Hoy newspaper editor, Bienvenido Alvarez Vega comments today on the treatment President Hipolito Mej?a received during his visit to Washington, D. C. from 19-21 May, and describes the trip as a ?palo? or homerun.
President Salvador Jorge Blanco was received by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. President Bill Clinton received President Leonel Fernandez. But the editor comments that no other Dominican President had met on a trip with so many of the top echelons of the US government establishment as Mej?a did.
The author highlights that President Mejia not only met with President George Bush at the Oval Office, but also was received by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Treasury Secretary John Snow, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and other influential members of the White House.
Alvarez says the visit is an extraordinary achievement for Mej?a as a person and statesman. He also mentions Mej?a?s fortunes were enhanced by the resignation of his Foreign Minister Hugo Tolentino, disgusted by the support of the Dominican government to the Iraq invasion, and by the position of former President Leonel Fern?ndez, who rejected the military intervention.
Alvarez speculates that the international diplomacy success may not mechanically transfer to success on the domestic front. ?People think, above all, in terms of their economic situation,? writes Alvarez. But at the same time he points out that politicians are vendors of hope and says that Mej?a has been a magician when making promises to people.