Former President Hipolito Mejia said yesterday, Sunday 5 May, that a “reengagement of relations,” had taken place at a meeting with PRD president Miguel Vargas held last Friday, 3 May. He made it clear, however, that no agreement had been reached, but that the ice had been broken in order to begin conversations between the leading members of the party. Mejia revealed that they did not talk about their past differences and that the fact that there will be a convention “underlies” their meeting. The agreed to attend a memorial service and visit the cemetery together on 10 May, the anniversary of the death of the former PRD leader, Jose Francisco Pena Gomez. The former President said that after the meeting there would be a timeline for the work (leading up to the convention) that would depend on discussions between Vargas and Alfredo Pacheco, Tony Pena Guaba and Cesar Sanchez over the next few days.
Speaking from his house, Mejia said that he had met with PRD general secretary Orlando Jorge Mera and interim president Andres Bautista, to debrief them about his meeting with Vargas. The former President stated that this was not “a game of dolls,” reiterating that the PRD authorities come to the end of their terms in July and they should open the way for some renewal at national level.
On Friday, Vargas and Mejia lunched at the country residence of former Armed Forces minister, Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez, in Lomas Lindas, Pedro Brand, according to the former general in an interview published in Diario Libre on Saturday, 4 May.
The Cuentas Claras column in El Dia newspaper comments that the Gallup poll that showed that voters who favor the PRD were beginning to reject both Miguel Vargas and Hipolito Mejia was key to motivating a meeting between the two politicians.
Soto Jimenez, who accompanied Vargas Maldonado to his meeting with President Danilo Medina at the Presidential Palace last week, said the two leaders would be meeting again. Mejia was accompanied by his security chief Carlos Diaz Morfa and Vargas by his security chief Rafael Peralta Guerrero. Key issues that require agreement are the date for the PRD convention and the Political Parties Bill.
The differences occurred after Miguel Vargas signed the so-called Blue Ties Agreement with President Leonel Fernandez that led to the modification of the Constitution and opened the way for former Presidents to run for President again. When the agreement was signed Vargas seemed secure in his belief that he would be the party’s presidential candidate, but he went on to lose the nomination to former President Hipolito Mejia, who – like Fernandez – was allowed to run for President again. Mejia went on to lose the 2012 presidential election after a tightly run race against the PLD’s Danilo Medina.