The surprise meeting between President Leonel Fern?ndez and former President Hip?lito Mej?a at Monsignor Agripino N??ez Collado’s house, smoothes the path for the passage of the proposed tax reform and the DR-CAFTA agreement by the National Congress. The get-together also lowers the escalating tension between the government and the PRD. The mini-summit occurred just as President George W. Bush was signing DR-CAFTA into law, and President Fern?ndez was announcing that today should be the last day of work for the technical group working on the new proposals that will first go to the people and then to the Congress. Deputy Alfredo Pacheco, president of the Chamber of Deputies told reporters from List?n Diario that he felt that the meeting had contributed to a strengthening of the democratic system. Senate leader Andr?s Bautista said that he supported the dialogue since anything that was good for the DR-CAFTA treaty was good for the country.
As a result of the mini-summit, the two Presidents agreed to push for approval of the free trade treaty. However, the meeting did not go off without some degree of controversy, and each newspaper has its own story to tell. Diario Libre, citing
"sources" close to the events, says that it was Mej?a who initiated the process some three weeks ago, during a visit to the Bishop’s house on the PUCMM campus in Santiago. While Mej?a suggested the meeting, no firm decision was taken at the time. Monsignor N??ez talked to some of the higher- ranking government officials, but the answer that came back said that the government had nothing to talk about at this time, but it felt that meetings of this type were positive. A courteous but remote possibility. A few days later, two things happened to stir things up: The case of Pepe Goico and his possible ties to Quirino Paulino Castillo and the leaking of the news that an audit was taking place in the Central Bank covering the former administration. According to the sources, these events shook up the PRD and led to the famous letter sent by Mej?a to the President and the press and subsequent statements given by Mej?a and his associates on television.
El Caribe reported on the meeting, emphasizing the fact that there was no great difference of criteria between the two men regarding the tax reform or the FTA. The paper also played on the exchange at the start the meeting. N??ez Collado thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. Fern?ndez said that he was answering the letter that Mej?a sent that said that he (Mej?a)
"was available to deal with important national issues." Mej?a, according to the paper, replied that
"He (President Fern?ndez) stated that I came here to behave nicely, but I don’t
have to behave nicely towards anyone."