Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04SANTODOMINGO2843
2004-05-11 11:04:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Santo Domingo
Cable title:  

DOMINICAN ELECTION # 46: ESTRELLA, WOULD-BE STAR

Tags:  PGOV PINR DR 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 002843 

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; USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINR DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTION # 46: ESTRELLA, WOULD-BE STAR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 002843

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; USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINR DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTION # 46: ESTRELLA, WOULD-BE STAR


1. (SBU) This is cable # 46 in our series on the Dominican
presidential election:

ESTRELLA, WOULD-BE STAR

--------------
Heading for third place
--------------

In the last week before the presidential election, Reformista
candidate Eduardo Estrella continues to work the campaign
trail with the remaining PRSC faithful. Estrella is smart,
has a good resume, and photographs well, but as a public
speaker lacks animation, mumbles and rarely rallies the
crowd. The deep division of his party and his reluctance to
promise or rant reinforce long-held expectations that on May
16 he will place third in a three-horse race.

Estrella will become a factor if there is a second round -
that is, if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the
votes on May 16. He insists he will place second and run
against Fernandez until June 30. It is more likely that he
will face the unappealing decision whether or not to throw
his support behind Mejia or Fernandez. That choice will be
hard: he will have to decide whether to follow treachery into
the PLD, to endorse a PRD that he has scorned, or to sit out
the contest. In the event of a second round, Mejia will be
looking to cut a deal with him -- exactly the sort of
politics that Estrella has rebuffed. Nonetheless, many of
our contacts believe he will cast his lot with Mejia.

Estrella's party was plagued from the outset with an internal
squabble over rival candidate Jacinto Peynado, VP to the
late PRSC strongman Balaguer, PRSC presidental candidate in
2000 and probably the most popular Reformista leader after
Balaguer's death in 2002. Peynado battled for his party's
endorsement and continued to fight for it after a PRSC
primary in 2003 went in favor of Estrella. Peynado, gravely
ill in Miami over most of the last year, gave up his quest
for the Palace and said he would not endorse any candidate.
In February, old-school PRSC leaders Carlos Morales Troncoso,
Donald Reid Cabral and Leonardo Matos Berrido publicly backed
Fernandez; in March Peynado changed his mind and followed
suit. The PRSC seniors have told emboffs that Fernandez has

promised "several secretariats" and some "municipal jobs" to
the former Reformistas.

Estrella, talented but self-effacing, had fame thrust upon
him when the inner circle from Balaguer's former
administraton looked for a candidate younger, cleaner,
healthier and more electable than Peynado. At lunch with
Embassy officers late last year, Estrella made small talk and
left the big picture to his advisors, former Foreign Minister
Victor Gomez Berges and PRSC political secretary Johnny
Jones. Estrella is sensitive and almost painfully shy (even
his secretary said so in a phone call with EcoPol counselor).
This quality may appeal to Reformistas, with their reverent
memories of the engimatic, withdrawn Balaguer who cunningly
ruled the country for 22 years and left his personal stamp on
Dominican politics.

Estrella's acceptance of the nomination and his determined
campaigning show self-mastery and intellectual courage. He
has a reputation for honesty and good management, and we tend
to believe his assertion that "millions and millions of pesos
went through my hands and not a single peso went into my
pocket." Estrella's April 14 comments to the American
Chamber of Commerce condemning corruption carried weight (see
text on our SIPRNET site).
Estrella's billboards show him against a backdrop of PRSC red
with a tight-lipped, reproachful expression and admonitory
pointed finger over the slogan, "The country cannot put up
with this any more!" ("El pais no aguanta mas!") To his
disadvantage, most Dominican voters are focused on their
symptoms of economic distress rather than on domestic
mismanagement or corruption. Many pay lip service to the
principles of good governance, but wink at or engage in a
partisan scramble for government favors and jobs.

--------------
Engineer to politician - a brief bio
--------------

Eduardo Estrella Sadhala is from the second largest city in
the Dominican Republic, Santiago, known as a breeding ground
for politicians. He comes from a prominent family that
protected opponents of Rafael Trujillo's 1930-61
dictatorship. His father and grandfather were senior
military officers, and an uncle was among the conspirators
who assassinated Trujillo -- a group now revered as national
heroes.

Estrella graduated from the Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM) with a civil engineering degree, and PRSC President
Balaguer appointed him second secretary at the Dominican
Embassy in Mexico City. Estrella returned to the Santiago
area and served as president of the Northern Regional
Dominican School of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors.
Elected as Santiago's senator in 1986, he was appointed by
Balaguer as Under Secretary for Public Works and
Communications and in 1991 advanced to Secretary of State for
Public Works and Communications, a post he held until 1994.
Estrella returned to his elected position in the Senate from
1994-1998.

Estrella was born on June 5, 1953. He is married to Arelis
Cruz de Estrella and they have three children.


2. (U) Drafted by Angela Kerwin, Michael Meigs.


3. (SBU) This report and others in the series are available
on the classified SIPRNET at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/ along with
extensive other material.
HERTELL