He asks for the publication of the minutes in Venezuela and describes the abuses against democracy as “highly condemnable”
On Haiti: "We cannot ask the Dominican Republic for more because we have already done too much"
The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, took office this Friday after achieving re-election in the elections last May and has taken stock of his previous term, highlighting some challenges, such as the security crisis in Haiti.
“I want to emphasize that we are going to deepen our actions to prevent corruption and for transparency to continue protecting the money of the Dominican people,” he said during his first speech after being sworn in.
Abinader has applauded “the stability and good health” of the Dominican Republic’s democracy. “Respect for the rule of law was one of the firmest commitments I made to the Dominicans when I took office as president in 2020,” he added.
The president has made an economic assessment of his previous term, alluding to the fact that the country is becoming “the seventh economy in Latin America.” “We have economic strength (…) but we also have great social strength. Monetary poverty decreased from 25.8 in 2019 to 23% in 2023, and all this despite the pandemic and the effects of the war,” he said.
Despite this, Abinader has raised an issue of particular importance in the country, which is Haiti, with which he has tense diplomatic relations due to the construction of a canal on the Masacre River, as well as the security crisis in the neighboring country.
In this sense, he explained that the international community “has already committed itself by sending forces to guarantee the security of the neighboring country Haiti and to enable a scenario of future stability that allows the holding of democratic elections.”
“With the same force with which we demand the intervention of the international community in Haiti, we want to ask now that it not fall into oblivion again. We cannot ask the Dominican Republic for more because we have already done too much,” he said.
The president, a candidate for the centrist Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM), was re-elected with 57.44 percent of the votes. In second place was the candidate of the progressive Partido Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) Leonel Fernández, with 28.85 percent of the votes.
PUBLICATION OF THE MINUTES
On the other hand, Abinader has criticized the result of the elections in Venezuela, since there has not been “the due transparency that an electoral process requires” nor “any documentary support from the authorities.”
“(Venezuela) is in a very serious crisis that leads us to demand the publication of all the electoral records, their verification by impartial institutions and respect for the result emanating from the will of the Venezuelan people,” he said.
He also described as “highly condemnable the violations against democratic institutions and the use of political violence” in the country. “These authoritarian actions are profoundly unjust and destroy social achievements,” he said, adding that the Dominican Republic “will always be on the side of democracy.”
According to the results released by the National Electoral Council, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro obtained nearly 52 percent of the votes in the July 28 elections, although the opposition claims the victory of its candidate, Edmundo González. The international community has since called for transparency and the publication of the records.
