Presidential spokesman Roberto Rodriguez Marchena has distanced President Medina from the award granted by a Ministry of Culture jury to Nobel Prize for Literature winner Mario Vargas Llosa. In 2013 Vargas Llosa played a prominent role in a campaign against the Dominican Republic after the Constitutional Court ruling 168-13 ordered a restructuring of immigration status in the country and confirmed a previous Supreme Court ruling on the way in which Dominican nationality is acquired.
Last week, the Ministry of Culture announced that the Pedro Henriquez Urena International Award was being given to Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa. The award will be presented at this year’s Santo Domingo International Book Fair.
Rodriguez Marchena expressed agreement with commentators who say that while no one is questioning Vargas Llosa’s literary attributes, the author showed a lack of respect towards the Dominican Republic, as reflected in his article “The Pariahs of the Caribbean” published in the leading Spanish newspaper, El Pais. Vargas Llosa compared the Constitutional Court ruling to discriminatory laws in Nazi Germany.
Rodriguez Marchena added that Vargas Llosa’s son, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, who at the time headed the UN Refugee Agency in the country, also led an international smear campaign that labeled the DR as a racist country. Rodriguez Marchena said the campaign was the result of a lack of sufficient information or political audacity against the Dominican people, as reported in El Dia.
The Presidential spokesman said that it was unfortunate that the jury had put the government in an uncomfortable position.
Mario Vargas Llosa was the unanimous choice by a jury made up of Culture Minister Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Sonia Henriquez Toledano, Luis O. Brea Franco, Liliana Weinberg, Nestor Rodriguez, Miguel Mena and Ramon Victoriano Martinez.
http://presidencia.gob.do/noticias/rodriguez-marchena-premio-a-vargas-llosa-fue-una-imprudencia-politica-del-jurado-video
