Minister of Interior & Police José Ramon Fadul (Monchy) acknowledged the general concern after a covert migratory agreement allowed 63-year old Cuban Augusto Falcon (better known as Willie, the cocaine cowboy) to be admitted to the Dominican Republic, according to a report in Listin Diario. Fadul has said he is living in an upscale neighborhood in Santo Domingo.
Fadul reaffirmed his stay here is transitory because it violates the migratory laws of the Dominican Republic. The government has not revealed why Falcon was admitted to the country after being deported from the United States along with a group of Dominicans. His presence in the country was only known after the story was in the Miami Herald almost two weeks after he had arrived to Santo Domingo.
Fadul spoke at the inauguration of new offices of the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP) and the Office of Information Technologies and Communication (Optic) of the Medina administration.
Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas said Falcon was admitted after a government to government deal was negotiated. Nevertheless, US Ambassador Robin Bernstein said that the US Embassy was not aware of any agreement.
Lawyer Felix Portes, who has assisted in several drug trafficking cases, calls the admitting of Falcon illegal and violates Dominican law and the Constitution. In a publication in MetroRD, he says with the action, President Danilo Medina violates the oath he took when taking on the Presidency. Portes asks why the covert action was taken.
He recalls that in 1966, Falcon was acquitted after bribing several of the jurors. One of the jurors later admitted to receiving US$300,000 of a promised US$1 million for his clearing Falcon in court. Portes also recalls that several of the witnesses that could testify against Falcon were murdered.
Portes says that Art. 15 of Migration Law 285-04 orders that foreigners convicted of crimes will be denied admission to the country. He says the exceptions to this rule do not apply to Falcon. He says the admission violates Art. 127 of the Dominican Constitution where the President swore to obey Dominican laws.
Portes doubts there was an agreement between the United States and the Dominican Republic and that this was a unilateral and sovereign decision of the Dominican government to receive the convicted drug trafficker and murderer. “The Dominican Republic will receive nothing in exchange for cooperating with the US government,” he writes. He explains this is so because the deportation was not political, but judicial with a federal character. And this is why the US ambassador had nothing to say on the matter.
Portes concludes his commentary:
“With the admission of Willy Falcón, has the Migration Law and the Constitution been enforced? Who managed the admission of Willy Falcón to the Dominican Republic? How much did this management cost, the admission letter, that the authorities violated the Migration Law, the promise of residency and that the government propaganda machinery and officers defend the admitting to the country of Willy Falcón despite the fact that the Constitution, laws and protocols have been ignored? “
Read more:
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
MetroRD
Miami Herald
3 December 2018
