President Hipólito Mejía suspended the decree that had ordered radio stations to play the national anthem at noon. Guido Gómez Mazara, legal consultant to the President, said that this was on the agenda of commitments the President had made with PRD leader, José Francisco Peña Gómez. On 29 March 1994, in the midst of the presidential election campaign, then President Joaquín Balaguer, who was running for re-election, issued the decree ordering the playing of the national anthem as an appeal to "nationalistic" sentiments of Dominicans. Balaguer sought to capitalize on Peña Gómez’s Haitian heritage in his quest for the presidency that year.
