The leadership of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) decided yesterday to pull the PRD out of any and all dialogue and cooperation with government representatives in protest of President Leonel Fernández’s decision to veto a bill renaming the national airport. Last Friday President Fernández announced his veto of a bill to rename the airport outside Santo Domingo the Las Americas International Airport, the Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez International Airport after the former PRD leader, ex-Santo Domingo mayor and former presidential candidate, who died last spring. Fernández, while recognizing the importance and accomplishments of Peña Gómez, noted that the airport was a portal to all the Americas and if any name change was to be made, he felt it more appropriate to add the name of the father of the Dominican Republic, Juan Pablo Duarte to the Las Americas name. The resolution adopted on Monday by the PRD Presidium characterized the veto not only as an affront to the memory of Peña Gómez, but also evidence of a "stubborn denial of the true cultural and ethnic identity of the Dominican people." The veto may be overturned by Congress, since the Acuerdo de Santo Domingo (ASD), the coalition which PRD leads, controls 4/5 (24 of 30 seats) of the Senate and a solid majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
