My Country Facts – Marta Pérez Ortega – 3º E

Official country name:

Dominican Republic, this name is an acknowledgement to the Dominicus Religious Order because of their efforts on the defense of native’s rights (i.e. they founded the first university of America in 1538 in Santo Domingo).

Previusly to this name, was called “Santo Domingo Español” or “Santo Domingo Oriental” to avoid confussion with the western part of the island that in that time was a French colony called “Saint Domingue”

The capital of this country is called “Santo Domingo de Guzman” in recognition of the founder of the Dominicus Order.

Location:

Dominican Republic takes up about a 40% of the Hispaniola island which belongs to the Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region of Central America (further information can be found in the 1st and 2nd points of the Geography section).

The surface of this country are 48,442 km2.

Year that country joined the UN:

Is a founder member of the United Nations on 24 th October – 1945 taking part of the 51 states whose signed the UN chart on 26th june – 1945.

The permanent representative is the ambassador Francisco A. Cortorreal whose is collaborating in activities related to human rights including some of them specifically for women, elderly rigths, domestic violence, peace and security.

People:

1.What are the people of the country called?

The people of this country are called “Dominicans”, the natives were called “tahinos indians”.

2.What is the official language? What other languages do people speak?

The Spanish is the official language, is usually spoken very loud and quick and can be mixed with slang terms.

Also is spoken:• French Haitian criolle by inmigrants• English Caribbean criolle• English, spoken in tourist areas by the Dominicans, North Americans, British, high class

and inmigrants• Arabic by 4.000 people• Chinesse by 26.000 people

3.What is the most-practiced religion?

Catholic religion is the most-practiced in Dominican Republic, in fact some of the first churches in America where built in this country, stadistics says that the 64% of the Dominicans declare themselves as catholic practicioners.There exists a concordat between the state and The Vatican since 1954 whose influences in all social, economic and political stratum.

All the national celebrations are related to the catholic cult like the Holly Week, Christmas and the patron saint’s day on many towns. The “Virgin of Altagracia” is the spiritual mother of the Dominicans.

Since S. XX some protestants churches are present in the country and there are some voodoo and “Santeria Cubana“ practicings due to Haitian and Cuban influences.

The first inhabitans of the island (tahino Indians) practiced polytheism religion to justify the origin of the world and the human life, their gods were called cemíes and the priest were the “behiques”.

70% of Dominicans attends usually ceremonys but more women than men (77 vs. 64%).

Flag:

The National Flag has two colors: blue and red disposed in four quatrants alternating that colors (blue and red on the top, red and blue on the bottom).There is a white cross delimitating the quadrants and a coat of arms just in the middle of the flag.

The red color means the blood spilled by their liberators, the blue color represents that God protects the nation and the white cross is related with peace and union

The coat of arms is composed of a shield of red and blue colors with six spears, a bible and a golden cristian cross, all of this is rounded by:

• A laurel branch on the left• A palm frond on the right• A red ribbon with the text “República Dominicana”• A blue ribbon with the text “God, fatherland and Liberty”

The official anthem is “valiant quisqueyans”, keeping in mind that quisqueya is an taino term for the Hispaniola island, a quisqueyans is a Dominican citizen, the lyrics of the anthem talk about fight for liberty and be proud of being Dominicans.

Government:

1. Is it a democratic or a non-democratic state?

Dominican Republic is actually a democratic state, presidential elections take place every four years on the second Sunday of may, to being president a candidate needs more than 50% of valid votes to avoid a run-off election between two candidates about one month later.

The authority that organizes and controls the elections is the Junta Electoral Central as is disposed by the Constitution.

There is also elections to choose congressman, mayors and city councilors every four years.

There exists democratic elections since 1966 after an invasion of the USA to finish a civil war afterwards 30 years of dictatorship by Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.

2. What is the name of the leader of the country?

The actual president of the Dominican Republic is Danilo Medina, leader of the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) whose won in 2012 at first round to the leader of the opposition Hipólito Mejía from the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD).

The vice-president is Margarita Cedeño de Fernandez.

