Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06SANTODOMINGO3759
2006-12-18 18:42:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Santo Domingo
Cable title:  

CODEL ENGEL: HAITIAN ISSUES DOMINATE VISIT TO THE

Tags:  PGOV EAGR PHUM PREF PREL EWWT DR XL OREP ELAB 
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VZCZCXYZ0020
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #3759/01 3521842
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181842Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6975
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEFHLC/HQS DHS WASHDC PRIORITY
UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 003759 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV EAGR PHUM PREF PREL EWWT DR XL OREP ELAB
SUBJECT: CODEL ENGEL: HAITIAN ISSUES DOMINATE VISIT TO THE
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

REF: A. SANTO DOMINGO 2790

B. SANTO DOMINGO 3250

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 003759

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV EAGR PHUM PREF PREL EWWT DR XL OREP ELAB
SUBJECT: CODEL ENGEL: HAITIAN ISSUES DOMINATE VISIT TO THE
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

REF: A. SANTO DOMINGO 2790

B. SANTO DOMINGO 3250


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The December 9-10 Congressional visit led
by Rep. Eliot Engel touched some of the most sensitive points
in the Dominican psyche. The group had intended to learn
about a range of issues, but their trip, truncated by a late
departure from Washington, was defined in the Dominican media
by their visit to two sugarcane worker communities
("bateyes") housing residents of Haitian descent. The
delegation met with Foreign Minister Morales Troncoso and
several legislators, who gave them an earful about the
domestic problems Dominicans blame on Haiti's instability.
Rep. Engel raised with the Foreign Minister complaints he had
received from his Dominican-American constituents about
exorbitant fees charged by the Dominican consulate in New
York. At the Port of Caucedo, managed by DP World and
approved by DHS for the Container Security Initiative (CSI),
visitors praised security but lamented that less than 100
percent of containers bound for the United States were
scanned. END SUMMARY.


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CONTROVERSY ARRIVES EARLY
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2. (U) CODEL Engel was originally scheduled to visit the
Dominican Republic during the weekend of December 8-10. Rep.
Eliot Engel, the incoming Chairman of the House Subcommittee
on the Western Hemisphere, led the group, which included six
Democratic members of the U.S. Congress. Engel represents a
district in New York with a large Dominican community. Other
members of the delegation included Donald Payne (D-NJ),
Barbara Lee (D-CA),Kendrick Meek (D-FL),Maxine Waters
(D-CA),and Lynn Woolsey (C-CA). All of the Members, with
the exception of Meek, currently serve on the House
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.


3. (U) During the week prior to CODEL Engel's arrival, the
popular local newspaper "Listin Diario" obtained a draft copy

of the CODEL's schedule and headlined the visit as an
"investigation" of working conditions on Dominican sugar
plantations. The suggested itinerary obtained and published
by the newspaper included a visit to a sugar refinery owned
by the Vicini Group, the second-largest sugar company in the
country; a tour of a sugar cane worker community ("batey")
owned by the Vicini Group, led by company officials; a
meeting with human rights activists on a batey located on
government property; briefings by groups on both sides of the
DR-CAFTA debate; and a visit to Caucedo, the country's
premier port, which is managed by Dubai Ports World ("DP
World") and was approved this year for the Container Security
Initiative (CSI) by DHS.


4. (U) Despite the breadth of issues on the CODEL's draft
schedule, the Dominican media focused exclusively on the
group's visit to two bateyes. Batey residents are mostly
Haitians or persons of Haitian descent. Dominican relations
with the country's Haitian minority are extremely sensitive.
A variety of international organizations and governments have
complained about the mistreatment and isolation Haitians and
their descendents experience in the Dominican Republic, but
most Dominicans respond with open hostility to such foreign
"interventions." Before long, an enterprising journalist
managed to uncover Rep. Engel's association with legislation
condemning "slavery-like conditions" in Brazilian factories.
From this point forward the dominant motif in Dominican media
coverage was that the CODEL had arrived solely to investigate
allegations of slavery of Haitian workers on Dominican sugar
plantations.

