Pelegrin Castillo, the vice president of the Fuerza Nacional Progresista political party, called for annulling the Pre-Clearance Aviation Agreement signed by Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas and former US Ambassador James Brewster. The agreement has not gone into effect after President Danilo Medina sent it to the Constitutional Court for an opinion on whether the agreement was in violation of the Constitution.
Castillo claims that the airline passenger agreement should be annulled because it violates the nation’s sovereignty. He said that he recognizes that the United States is the country’s main trading partner and an ally in security matters, however, what is stipulated in Article III, six, is unacceptable. The article establishes that a foreigner who is denied asylum or refugee status could remain the Dominican Republic indefinitely. The text was added as an annex to the pre-clearance aviation agreement.
Castillo went on to say that the agreement should be rejected by the Constitutional Court (TC) because it would violate Article 3 of the Constitution that establishes self-determination and no intervention.
In recent years, Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas has signed visa-free travel agreements with several Central American countries, the same that are pressuring the United States to grant them refugee status.
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El Nacional
22 October 2018