Their electoral platform includes some actions like:• Educational Agreement: award the 4% of gross domestic product to educations politics,

building schools and promoting a literacy plan to eradicate illiteracy• Fiscal Agreement• Energy Agreement renegotiating contracts with electric companys and building new

wind and coal power plants • Renegotiation of mining contracts• Setting up of a Solidary Bank• Increased coverage on social security system• Microcredits to farmers and small enterprises

The next presidential elections will take place in 2016.

3.What type of government is the country ruled by ?

Dominican Republic is a representative democracy with presidential elections every four yearsThe president of the republic is chief of state and chief of govern.

Every of the 31 provinces are ruled by a govern representative named by the President, elections decide the administrators of townships and national districts.

4. Is there a separation of powers? Which institution/person is in charge of each of the powers?

Yes, there is separation of powers: executive, judicial and legislative

Executive Power

The president and the vicepresident are voted by the citizens for a 4 years period, the cabinet is choosen by the president and can be removed at anytime, is composed of the ministers.

The minister council is composed by the ministers, the vice-president and the president.

Department Position Principal

Ministerio de la Presidencia Ministro de la Presidencia Gustavo Montalvo

Ministerio de las Fuerzas

Armadas

Ministro de las Fuerzas

Armadas

Teniente General, Ejercito

R.D. Maximo William Muñoz

Delgado

Ministerio de Relaciones

Exteriores

Ministro de Relaciones

ExterioresAndres Navarro

Ministerio de Economía,

Planificación y Desarrollo

Ministro de Economía,

Planificación y DesarrolloJuan Temístocles Montás

Procurador General de la

República

Procurador General de la

RepúblicaFrancisco Domíguez Brito

Ministerio de Interior y

PolíciaMinistro de Interior y Polícia José Ramón Fadul

Ministerio de Hacienda Ministro de Hacienda Simón Lizardo

Ministerio Administrativo de

la Presidencia

Ministro Administrativo de la

PresidenciaJosé Ramón Peralta

Ministerio de Salud Pública y

Asistencia Social

Ministro de Salud Pública y

Asistencia SocialAltagracia Guzman Marcelino

Ministerio de Obras Públicas

y Comunicaciones

Ministro de Obras Públicas y

Comunicaciones

Gonzalo Castillo

Ministerio de Medio

Ambiente y Recursos

Naturales

Ministro de Medio Ambiente

y Recursos NaturalesBautista Rojas Gómez

Ministerio de Industria y

Comercio

Ministro de Industria y

ComercioJosé del Castillo Saviñón

Ministerio de Agricultura Ministro de Agricultura Luís Ramón Rodríguez

Ministerio de Turismo Ministro de Turismo Francisco J. García

Ministerio de Educación

Superior, Ciencia y

Tecnología

Ministro de Educación

Superior, Ciencia y

Tecnología

Ligia Amada Melo Vda.

Cardona

Ministerio de Deportes,

Educación Física y

Recreación

Ministro de Deportes,

Educación Física y

Recreación

Jaime David Fernández

Mirabal

Ministerio de Trabajo Ministro de Trabajo Maritza Hernáandez

Ministerio de Cultura de

República DominicanaMinistro de Cultura Antonio Rodríguez

Ministerio de Administración

Pública

Ministro de Administración

PúblicaRamón Ventura Camejo

Ministerio de la Mujer Ministra de la Mujer Alejandrina Germán

Ministerio de la Juventud Ministro de la Juventud Jorge Minaya

Judicial Power

The Supreme Court of Justice is the supreme tribunal of the state, their 16 members(leaded by Mariano German Mejía) are promoted by the “Consejo Nacional de la Magistratura” and have jurisdiction on criminal actions against the President of the republic, the cabinet and the congressmen, also decides the “recurso de casacion” from verdicts from lower tribunals.

The judicial power is organized in 11 judicial departments and 35 judicial districts, has appeal courts, magistrate’s courts and peace courts.

Legislative Power

There are two chambers in the National Congress:

• The Senate as a body of territorial representation with 32 seats, one for every province and another por the National District, the president of the Dominican Senate is Cristina Lizardo Mézquita.

