El Caribe newspaper observes that from 29 October 2019 to 18 January 2020, in less than three months time, three senior US government officials have visited President Danilo Medina. The visits have been made public and have been to discuss security issues, drug trafficking, corruption and the upcoming elections.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is funding the participation of technicians from the Electoral Systems Foundation (IFES) who will be in the country assisting in the preparation of the February municipal election and the May presidential and congressional elections.
Regarding the elections, the US Embassy has insisted that the United States is happy to collaborate with the Dominican Republic to hold free, fair and transparent elections. IFES has indicated that its efforts are to assist the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to improve the transparency, credibility and confidence in the 2020 elections.
El Caribe analyzes possible reasons for the constant visits. It mentions the political crisis in Latin American countries, including Haiti, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Nicaragua could be one of the motivations for the special interest in the country. Another is the establishment of diplomatic relations with China in 2018 and the influence that the Asian country is developing in Latin America. The Dominican Republic has a privileged geographical position in the region and is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Recently the Chinese ambassador in the country, Zhang Run, urged the country to call for the construction of the Port of Manzanillo and said that for his country “that is a little port” because it has built seven of the ten largest ports in the world.
A case that was aired in public opinion was the publication of Florida Senator Marco Rubio who stated that security cameras of facial recognition were being installed in the country with the support of the Chinese government, which was denied by Run.
Last Friday, the 18th of this month, the Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing US Department of the Treasury paid a visit to President Medina in the company of US Ambassador Robin Bernstein. According to what was expressed, the interest would be in the case of Cesar Emilio Peralta (El Abusador). In August 2019, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named Peralta and eight other Dominicans as a major foreign narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Trafficking Designation Act (Kingpin Act).
On 11 November 2019 and last Friday, 17 January 2020, the head of the Southern Command, Craig Faller, was at the Presidential Palace and discussed issues such as regional security and the border situation due to the conflict in Haiti. Later, the Nuevo Herald of Miami affirmed that the official came to the country to deal with the subject related to the cameras that the government of China would be installing.
Previously, on October 29, 2019, President Medina received a visit from Cindy Kierscht, the Assistant Secretary of State for Canada, Haiti and the Caribbean in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, to discuss the supervision of the elections, according to Ambassador Robin Bernstein.
In the current political-electoral process of the country, the United States has had an unusual participation. Last year, US Secretary of State Michael (Mike) Pompeo called President Danilo Medina to ask him to respect the Constitution. The 2015 Constitution impedes Medina to run for office for a third term.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
22 January 2020