The United States ambassador in Santo Domingo, Hans Hertell expressed his confidence in Dominican justice yesterday. This follows Chief Justice Jorge Subero Isa’s comments, as reported in Tuesday’s DR1 news brief, that Dominican justice is “the best in Latin America”. Hertell also commended Subero Isa’s role in developing the Dominican justice system. He was seeking to smooth over the row arising from comments made by USAID representative Elena Brinenman, who earlier questioned the Dominican courts’ reliability and their capacity to bring accused drug smuggler Quirino Paulino Castillo to justice. The ambassador said that her words had been taken out of context, and that both the US embassy and USAID were firm supporters of the Dominican justice system’s autonomy.
“I believe that the extradition case will be resolved in a way that is satisfactory to all concerned”, assured Hertell. Hans Hertell made these statements during a visit to President Leonel Fernandez in which he congratulated the Dominican leader on this week’s approval of the IMF agreement. The two also discussed the ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) by Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.