US embassy cable - 04SANTODOMINGO2078

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 002078 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA AND DRL 
NSC FOR SHANNON AND MADISON 
LABOR FOR ILAB 
TREASURY FOR OASIA-LAMONICA 
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/WH/CARIBBEAN BASIN DIVISION 
USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USFCS/RD/WH 
DHS FOR CIS-CARLOS ITURREGUI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, KCOR, DR 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTION #34: CORRUPTION AND THE 
CANDIDATES 
 
1.  (SBU)  This is cable # 34 in our series on the Dominican 
presidential election: 
 
CORRUPTION AND THE CANDIDATES 
 
The heat of the campaign and the insistence of the Ambassador 
and U.S.-funded civic groups have finally brought the 
explosive issue of corruption into open debate.  On March 26 
the government's lawyers in Miami filed a civil action 
against Baninter suspect Luis Alvarez Renta, as the Mejia and 
Fernandez campaigns have been trading barbs about who knew 
what when.  We'll have more to report about that, soon.  For 
the moment, however, we're taking satisfaction in the outcome 
and reports of events sponsored by two USAID-supported 
non-partisan NGOs. 
 
Estrella as Mr. Clean 
 
NGO "Foundation for Institutionality and Justice" (FINJUS) 
has asked the three major candidates to address directly the 
issue of corruption. PRSC presidential candidate Eduardo 
Estrella spoke to more than 500 supporters and election 
watchers at the first event in the FINJUS series on March 10. 
 Third-ranked Estrella criticized the attorney general's 
office for lack of prosecutions on corruption cases and 
pledged to improve internal controls in that office, if 
elected.  He called for civil society and church groups to 
serve as watchdogs over government institutions and measures 
to enhance efficiency of state services and enterprises.  He 
advocated purging nepotism from government, saying that "(we 
need) to get rid of people who are receiving salaries for 
doing nothing." 
 
Estrella called for implementation of an ethics code for all 
government employees, as well as mandatory public financial 
disclosure by government officials.  Invoking the Dominican 
trinity of Joaquin Balaguer, Juan Bosch and Jose Francisco 
Pena Gomez, Estrella  promised that "the hour to renovate our 
social contract with the country has arrived.  I, Eduardo 
Estrella, will do it." 
 
Estrella is running on his image of honesty.  He has 
reinforced this theme since the FINJUS event, telling crowds, 
"As Minister of Public Works, I had billions of pesos passing 
through my hands and I didn't keep a single peso."  This 
approach is consistent with his campaign theme "El pais no 
aguanta mas!" ("The country can't stand it any more!"), 
emblazoned on billboards beneath an image of the candidate 
looking grumpily reproachful. 
 
Leonel Fernandez - articulate and organized 
 
The second FINJUS event on March 24 received mixed treatment. 
 Increasingly pro-Mejia (and increasingly shrill) daily 
"Listin Diario" headlined on its front page the introductory 
remarks of the USAID Mission director Brineman as if they 
were the main event and broke new ground (in fact, Assistant 
Secretary Noriega and the Ambassador had earlier been equally 
 
SIPDIS 
explicit about fraud and corruption in the collapsed Baninter 
and Bancredito scandals). 
 
Ex-president Fernandez's 45-minute address was very political 
but nevertheless substantive.  At times reading from his 
party's draft platform (released March 29 - septel), he took 
credit for anti-corruption achievements in his 1996-2000 
administration and proposed additional measures for 
institutional safeguards against corruption.  The Department 
for Prevention of Administrative Corruption (DEPRECO), 
established in 1996, had been "perverted" by Mejia's 
appointees and should be replaced by a National Office of 
Prevention and Prosecution of Corruption, argued Leonel.  A 
1979 law requiring senior officials to declare their personal 
assets should be enforced. 
Fernandez would establish an "integrated system of government 
financial management," with a standard outside accounting 
system for all agencies and public access to the information 
via internet.  He would order a comparative study of best 
practices in other Latin American countries, such as Chile, 
to see what might be adapted for use in the GODR.  He would 
advance compliance with international conventions against 
corruption, respect the independence of the judiciary and 
professionalize prosecutors, and collaborate with civil 
society groups, churches, media, and USAID on efforts to 
inculcate non-corrupt values in society.  At the same time, 
he denounced "a group of mafiosi" in the media "at the 
service of corruption."  He opposed granting former 
presidents immunity from prosecution, saying they should take 
responsibility for their actions, and quipped, "That's why 
I'm here." 
A listener asked what Fernandez would do about the BANINTER 
banking fraud scandal if elected.  Fernandez promised no 
executive branch interference in the prosecutions underway in 
the courts.  Another question about a corruption scandal at 
the end of his  administration, involving a jobs program 
(Programa de Empleo Minimo Eventual - PEME), prompted 
Fernandez to assert that such programs should be cleaned up, 
not eliminated -- implicitly acknowledging that abuses had 
occurred.  He deftly drew a parallel with alleged welfare 
fraud in the United States.  Shortly after the speech, senior 
officials in President Mejia's re-election campaign renewed 
accusations that Fernandez knew of the BANINTER problem 
before leaving office but swept it under the rug. 
 
President Mejia has accepted the invitation by FINJUS to 
speak at the planned third anti-corruption meeting on April 
14. 
 
Twenty years of impunity 
 
On March 25, Participacion Ciudadana (PC - Citizens' 
Participation) released a survey of corruption cases in the 
Dominican Republic,"Twenty Years of Impunity: Investigation 
of Corruption Cases in the Dominican Justice System, 
1983-2003." Researchers found that only six of the 227 cases 
that reached the justice system in that period resulted in 
full prosecutions, leading to dismissal or acquittal in five 
of those cases.  Only one case resulted in a conviction, 
brief incarceration, and then a pardon that relieved the 
guity party of paying the assessed fine and damages.  PC 
Coordinator Alfonso Abreu Collado told a panel audience that 
the typical official response has been to allow the accused 
"a clean slate and a new start."  The cases covered 
administrations of all three major parties. 
 
2. (U) Drafted by Bainbridge Cowell. 
 
3. (U) This report and others in our election series are 
available on the SIPRNET at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/ index.cfm along 
with extensive other current material. 
KUBISKE