President Luis Abinader has named Rafael Evaristo Santos Badía to be the new director of the National Technical Training Institute (Infotep). Infotep is a shining star in the past Medina administration. Hundreds of thousands of young adults receive quality vocational training there. Its past director Rafael Ovalles is credited with innovations that have turned Infotep into the country’s best vocational training school with branches all around the country. Thousands of young students have chosen technical careers instead of a university career. Consultants from Finland were hired to ensure high standards in the technical education offered at the Infotep.
The new director, Santos Badía is a graduate of the Universidad de la Tercera Edad (UTE) that specializes in adult education. He has a specialty in the cooperative business model. He is a former deputy. At the Chamber of Deputies, in 1992 he was member of the Permanent Labor Commission. On his Twitter account, Santos Badía describes himself as a professor, lawyer, politician and union leader.
Could it be that President Abinader is paying back a political favor with the appointment? Santos is a former member of the former Labor Party and the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). The Labor Party (Partido de los Trabajadores) would become People’s Force (FP), the party to which former President Leonel Fernández took his supporters, when he split from the then ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). FP was a political ally to the today ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) in the case of some candidacies.
UPDATE:
DR1 reader Ramon Cedano reports that Rafael Santos is a well known union leader who was president of the Dominican Public School Teachers Association (ADP) from 1990 to 1995. Santos was a deputy for Santo Domingo province in the Chamber of Deputies during the same years through 1998. He also was named Superintendent of Insurance during the Hipólito Mejía government and was a member of the Central American Parliament from 1998 to 2000.
Cedano, explains that Rafael Santos is a prominent politician within the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) party ranks, and because of his past merits in the teachers community has the background to be named to head the Infotep.
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Listin Diario
27 August 2020