• The Congress (Cámara de Diputados) with 178 seats, the president is Abel Martínez Durán.

5.What are the main political parties of the country (socialist party, communist party, green party, republicans, democrats, etc.)? Describe briefly their ideas.

PLD – Partido de la Liberación Dominicana

It’s ideals are centre-left, founded in 1973, leaded by Leonel Fernández.Their ideology is socioliberalism, progresism and modernization and their ideas are practiced since 2012 becouse they are in charge of the governance of the nation as is detailed previusly

PRD – Partido Revolucionario Dominicano

It’s ideals are centre-left, founded in 1939, leaded by Miguel Vargas Maldonado.They pursue it’s motto “national sovereignty, freedom, democracy and social justice” with political, economical and social reforms to assure for the people the benefits of their work and from the natural resources.

ALPAIS – Alianza Pais

It’s ideals are centre-left and liberal, founded in 2011, leaded by Guillemo Moreno García.Their motto is “for an honest govern”, looking for fight against the actual corrupted political model, so they define themselves as an altenative to the tradicional political parties.

DxC – Dominicanos por el Camio

It’s ideals are centre-rigt and cristian democracy, founded in 2010, leaded by Eduardo Estrella, they suggest to protect the social, cultural, institutional and ecological heritage of the nation.

4.Was your country ever a colony? If so, when did it gain its independence?

Yes, it was a Spanish colony because in 1492 Christopher Columbus took possession of this territory in the name of the Catholic Kings, the Spanish ruled until 1795 when was transferred to France.

But after a few years the colony came back to spain for a few years but in 1822 the Haitians invaded the territory until 1844 when the independence was reached, but in 1861 returned to Spain for four years until it recovered the independence.

In 1916 after a long crisis period the USA invaded the country to restore stability but a dictatorship ruled the country until the second invasion of the USA in 1965. The consolidated democracy and liberty started in 1966.

Population:

1. How many inhabitants does the country have?

The last census of 2010 shows 9.478.612 inhabitants, today are estimated 9.980.243 inhabitants.

The ethnic groups are:• 72,9% mixed (from full whites to full blacks)• 16,1% white• 10,9 % black• 0,1 % asian

The 31,2% of the population is under 15 years old and the 6% are over 65 years old.

2. Population densityThe population density are 197 inhbitants/km2

The 63% of the population lives in urban areas and the most density reported is the Cibao Valley.

3. Birth Rate. Reasons

The birth rate is 20,83 per 1.000 people, the rate is reducing because of:

• There are more knowledge and sexual education, and access to contraceptives.

• The religion is not so taken into account on this topic

• There are no need og have many sons whose must take care of elderly fathers because of there exists a pension system.

• Early age marriages and teenager pregnants are reducing.

4. Death Rate. Reasons

The death rate is 5,9 per 1.000 people, the trending is an reducing rate because of:

• Better hygiene habits

• Less poverty so there isn’t lack of food

• Better nutricional habits

• Stronger sanitary system

5. Natural Growth. Reasons

The natural growt rate is 15,34 per 1.000 inhabitants.

Between 1950 and 1990 Dominican population has tripledl in two phases:

From 1950 to 1970 grew quickly because of high natality and progressively controled mortality

From 1970 until today grew more slowly because of strong natality reduction and the emigratoryProcess..

6. How do migrations affect your country?

This country receives a lot of inmigrants and has many emigrants.

The Haitian inmigrants affect negatively to to the sanitary system because of public hospitals must attend people without regarding of nationality of legal status, due to it’s poverty nearly one million turns to the social services that are overflowed

The emigrants to Puerto Rico and the USA send over a lot of money to Dominican Republic to help their families.

Migrations:

1. Number of immigrants. Where do they come from? Why?

The inmigrants in the s.XX & XXI came from:

• Asia (Arabs, Koreans and Chinese) working as agricultural laborers and merchants due to political chases or poverty in their countries, they are about 150.000 people.