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LATE ARRIVAL, MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
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5. (SBU) The late arrivel of the CODEL resulted in the
cancellation of a meeting with President Fernandez and a
dinner hosted at the Foreign Ministry. It also forced the
group to compress the remaining items on their agenda
considerably. The visits to bateyes and the sugar mill
lasted longer than anticipated, and the group fell far behind
schedule. They arrived 90 minutes late to their meeting that
evening with Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, for
example, and were two hours late to the reception in their
honor.


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A VISIT WITH THE VICINIS
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6. (SBU) The CODEL's first stop was the Cristobal Colon sugar
refinery, owned by the Vicini Group. The Vicini Group is the
second-largest producer of sugar in the Dominican Republic
and has been mentioned in the Department's recent Human
Rights Reports. Refs A and B document many of the human
rights concerns that the company's operations have triggered,
and the role played by Father Christopher Hartley in focusing
international attention on the company's practices.


7. (SBU) Felipe Vicini, a major shareholder, and Campos de
Moya, the facility manager, led the tour. Journalists from
CNN, AP, and EFE (the Spanish-language wire service)
accompanied the delegation throughout their visit to the
site. The tour began with a walkthrough of the company's
sugar refinery, and a discussion of trade and export issues.
Visitors then proceeded to a batey that housed company
employees on company property. According to human rights
organizations, the batey the group visited, which was located
alongside the highway, was one of the company's better ones.
It featured new, relatively clean housing for workers and
their families. Felipe Vicini explained that the company
also provided a school for the children of their workers, and
that they educated children without regard to their legal
status in the country. He scoffed at questions about whether
workers faced any sort of economic disincentives dissuading
them from leaving their jobs.


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ACTIVISTS GIVE THEIR SIDE
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8. (SBU) The group then proceeded to a batey located on
government-owned land, where they met with representatives
from CEDAIL, a human rights organization affiliated with the
Catholic Church. CEDAIL said they had selected this batey,
where living conditions were much poorer than at the
Vicini-owned community, because its conditions more
accurately reflected those found at Vicini bateyes situated
further from the highway. The visiting congressional
representatives began their visit with a spontaneous
conversation with a group of young children, who described
working in the fields.


9. (SBU) After a tour of the community, the group proceeded
to a local church, where they met privately with two Vicini
laborers who were concerned about reprisal if the company
learned of their actions. Media were excluded. The workers,
who were dressed in cane-cutting garments and apparently had
been pulled from the fields that day, said that the company
did not provide employees with medical benefits or schooling.
They said the only available public facilities were located
so far away as to be effectively inaccessible. They also
highlighted the fact that the company withheld a portion of
their pay for social security and medical benefits - money,
they say, they never see again. Finally, they disputed the

Vicini claim that the company has no disincentives to prevent
employees from leaving their jobs. Contradicting the Vicini
briefing, workers stated that the company withheld a portion
of their pay until the end of the harvest, in order to ensure
that they did not leave their jobs.


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ACCORDING TO THE FOREIGN MINISTER AND FRIENDS...
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10. (U) The group then proceeded to the Foreign Ministry for
a meeting with Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso. The
Foreign Minister had invited a multi-party group of Dominican
legislators to attend. Rep. Engel emphasized to the group
that his delegation had not come to the Dominican Republic to
"point fingers" at anyone. Rather, they had come for the
purpose of introducing themselves to the country and learning
about a wide range of issues.


11. (SBU) Rep. Engel specifically highlighted the high fees
charged by the Dominican consulate in New York to many of his
Dominican-American constituents. In his response, Morales
Troncoso acknowledged the problem and said that he would not
permit such abuses to continue. He assured the delegation
that he personally would resolve the problem. (On December
14 the Ministry announced that it had instructed Dominican
consulates to reduce passport fees by USD 30.)


