US embassy cable - 05SANTODOMINGO2164

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 002164 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, WHA/PCC, WHA/EPSC, INL; 
NSC FOR SHANNON AND MADISON; DEPT PASS USAID LAC 
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD; TREASURY FOR OASIA-LCARTER 
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, PREL, KJUS, DR, Dominican Politics 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN POLITICS #23 - PROFESSOR LEONEL TEACHES 
LAW AND POLITICS 
 
 
1.  (SBU) Following is #23 in our series on Dominican 
politics in the first year of the Fernandez administration. 
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Professor Leonel Teaches Law and Politics 
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Santo Domingo's District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez 
Peguero, was called to the principal's office on April 114. 
Leonel Fernandez summoned him to the Presidential Palace the 
day after the DA had issued a subpoena for former president 
Hipolito Mejia to question him in conjunction with the 
Quirino Paulino Castillo narcotics case.  The DA emerged from 
the office doing everything he could to avoid looking like a 
castigated school child while announcing to the press that he 
had withdrawn his subpoena for Mejia.  It appears as if the 
President spent his three-hour meeting with Hernandez 
teaching him a legal lesson, a political lesson or both. 
Hipolito Mejia went on television Monday night, April 18, and 
provided a good gruff show without any revelations. 
 
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Legal lessons: When to go fishing 
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Nearly all lawyers are faced at some point with the decision 
of when to question a witness or potential defendant.  Should 
there be an early deposition/interrogation, or should one 
wait until one has as many facts as possible to go after the 
big fish?  If questioned early on, perhaps a potential 
defendant will be more talkative and less defensive.  The 
downside of early questioning is the lack of that information 
from other sources, gathered during questioning of witnesses 
and evaluation of evidence, that could allow for probing 
interrogation resulting in an indictment. 
 
Last Wednesday, April 13, the DA decided he wanted to go 
fishing.  He issued a subpoena for Mejia relatively early in 
the investigation of the complicated, multi-defendant Quirino 
case.  Calling an ex-President to provide testimony raised 
Hernandez,s profile, an important consideration for a man 
who sees a political future ahead. By his decision on timing, 
Hernandez made it clear that he would be asking wide-ranging 
questions in hopes of gathering enough information to 
implicate others or move the case forward. 
 
On Thursday President Fernandez called the DA in and told him 
to cut bait, instead.  Remember, Leonel Fernandez sees 
himself as an intellectual, a teacher, a leader, a 21st 
century renaissance man for Latin America ) and a lawyer. 
His law degree is from the Autonomous University of Santo 
Domingo (UASD) and he did post-grad work at Columbia and 
SUNY.  In a case with as high a profile as the Quirino 
Paulino trafficking case, any lawyer will be speculating how 
it should progress and what the final outcome will be. 
 
Leonel Fernandez probably stepped in and told his appointed 
DA that he was making a tactical legal error.  If you want to 
catch an ex-President, don't go fishing ) wait until you've 
patiently built your case with evidence from other sources, 
and then haul the big one in when you're certain you have a 
strong enough net to hold him.  However, nothing with Leonel 
is ever simple.  Undoubtedly there was a political lesson to 
be taught as well. 
 
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Political lesson: We're working on anti-corruption. Don't 
mess it up. 
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Fernandez's administration is marshaling several corruption 
cases against former Mejia administration officials and 
supporters.  Mejia has been telling the press for months now 
that at least some of the cases, especially that for Plan 
Renove, now in hearings at the colonial zone's Palacio de 
Justicia, amount to nothing more than a politically motivated 
&show8.  Leonel has kept himself above the fray, doing 
little more in public than making general statements about 
preventing and investigating corruption.  Fernandez knows 
that his top-level legal appointees, particularly Attorney 
General Francisco Domnguez Brito and Legal Advisor Cesar 
Pina Toribio, are well respected by all, not just by fellow 
PLD members.  Corruption cases brought to date have a seal of 
authenticity because the public believes the AG is a 
principled man who would not bring unfounded charges against 
someone for political reasons. 
 
DA Hernandez doesn't have a bad reputation, but he doesn't 
have the standing of Dominguez Brito.  The problem is that a 
presidentially appointed DA calling in an ex-president for 
questioning could change public perceptions.  The average 
Dominican could begin to listen to Mejia's complaints about 
&show trials.8 Leonel wants to anchor a reputation for his 
administration as standing strongly and consistently against 
corruption.  He knows, for example, that his senior law 
enforcement team impresses the USG.  Law enforcement 
cooperation remains a bright light in the bilateral 
relationship; other lights in the house are powered by an 
electricity supply as uncertain as the one in San Francisco 
de Macoris. 
 
So ) we weren't there and haven't heard directly, but we 
assume that during the three-hour meeting, President Leonel 
imparted a bit of knowledge from experience to his 
over-anxious DA.  Publicly, the meeting is being labeled as a 
discussion between gentlemen on anti-corruption efforts. 
 
Hernandez told the press that he had already decided to 
withdraw the subpoena because a &flood of new information8 
had become available.  A good part of that flood probably 
came from the counsels of the twice-elected President. 
 
On Monday night, as promised (or threatened), Hipolito Mejia 
spent an hour on a television interview show.  He named no 
further names, denied that he had signed the promotion order 
for Quirino, and generally put on a good gruff show without 
providing any revelations. 
 
2. (U) Drafted by Angela Kerwin. 
 
3. (U)  This piece and others in the series can be consulted 
on our SIPRNET classified site 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo< /a>  along with 
extensive other material. 
HERTELL