• Haiti (more than 800.000), they enter illegally escaping from misery and work at very low-paying and unskilled jobs in contruction and agricultural plantations, some of them are severely exploited

2. Number of emigrants. Where do they go? Why?

• The first important emigration series begun in 1961 due to political instability and the ease of obtain US visas.

• From 1666 to 1978 continued because of poverty, political repression and the help of the first arrivals

• The 3rd wave started in the early 80’s due underemployment, inflation, and the rise in value of the dollar.

So, there are about 1,7 millions of Dominicans or it’s descents living in the USA, today there is an increasing emigration to Puerto Rico with 70.000 people.

3. Legislation of the country connected to migrations.

The applicable Dominican laws are the “Ley sobre Migración No. 285-04 del 15 de agosto del año 2004”. According to this law, any foreigner may enter into the country showing it’s Passport and any of this documents:

• Visa

• Temporary residence

• Definitive residence

There exists some exceptions for determinated nations that have treaties with the Dominican Republic.

The visa is the most important document to gain access to the country, is granted by the “Secretaría de Estado de Relaciones Exteriores en la República Dominicana” or by a Dominican consulate.

There are different visa types depending on the expected activities, reasons and conditions, may be for tourism, business, residence, students,…

Each of them has it’s own characteristics, for example a tourism visa allows people to stay for 60 extendables days.

As said before, some citizen of a number of nations are exonerated from tourism visa, they need only a tourist card (i.e. Spain) and other like Argentina or Chile even doesn’t need that card.

Foreigner can being residents if according to his activities pretends to live in Dominican territory, can be temporary (if it’s coming for a determinate period of time) or permanent residence if he pretends to live definitely on Dominican Republic. First they must obtain the Temporary residence and at last the Definitive residence in the “Dirección General de Migración”.

There exists an special residence category called “investment residence” for employees, husbands, wifes and sons if they accomplish at least one of this conditions:

• Bring US$200,000.00

• Workers in free trade zones

• Executives

• Retired workers.

4. Institutions in charge of migrants.

There are several institutions with responsabilities related to migrants:

• Ministry of Education: To educate the sons of inmigrant and figth against illiteracy

• Health services: Because public health is free for everybody and must control to avoid spreads like tuberculosis or HIV

• Police: Patrolling the Haitian frontier and prosecuting illegal inmigration

• Justice courts: Deciding about deportations and social abuses on inmigrants

• NGO (Non-governmental organizations like Caritas or Red Cross

• Catholic Church: Giving help to the inmigrants

5. Problems connected to migrations.

There are social and judicial problems related to the illegal immigrants from Haiti, for instance, at last 180.000 haitians may be deported for lacking of visa according to the “Plan de Regularización de Extranjeros” and it’s corresponding law and some sentences of the Supreme Court of Justice.

All of them are efforts to normalise the conditions of foreigners but 87% of them are Haitians, but a massive deportation must keep in mind the impact on the economy because many of them work on building sector, farming or domestic works.

Another problem are the newborns in Dominican Republic whose fathers are illegal immigrants because there is a legal limbo for them.

Some interesting data about Haitian immigrants:

• In the farming sector 18% are Haitians

• In the building sector 29% are Haitians

• In commerce sector 5,4% are Haitians

• In hotels sector 3,7% are Haitians

• In whole laboral forzce 7% are Haitians

• Between 2000 and 2014 the use of Haitians worker grew more than 440%

The most important reason about this numbers are that they are paid about 40% less than Dominicans and the employers usually doesn’t pay social taxes for them

The UN estimates that Haitians represent the 5,4% of Dominican Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (about US$3.456 millions by US$64.000 total millions in 2014.

In the other side are the high economic costs on social care for this collective that sends money to Haiti in about 25% of GDP.

Geography:

1.Where is the country? .

Dominican Republic takes up about 2/3 of the Eastern side of the La Española island, in the Greater Antilles.the rest of the island belongs to Haiti.

Is the 2nd greatest nation on the Caribbean (the 1st is Cuba)

At north and east is the Atlantic Ocean, in the south is the Caribbean sea and in the west is Haiti.