12. (SBU) Following this discussion, the Dominican

legislators each gave long, at times disjointed speeches
complaining about the problems their country suffers due to
Haiti's instability, and asserting their country's right to
set its own migratory policy. They pointed fingers
(literally) and demanded that the United States and others
take stronger action to address Haiti's instability.


13. (SBU) Morales Tronocoso had Dominican domestic politics
in mind in his choice of participants. Dip. Radhames Castro
of Boca Chica had denounced the Codel visit the previous day,
offering the press the lie that Fr. Hartley had guided the
group incognito on Friday. Castro told the press afterwards
that the Democrats of the CODEL were gathering information to
justify a reduction in the (generous) U.S. sugar quota. Dip.
Pellegrin Castillo from a splinter party allied with the PLD
is notorious for the vehemence of his anti-Haiti views; later
in the week he asserted that the aim of the United States was
to unite Hispaniola as a single country. The PRSC's "Ito"
Bisono is thoughtful and represents San Pedro de Macoris, in
the heart of the sugar district. Max Puig, the country's
Secretary of the Environment, discussed the environmental

SIPDIS
degradation Haitians were creating in the border regions.
And the Foreign Minister included Amb. Miguel Mejia, the
President's representative to hard-line leftist regimes and
Venezuela, probably because of Mejia's anti-U.S. credentials.


14. (SBU) The delegation arrived late to a reception at the
Ambassador's residence. Many of the guests, especially
high-level officials, had already left. They nonetheless had
opportunities for fruitful discussions with human rights
activists, like the recipient of the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy
Human Rights Award, and with executives at the local American
Chamber of Commerce, who stressed the social benefits that
implementation of DR-CAFTA would have for the country.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A VISIT TO A DP WORLD-OPERATED PORT
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15. (U) The next morning, immediately prior to their mid-day
departure to Haiti, the delegation visited the Port of
Caucedo, which is the country's newest and most advanced sea
port. It was approved this year by DHS for the Container
Security Initiative (CSI). The port is managed by DP World.


16. (SBU) The delegation toured the port's facilities,
especially those related to CSI operations. DHS staff gave
a demonstration of an x-ray scan of a shipping container and
explained that given the high volume of traffic, they were
able to scan only a limited number of such containers.


17. (U) Rep. Kendrick Meek, who serves on the House Committee
on Homeland Security, said that he would make it a personal
priority to seek increased staffing and funding levels so
that "every container" destined for the United States could
be inspected.


- - - - - - - - - - -
LOCAL PRESS REACTION
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18. (U) Rep. Engel held an exit conference with members of
the local press. The delegation professed surprise at the
hostile reaction to their visit to the bateyes. They
emphasized that they had come to the Dominican Republic to
learn about a wide variety of issues. They acknowledged that
they were concerned by the living conditions workers
encountered on the bateyes, however, they would be concerned
at such conditions anywhere in the world, and they were not
trying to point fingers at anyone. The CODEL did its best to
steer the conference toward their tour of the port and other
less divisive topics.


19. (U) Nonetheless, the media refused to deviate from its
focus on the delegation's interest in "Haitian issues." Over
succeeding days, local newspapers barely mentioned the
group's visit to the port, and they cherry-picked
out-of-context quotes to give the impression that the group
had come solely to investigate bateyes. Foreign Minister
Morales Troncoso told the press that his country would not
accept any foreign interference, and he harrumphed that the
delegation had been "sequestered in a church by NGO
activists." Since then the local media has been dwelling on
the visit. The subject of living conditions in the country's
bateyes has received new life in public discussions.


20. (U) Although most commentators criticize the delegation

for poking its nose into affairs that are none of its
business, some have defended the visit. They say that
conditions in the bateyes are as bad as the delegation said,
and in fact much worse. Some said that the country will need
to take a hard look at its treatment of Haitians and
Dominican-Haitians in the years to come.


21. (SBU) The Vicini Group has communicated to the Embassy
that Embassy visitors are no longer welcome on its property.


22. (U) Drafted by Alexander T. Bryan.


23. (U) This report and extensive other material can be
consulted on our SIPRNET site,
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/
HERTELL