Talk about the diaspora of the Dominican Republic.
And also, can people vote here for the Dominican
Republic elections?
So, yes, people can vote here for the Dominican
Republic elections.
Sometimes there’s this sort of nickname
that we have, specifically for the community
in New York, and that’s Provincia 33.
Right?
So it’s sort of like the 33rd province of
the Dominican Republic.
And, you know, I think, even for me, being
part of the diaspora, we care so much about
what’s happening in the country, because
a lot of the issues that happen in the Dominican
Republic and a lot of the conditions of the
people there actually lead to there being
such a widespread diaspora.
I mean, we’re talking about Dominicans being
not only in New York City, not only in different
parts of the United States, but there’s
a large population of Dominicans in Spain,
and there’s Dominicans all across the globe.
And I think these protests are actually — have
become an opportunity for people to almost
come out and say, “Hey, you know, we’re
Dominicans, and we’re also living in the exterior.
And we would love to live in our country,
but it’s difficult to live there, because
of these very issues that are happening.”
You know?
And earlier you asked me about the PLD, right?
So, people are saying that there was attempts
at fraud.
You know, so whenever people went to the ballot
and they tried to vote for their candidate
of preference, some of the candidates were
not showing up on the ballot.
And this is very, very questionable.
It’s very shady, to say the least.
And people see this as an attempt at sabotage.
You know, this is the first time in 18 years,
or the first time at least in a decade, when
the PLD is no longer ahead in the polls, you
know, when, instead, it’s the opposition
party — which is also questionable — is
ahead in the polls.
Right?
So, this is the first time when the PLD might
not win the elections.
And they found themselves in a situation of
fear, and instead of allowing for the democratic
process to happen, people see this as an attempt
at sabotaging that democratic process.
I wanted to ask you about the attempt to redo
the election.
This time they’re going to paper ballots,
because the problem, apparently, they claim,
was that this was an electronic voting system
that somehow malfunctioned, as if we haven’t
heard this story before.
Yeah.
Didn’t we just hear about Iowa?
Haven’t we heard about all these other problems
with electronic voting?
So now they’re going back to the old-fashioned
paper ballot.
And then they have a presidential election
in May, isn’t there?
Yeah.
That’s correct, yeah.
So, these elections were not only meant for
people to choose their local leaders — and
we know how important it is to choose the
mayor that represents you, to choose the regional
leader that represents you — but these ballots
were also going to create momentum, or were
an opportunity to create momentum, for the
opposition come the presidential elections.
Now that momentum has been lost, you know,
because there is no credibility in the election process.
And we have no idea what’s going to happen
on March 15.
Also, they spent $19 million on these voting
machines.
And people are angry about that.
A lot of the signs that I have seen in protests,
you know, they say, “These dollars, they
went to the trash.”
How can you spend $19 million and all of that,
and the machines don’t work?
Like, you can’t do that.
There’s been no connection between Dominican
Republic and Iowa that’s been uncovered,
has there?
Not that we know of, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
But also, Amanda, you talk about this, and,
Juan, you write about this in Harvest of Empire.
Talk about the history of the Dominican Republic
and U.S. relations there, with U.S. soldiers
moving into the Dominican Republic, invading
the Dominican Republic in 1965, and then how
that shapes modern-day Dominican Republic.
Yeah.
So, you know, there were memes popping up
during the — on Sunday of the face of Joaquín Balaguer.
And the meme was basically him laughing and
saying, “Wow!
You don’t even know how to properly steal
an election.”
You know, so, Joaquín Balaguer was the man
that the United States helped put in power
once there was a U.S.-backed coup in 1965.
And he was president — you know, I like
to talk about this a lot, because I feel that
Dominican Republic doesn’t get — I feel
that people normally look at Trujillo, right?
The Trujillo dictatorship that lasted 30 years,
that was like a very, very tough, stronghold
regime where a lot of people were killed,
a lot of people were disappeared.
And they think, “OK, after Trujillo happened,
we had democracy.
That’s it.”
And that wasn’t the case.
Balaguer was president starting from the — like
the late 1960s up until the early 1990s.
We’re talking about like two to three generations
of Dominicans who saw Balaguer on and off
in power.
And his was also a right-wing sort of strong
regime and a repressive regime.
And people are already seeing the connection,
you know, between his time in presidency and
also how long the PLD has been in power and
how they have crushed the opposition.
And talking about U.S. interventions, there
was an article in The Washington Post that
came out where Giuliani — we’re talking
about President Donald Trump’s attorney
— was in the Dominican Republic consulting
for Luis Abinader, who is the opposition leader.
You know, so already the other opposition
parties are saying, “Well, this guy is trying
to get U.S. backing,” because, in the end
of the day, it is the U.S. that has a stronghold
in Dominican Republic, and foreign American
investments that have a stronghold in the country.