The capital is Santo Domingo, in the southern coast.

Near to the coast there are small island s like Saona and Beata and some submerged banks like Navidad Bank, Silver Bank and Mouchoir Bank.

2.What other nations border the country?

• North: The Atlantic Ocean

• West: The only terrestrial border, limitis with Haiti in a nearly 400 km. frontier

• East: The Puerto Rico island

• South: The Caribbean Sea and Venezuela

3.What kind of landscape does the country have? Positive and negative things of it.

The landscape of the Dominican Republic is forested and mountainous, with valleys, plains and plateaus. The Dominican coastline stretches for 1,633 km, and is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. Sandy beaches are found along the coastline.

This country has the highest peak of the Caribbean (Pico Duarte with 3.098 metres), the lowest point in the Caribbean (Enriquillo lake al -45 metres) and the shortest river in the world (San Rafael river, 3 km).

There are four important mountain ranges:

• Northern Mountain Range

• Central Mountain Range

• Sierra de Neiba

• Sierra de Bahoruco

The biggest plain is the Caribbean Coastal Plain located and the north-east of Santo Domingo, is very fertile and has many sugar plantations and savannahs, other plains are arid kike the Azua Plain)

About Rivers, the four most important are

• Yaque del Norte river (the longest)

• Yuna river

• San Juan river

• Artibonito river

The are algo many lakes and coastal lagoons, some of them contains fresh water and some have salt water.

The positive things of this landscapes are:

• The 1,633 km of coastal surface have many delightful sandy beaches that allowed th settle an important tourist sector.

• The plains are fertile so are used to farm coconuts, pineapple and sugar

The negative things of this landscapes are:

• There are many mountain ranges that represent problems to farming and building roads

• The relatively short rivers doesn’t allow to build big dams.

4.What kind of climate does it have? Pros and cons of the climate.

The prevailing climate of this country is tropical with a lot of rains, the average temperatura is between 25 and 35 °C, but there are some extreme conditions on high altitude regions like Valle Nuevo (-15 °C in some winters) and some years there is some snow precipitations on Pico Duarte.

Becouse of being near to the Ecuator the day lengths about 11-13 hours.

There is a rainy season from april to november mostly in may, august and September. The least rainy period is form December to March.

The precipitations vary from only 455 mm anually in Hoya de Enriquillo (Neyba Valley) to 2,743 mm on the northeast coastal.

This climate is affected by the alisium winds and the mountain ranges promoting big rain variations, but in fact are very similar to other near islands like Cuba or Jamaica.

The pros of the climate are:

• Usually rainy so there are many farming

• There are no big climate variations and the big humidity promotes farming

• The warm temperatures are good for tourism

The cons of the climate are:

• The torrential rains causes slips terrains.

• There are one or two hurricanes and about one tropical storm within a year, The last 5-force hurricane was David in 1979.

Economy:

1.What is the most common sector of employment in the country?

This nation has one of the most GDP in Central America and Caribbean ($ 13.500 per capita) and it’s been duplicated in only few years.

Domincan Republic GDP is ranked 87 from 180 nations.

• The most common sector of employment are the services sector, mostly tourism.

• The second is the industry sector favoured by the free trade zones

• The agriculture is the 3rd one

• Not properly a sector of employment but likewise important are the money send home by the emigrants]

2.What is the unemployment rate of your country (by percentage)?

The unemployment rate is ranked by the Central Bank, it is ranked at nearly 15% of the work force

The graphic bar shows that in the last years the unemployment rate varies between 14,1 and 15,1 %. The employment politics are:

• Regulate and promote the laboral rigths of workers

• Control the obligations of employers

• Set minimum work conditions, maximum laboral hours per day and rest times

• Prevention of laboral risks

• Survey systems to detect infractions

• Insurances to cover unemployment periods and Support services to search por employment and training

3.What is the percentage of contribution of its sectors?

