Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04SANTODOMINGO2318
2004-04-14 21:31:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Santo Domingo
Cable title:  

DOMINICAN PRESIDENT INSTRUCTS FONMIN TO VOTE FOR

Tags:  AORC PHUM CU DR 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SANTO DOMINGO 002318 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR IO/UNP, WHA, WHA/CAR, DRL; GENEVA FOR AMB, PSA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/14/2008
TAGS: AORC PHUM CU DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN PRESIDENT INSTRUCTS FONMIN TO VOTE FOR
UNHCR CUBAN RESOLUTION


Classified By: Ambassador Hans Hertell. Reason: 1.5 (b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANTO DOMINGO 002318

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR IO/UNP, WHA, WHA/CAR, DRL; GENEVA FOR AMB, PSA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/14/2008
TAGS: AORC PHUM CU DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN PRESIDENT INSTRUCTS FONMIN TO VOTE FOR
UNHCR CUBAN RESOLUTION


Classified By: Ambassador Hans Hertell. Reason: 1.5 (b) and (d).


1. (SBU) Dominican President Hipolito Mejia instructed ForMin
Frank Guerrero Prats at 16:00 today, Wednesday, to tell the
Dominican delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission to
vote in favor of the Honduras-sponsored resolution on human
rights in Cuba.


2. (C) The Ambassador had asked for this latest meeting.
The Presidency had convened the Foreign Minister, and
Dominican Ambassador to the U.S. Guiliani Curry without
advising him. Sitting formally at his desk, Mejia was
emphatic that "serious considerations" had made his decision
a very difficult one:

- - Cuba's "historical" relationship with the Dominican
Republic
- - the fact that some sectors would use the vote for the
resolution against him in the presidential campaign, now only
one month from the vote, and
- - approximately 1500 poor Dominican students are now
studying in Cuba on scholarships and Mejia expects that many
or all of them will be sent back home


3. (C) Mejia noted that he had discussed the matter
repeatedly with the Ambassador and had received telephone
calls from NSC Amb. Otto Reich and Dept Assistant Secretary
Amb. Roger Noriega. Foreign Minister Guerrero Pratts and his
ministry had argued in favor of a Dominican abstention.
Grimly, Mejia said he expects that opposition figures will
portray him as "a puppet of the United States." The
Ambassador told the President that he had done the right
thing -- not for the United States but for the hemisphere and
for the people of the Cuba. He thanked Mejia for his
leadership.


4. (C) Mejia again went over the considerations behind his
decision, jabbing at a notepad. "This is hard," he said
several times. The Cubans have been calling him and he has
not yet returned their call. Mejia mentioned with little
animation the speech he had made in the morning before a
civic NGO analyzing corruption (septel) and grimly spoke of
"demagogy" against him in the political campaign. "There
will be serious conflicts." As they left, Guerrero Pratts
showed the Ambassador a notepad with two Geneva telephone
numbers and assured him that he would instruct the delegation.


5. (C) Comment. The Ambassador has telephoned and met Mejia
repeatedly over the past month specifically to argue for this
decision. On Thursday of Holy Week, for example, when the
Ambassador called on the President at a government-owned
beach house, at Mejia's insistence, the meeting turned into
an extended private luncheon with the Mejia family. Making
his decision in this formal manner was a signal to the
Ambassador of the high cost that the President expected to
pay for doing the right thing.
HERTELL