A Dominican delegation has traveled to Washington, D.C. to explain the impact of Haitian crisis in DR.
On the lobby mission are political party leaders, government representatives and academics. They are scheduled to meet in Washington D.C., USA, with US legislators, and key organizations to explain the crisis situation in Haiti from the point of view of its impact on the Dominican Republic.
The delegation, appointed by President Luis Abinader, is made up by the president of the Dominican Academy of History, Juan Daniel Balcácer; the administrative vice-minister of the Presidency and secretary of inter-party relations of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Andrés Lugo Risk, together with the vice-minister of foreign relations and international secretary of the PRM, José Julio Gómez.
Other members are Lila Alburquerque, deputy of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC) and former president of the Chamber of Deputies; Pelegrín Castillo, vice-president of the Fuerza Nacional Progresista (FNP); Maritza López, president of the Partido Acción Liberal (PAL), and Senate advisor and former ambassador to Israel, Alexander de la Rosa.
New York legislator Adriano Espaillat and his team are behind the organization and coordination of the mission. Individual meetings were confirmed with US representatives Bill Pascrell, Susan Wild, Frederica Wilson, Mario Diaz-Balart, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Yvette Clarke, Maria Elvira Salazar, Joaquin Castro and Maxwell Frost, and with Senator Bob Menendez, among others.
The delegation has on agenda visits to the J. Perry Center of the US Department of Defense, where they will be received by its director Paul Angelo. Also on the schedule are visits to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), for meetings with its directors Davis Harris and Dina Siegel.
Other delegations will travel in the coming weeks to hold similar meetings in Ottawa, Canada, with Canadian authorities; to Brussels and Paris, to the European and French parliaments, respectively; to Guatemala, to the Central American Parliament; to South America and Africa.
For four months, party representatives, academics and members of different government agencies have been working in response to a call made by the President on 27 February in the National Assembly of Congress to draft a national pact to face the effects of the Haitian crisis in the Dominican Republic in the economic, migratory, foreign policy and border control aspects.
“I ask you all for responsibility in order to move the Haitian problem away from our partisan struggle and that we reach a great national agreement, a pact of the country, that commits us from our positions and that gives a unanimous response in the defense and protection of our sovereignty,” said President Abinader in his 27 of February state of the nation rendition this 2023.
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Presidency
18 July 2023