President Luis Abinader is scheduled to swear in lawyer Luis Miguel de Camps as new minister of Education and engineer Eduardo Estrella as new minister of Public Works on 26 February 2025. There is hope for policy shifts for the better.
Ministry of Education: Luis Miguel de Camps Garcia
45-year old lawyer Luis Miguel de Camps Garcia has been entrusted with the Ministry of Education, the largest in the government cabinet. He will oversee the reincorporating of higher education to the Ministry of Education’s responsibilities, which will make even broader the scope of the Ministry.
De Camps had served as minister of Labor in the first administration of President Luis Abinader, after being appointed to the position in August 2020. He is recognized for his efforts to organize the Ministry. Yet, in its coverage on the appointment, an editorial in Diario Libre criticizes that De Camps has not been accessible to the press at the Ministry of Labor, contrary to his predecessor Angel Hernandez at the Ministry of Education.
Luis Miguel De Camps García was born in Santo Domingo on 17 November 1979, the son of outstanding artist Cecilia Garcia and the late PRD politician Hatuey De Camps Jimenez. He studied law at PUCMM and received a masters in business law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (USA). He also has a postgraduate degree from Harvard University where he specialized in negotiations and conflict resolution.
He has been president of the Asociacion de Fiduciarias Dominicanas (Asofidom) from 2014 to 2020. He is the founding partner in the law firm De Camps, Vasquez & Valera (2005-2020), and previously worked at the firm Fox Horan & Camerini LLP in New York City (2003-2005).
Since 2022 he has represented the Dominican Republic at the International Labor Organization (ILO) and is the president of the Iberoamerican Social Security Organization (OISS).
He replaces Angel Hernandez who held a two-year term at the Ministry (from August 2022) and will serve as honorary consultant to the President on education matters. Hernandez replaced Roberto Furcal who was accused on numerous times for alleged irregularities at the Ministry from his first months in the position.
Ministry of Public Works: Rafael Eduardo Estrella Virella
71-year old Rafael Eduardo Estrella Virella was born 5 June 1953 and is a civil engineer, politician and former senator for the province of Santiago (1994-1998 and 2020-24) and president of the Senate from 2020 to 2023.
During the last administration of long-term President Joaquin Balaguer he served as Minister of Public Works (1991-94) after having been vice minister under Balaguer from 1998-1990. News reports have always highlighted he left that position with a good performance record.
Estrella was the first presidential candidate for the Social Christian Reformist Party after the death of Balaguer. He resigned from that organization to build another party Dominicanos por el Cambio, after fellow party leaders preferred to ally with the then-ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).
In 2020, he received the backing of the ruling PRM to preside the Senate in which the PRM had the majority.
He replaces Deligne Ascención who has been much criticized for the delays in delivering public works. Ascención was named minister without portfolio.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
N Digital
Wikipedia Luis Miguel de Camps
Wikipedia Eduardo Estrella
26 February 2025