Upon returning to Santo Domingo after his trip to Colombia and Brazil, President-elect Danilo Medina said he would announce his cabinet on 16 August, after he is sworn in as President. He said he would follow his party’s tradition of announcing the new government officials after the ceremony in Congress. “This is a country where people would like to work in government, but I don’t take pressure from anyone. People are not pressuring me or harassing me to do anything. People trust me and the decisions that I have to take. You know this is a country with many heads and few hats,” he said when being questioned upon returning at the airport.
He said his trip had been very fruitful and that he would make announcements about the trip after being sworn in, to give them formality. Medina stated that he has many ideas and that the trip would enable him to start implementing them. He said that he had met with the Presidents of Colombia and Brazil and made progress on the bilateral agendas.
“I have a series of campaign commitments that range from education, energy, social inclusion, citizen safety and a series of programs that we had announced that require funding to start their implementation,” he announced, adding that he had explored funding to implement these programs.
The President-elect also announced that President Santos of Colombia had accepted to come for his inaugural and that Rousseff of Brazil might also attend.