Anibal de Castro, executive editor of Diario Libre, has editorialized against the Dominican Republic continuing to be part of the Central American Parliament. Politicians and legislators receive cushy perks and generous wages in US dollars for their participation. People have always asked what the DR gets out of this. Costa Rica many years ago chose not to participate. Other regional participants are Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Each country appoints 20 legislators to the regional entity.
Anibal de Castro writes in the editorial on 23 June 2025:
“For the Dominican Republic, the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) is like a wicker chair in a fire: purely decorative and utterly useless. Its existence has no impact on real political life, plays no role in the region’s meaningful debates, and certainly doesn’t respond to the urgent needs of its citizens. It’s an ornamental body—one that doesn’t legislate, oversee, decide, or truly represent. A hall of mirrors where hollow diplomacy bows to its own reflection.
“Lacking any functional merit, Parlacen has become a political safe haven. It’s a soft landing spot—complete with diplomatic passports and generous per diems—for Dominican figures the government doesn’t quite know what to do with, but wants to keep out of the way. The qualifications of those appointed are as vague as the resolutions the body occasionally produces. It’s a farcical tribute to an absurd version of meritocracy. Laughable—if it didn’t cost us over 100 million pesos a year. Money thrown into the void.
“What does Parlacen debate? What conclusions does it reach? What country has ever implemented one of its resolutions? No one knows. No one answers. Yet it still matters—unfortunately.
“Even more troubling is the cost of this charade: millions of pesos annually to sustain an empty theater. In times of scarcity, spending on irrelevance borders on the obscene. Dominican politics does not need another stage for unemployment disguised as diplomacy.
“The Dominican Republic would do well to withdraw from this fiction. Staying in Parlacen neither improves democracy nor strengthens regional integration. It’s a useless expense that only serves those who treat it as a hiding place or a hollow showcase. And it should be treated as such—with a final and dignified exit.”
From 2020 to 2024, the Dominican government has disbursed RD$713.8 million for the Parlacen program with little if anything to show for it. The role of the Parlacen representatives is but to issue recommendations to the government. 18 named legislators also received generous tax exemptions for new vehicles, Diario Libre reports. The government budget establishes RD$192.4 million for the entity in wages and perks alone for 2025.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
25 June 2025