Amidst a major security operation, United States Secretary of State John Kerry arrived at the Presidential Palace in Santo Domingo at 12:40pm on Tuesday 14 June 2016, accompanied by the Deputy Secretary of State for the Americas, Mari Carmen Aponte; Mark Feierstein, Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the US National Security Council and US Ambassador James (Wally) Brewster, among others. El Dia reports the US Secretary of State left at 1:30pm, after a 55-minute meeting with the President.
After being received by the Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo and Foreign Minister Andres Navarro, Kerry went to President Danilo Medina’s office where the press was not allowed access.
Via his Twitter account, Kerry stated that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss bilateral cooperation and thank the Dominican people for hosting the 46th OAS General Assembly.
Kerry’s spokesman John Kirby said that during the assembly, the US Secretary of State “expressed our concern as well for the situation in Haiti, and he made clear that the people of Haiti deserve a chance to express their will and elect a president without further delay. Now, also as a part of his schedule today, he met with the conference’s host, Dominican President Medina, and reinforced our commitment to a strong bilateral relationship. He underscored in that meeting the need to resolve the risk of statelessness facing Dominican-born people of Haitian descent and uphold the country’s obligation to combat discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and national origin.”
In 2014-2015, the Dominican Republic implemented the National Foreigner Legalization Plan and the Special Naturalization Law, which allowed more than 300,000 foreigners, mostly Haitians, to regularize their status.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/06/258467.htm#DOMINICANREPUBLIC
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=483306
