Caribbean & Central America - October 2016 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The president of the Dominican Republic (DR)’s electoral authority (JCE), Roberto Rosario, has had his diplomatic and personal US visas revoked by the US government. With the US refusing to provide a full explanation, Rosario and the JCE have taken it as a slight against the Dominican state. The issue is threatening to strain DR-US relations.

The scandal broke on 8 September, when Rosario publicly announced that he had been notified of the cancellation of his US visas by the US Consul General in the DR, Sylvia Johnson. Rosario said that Johnson notified him during a meeting that he held with her that same day. He added that Johnson did not provide an explanation but only told him that his diplomatic visa (valid until 2017) and his personal visa (valid until 2024) were no longer valid. This was confirmed by a US Embassy statement released hours later. “The US State Department has the full authority and reserves the right… to revoke US visas based on information that may come to light at any time and may influence whether an individual is eligible to receive a visa to travel to the US”, the statement said. It added that “decisions on individual visas should not affect the strong bilateral relations between the US government and the government of the Dominican Republic, nor the excellent relations between our peoples”.

However, Rosario attributed the decision to an attempt by the US and his political enemies at home to tarnish his reputation ahead of this year’s JCE member election process. Rosario added that the US’s failure to offer a full explanation was also a slight against the government led by President Danilo Medina as it was a sign of disrespect against a sitting government official. Rosario also recalled having had a series of public confrontations with US Ambassador James ‘Wally’ Brewster over issues such as the JCE’s refusal to issue national identification cards for the children of Haitian nationals born in the DR even before the 2013 ruling by the DR’s constitutional court (TC) denying these individuals the automatic right to claim Dominican nationality [RC-14-10]. Another bone of contention was the JCE’s refusal to accept a request by the political opposition for a full manual recount of the votes cast in the May general elections [RC-16-06]. Back in April, Rosario publicly denounced being “pressured” to accept the opposition’s request for a manual recount, with Brewster allegedly threatening to revoke his visas if he refused.

Back then, Rosario’s claims about US attempts to interfere in the DR’s internal affairs earned him the full support of the ruling Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) party and the general public. Rosario is clearly appealing for such support once again – which he appears to have. On 12 September, the JCE issued a statement calling for the US government to provide a full explanation for the revocation of Rosario’s visas, arguing that “the US State Department is obligated to explain what are the causes behind this affront against the president of this institution, as this sensibly affects the image of this [State] institution”. The JCE also complained that the issue was not handled via established diplomatic channels and called for the foreign ministry to press for a full explanation from the US.

Meanwhile, on 15 September, a local civil-society group, Ateneo Dominicano, nominated Rosario for the JCE presidency before the national senate commission tasked with coming up with a short-list of candidates to present to the senate plenary. Rosario’s nomination was backed by the PLD and allied parties. However, it was lambasted by the opposition, which argued that Rosario was biased towards the PLD and the revocation of his US visas showed that he was unfit to lead the JCE. President Medina must now find a way to appease the opposition and prevent a spat with the US, while keeping Rosario’s supporters happy.

• Spared by ‘Matthew’

Although the Dominican Republic (DR) was hit by hurricane ‘Matthew’, the worst hurricane to make landfall in the Caribbean in decades, the level of destruction there proved to be minimal. On 5 October, the DR’s emergency operations centre (COE) lifted the red alert issued across most of the country’s southern and western regions and reported that the passing of the hurricane had led to the evacuation of 37,809 people, while 54 communities were left completely isolated due to flash floods. Yet, despite the hurricane damaging 3,715 homes and six major bridges, the COE noted that only four people (three minors and one adult) were killed during the storm compared to the hundreds killed in neighbouring Haiti.