US embassy cable - 04SANTODOMINGO1174

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 001174 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, G/TIP, IO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2009 
TAGS: AORC, PHUM, DR 
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S CALL ON DOMINICAN PRESIDENT MEJIA 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Hans H. Hertell.  Reason: 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Summary.  Dominican President Hipolito Mejia heard 
out the Ambassador's request for the country to sponsor the 
Cuba resolution at the March session of the UNHCR but 
declined to make any commitment.  Mejia said in the course of 
changes to be announced on national day he will remove 
several officials to whom the United States has objected.  He 
described his plans for selecting a vice presidential 
candidate.  End summary. 
 
CUBA 
 
2.  (C) In response to Department inquiries, the Ambassador 
called on Dominican President Hipolito Mejia on February 23 
and urged him to sponsor the resolution on Cuba to be 
presented to the meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission 
opening in Geneva on March 15.  The Ambassador stressed the 
need for hemispheric solidarity against arrests of dissidents 
and Cuba's refusal to accept the visit of a duly constituted 
UNHCR rapporteur.  He noted widespread support across the 
hemisphere for this approach and suggested that the 
Dominicans could play an important leadership role. 
 
3. (C) Mejia replied that he has no interest in Castro and 
finds Cuba's actions unacceptable.  The relationship between 
the Dominican Republic and Cuba is part of Caribbean history, 
however, and must be handled with extreme caution.  That day 
he had met 40 Dominican students receiving grants to study 
medicine in Cuba, where there are a thousand Dominicans in 
higher education.  "I didn't establish relations with Cuba" 
(a dig against his presidential opponent, former President 
Leonel Fernandez).  Mejia said he had spoken out against 
Castro, including via Radio Marti, but he had done so in a 
personal capacity.  "When is this up for discussion?"  When 
he heard that the session opens in mid-March, Mejia accepted 
a copy of last year's resolution and of the draft of U.S. 
thoughts on the content of a 2004 resolution.  "I will talk 
to Guerrero Prats" (the Foreign Ministery).  The Ambassador 
indicated that the DCM had presented the same request to Vice 
Foreign Minister Pichardo the previous week.  (That evening 
at a diplomatic function the Ambassador raised the matter 
directly Guerrero Prats, who pointed across the room at 
Mejia: "That's the only man who will be making the decision.") 
 
HAITI 
 
4. (C) Mejia said he had recently spoken to Haitian President 
Aristide by telephone.  Aristide was worried, Mejia 
commented, and the North of Haiti was out of control. 
Despite the Carnival celebration in Port-au-Prince, a bomb 
had killed an army officer just at the corner of the 
presidential palace.  Elements of the resistance were in 
Port-au-Prince and forces had occupied a village ten 
kilometers from the Dominican border post of Jimani.  He had 
been informed that bandits were killing individuals near the 
border town of Juana Mendez, where 20,000 Haitians had come 
seeking to attend the weekly market.  Dominican troops were 
on good behavior, respecting human rights, even though the 
young "gangsters" across the border were high on cocaine. 
 
5.  (C)  As for Aristide, Mejia commented, there was no way 
of knowing how to read him.  The conversation had been in 
Spanish.  Aristide was "very clever." Aristide had made no 
request for help, even though he knew that Mejia had a 
helicopter available. 
 
TRADE AGREEMENT 
 
6.  (C) The Ambassador raised the subject of the President's 
notification to Congress of the free trade agreement with the 
Central American states (CAFTA).  Mejia was already aware 
that the notification did not cover the talks with the 
Dominican Republic, and he waved the point away as 
procedurally unimportant. 
 
HUMAN RIGHTS, EXTRADITION & TRAFFICKING 
 
7. (C)  The Ambassador asked about rumors of a change in the 
head of the National Police.  Mejia replied that he had no 
intention of removing Gen. Jaime Marte Martinez, who is doing 
a "very good job."  Mejia raised the subject of promised 
extraditions.  Papers were ready for most of the 11 
outstanding cases.  Two of the detainees were serving prison 
terms for offenses in the Dominican Republic, so they were 
not yet available.  One of the remaining suspects, according 
to staff at the Presidency and Attorney General's office, is 
probably not involved in the crime for which he was requested 
-- in their opinion, there is a confusion with the 
individual's brother.  "But never mind that," said Mejia, "I 
told them to prepare the decree and he can face the charges." 
 (Mejia insisted that the Ambassador stay longer than 
scheduled, so that Mejia could sign the decrees in front of 
him that day.) 
8. (C)  "I am making some changes right after the National 
Day speech" (of February 27), the President said.  He will 
remove Director of Immigration Miguel Vasquez, substituting 
him with retired Air Force General Rojas Taval (as heard), 
head of the Air Force in the 1990's and briefly head of the 
Armed Forces early in the Fernandez administration.  Guido 
Gomez is leaving his position as Legal Advisor to the 
President (a fact that Gomez has been communicating for the 
past week to the media).  "And I am withdrawing that 
ambassador to Argentina."  (The Ambassador and Embassy have 
pressed for some time for this action, given reports of 
possible complicity in trafficking for prostititution in 
Argentina.)  Mejia indicated that as for Radhames Garcia, the 
provincial representative intermittently on trial at the 
Supreme Court for trafficking Asians, Mejia does not have 
adequate control of the House of Representatives to move 
against him there. 
 
POLITICS -- AND A VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE 
 
9. (C)  Mejia said that he was going to constitute a PRD 
committee to choose a vice presidential running mate for him. 
 "I'll give them a list -- some cadavers, some politicians, 
and some private sector."  Mejia would prefer Manuel 
Alejandro Grullon, the president of the Banco Popular, well 
respected offspring of the Santiago banking family in his 
40s.  But the committee can pick whom they choose. 
 
10. (C)  The Ambassador told Mejia that many Dominicans were 
telling him that Mejia should negotiate with Fernandez and 
the PLD in order to escape prosecution if he loses the 
election.  Mejia called the notion nonsense -- "absolutely 
not true, and I'm not negotiating with anybody." He finds it 
absurd that there are rumors of a plot against Leonel 
Fernandez ("that originated with a police recruit who is 
assigned to accompany the sargeant who's the driver for the 
PRD chairman").  And as for the discussion in the papers over 
the Feb 21-22 weekend concerning incorrect voting lists, 
"Those are the same lists used in 2000; and if they want to 
accuse anyone, they can blame Hatuey, because I have never 
had a hand on them."  The Ambassador suggested that Mejia 
take the initiative to restate publicly his commitment to 
free and fair elections. (At the dinner with the diplomatic 
corps that evening, Mejia delivered exactly that message.) 
 
COMMENT 
 
11.  (C)  President Mejia was relaxed and cheerful; the 
Ambassador congratulated him upon arrival on celebrating his 
63rd birthday.  As usual, Mejia was talkative, jumping from 
subject to subject.  He was the one to raise the removals of 
Dominican officials.  As the Ambassador waited afterwards for 
the extradition papers to arrive, the President's sister 
Chavela Grullon dropped by the office  We believe that she 
has been playing an important role in keeping the dossier on 
trafficking alive with President Mejia. 
HERTELL