Latin America where Mercosur has accepted to integrate with the Andean Group. "The idea is for smaller regional groups to integrate into bigger schemes. While some think that integration is the new utopy, Latin America has taken it very seriously. The Dominican Republic has already taken the first steps with its negotiations that will end with free trade agreements with Caricom and Central America within the next few weeks, he explained. On the issue of the missing U.S. ambassadorThe U.S. has yet to appoint an ambassador for the Dominican Republic. Vega explained that this is due to the confrontations between the White House and Senator Helms. Other Latin American countries that have been affected by delays in the appointment of ambassadors are Mexico and Argentina, the latter without a U.S. ambassador for nine months. He said that the U.S. government compensates by sending key State Department officials, such as Deputy Secretary of State Hamilton,who is in charge of Caribbean and Central American affairs at the State Department.