The occupation by sectors are:

Another way of study the importance of economic sectors on the country is showing the GDP composition, again the order is services (the most important), industry and agriculture

5. Energy: production/consumption; exports/imports

The Dominican Republic has no petroleum or gas fields and there are no nuclear plants so the only way to obtain energy is by power plants

This country has no possibility of exporting energy and as being an island must generate it’s own energy importing fuel and coal:

This plants tradicionally have not enought capacity to generate energy for people and industry so Dominican Republic has an energetic crisis, there are problems like blackouts, illegal connections and high taxes.

Until the 90’s the energy sector was completely an state responsibility but today private enterprises take part in generation, distribution or commercilization of electric energy but this crisis is still a problem to attract foreign investments and develop the national industry because cost por kw is very expensive.

The electricity reaches today the 88% of the population but is expected to increase until the 95%.

Due to the expected increasing of electrical energy from actual 13 GW/h to 24 GW/h in a few years the goverment is investing on new coal plants and a new port to unload the coal. As a response to the electricity supply crisis many people turned to alternative self-generation units such as small diesel generators, kerosene lamps or large power generators (for large industrial consumers). The costs associated with this self-generation capacity are very high as they include equipment purchase, maintenance and fuel supply. This affects the residential, commercial and industrial sectors.

Domestic Policy:

1. Which are the current issues that affect your country in domestic policy?

The government is trying to give response to issues like:

• Delincuence

• Economic situation and unemployment

• Illegal inmigratión

• Energetic crisis

2. Which are the main policies about healthcare?

The main policies of the sanitary system are:

• Restructuring of regional public health services

• Total Access to medicines for the population

• Guarantee health services to the poor people.

• Promote the epidemic surveillance system

• Better human resource politics

3. Which are the main policies about education?

According to the “Decennial Education Plan” from 2008 to 2018 the main politics about education are:

• Beginning at five years old every child must receive at least nine years of basic school attendance.

• Consolidate the medium level of educational courses and expand adult schools.

• Guarantee a good level of reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning and ethical principles.

• Set quality standards and strong evaluation system

• Assure daily time schedule and school calendar compliance and promote and guarantee a strong human resources system for teachers

4. Taxes and other revenues

Taxes are managed by the “Dirección General de Impuestos Internos”, the most important are:

• Income taxTaxes every income, deposito or benefit obtained by people or legal entity

• Tax over transfering of services and industrial goodsIs a tax over transference or importing industrial goods or the provision of a service on sectors like telecommunications, hotel industry or rental services

• Impuesto selective al consumo Selective comsumption taxTax over manufacturing and payments via banking checks or electronic transactions

• Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y DonacionesSuccession and donation taxTax over transmission of goods in case of death or donations

• Other taxes for vehicles, buildings or homes, casinos etc.

5. Debt:

The last published data about national debt is from 2014 with 16.863 millions €, it means an increase of 893 millions respect the year before (15.970 millions € in 2013).

16.863 millions € are the 34,99% of GDP, it means an increase of 0,39 % respect 2013.

Looking back at years before the evolution of the public debt is increasing in terms of total millions and percentage of GDP, for instance, in 2004 was 4.229 millions € which means 22,50% of GDP.

Another kind of study debt is looking for debt by inhabitant, in 2014 was 1.706 € per inhabitant and in 2013 was 1.632 euros, so there is an increase of 74 € and in 2004 was only by 477 €.

Foreign Policy:

1. Which are the main current issues that affect your country in foreign policy?

The Dominican Republic is boosting new diplomatic relationship with Central Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Has signed reciently agreements with the nations grouped in CARICOM and Central America, another with the USA and is expected the sign of another with the European Union.

Because of multipolar politics has algo relations with China, Venezuela and Cuba.

2.Which are the main conflicts that have affected your country?

The illegal migrations from Haiti to Dominican Republic has been a source of conflict between this country and the United Nations because some accusations related to do not respect human rights and pretend massive deportations.

USA wasn’t approved good relations with Cuba.

3. Which are the main conflicts that affect your country?

USA doesn’t approves good relations with Venezuela

China doesn’t approves good relations with Taiwan.

4. Military Expenditures/ spending on defense programs:

The military expenditure is 0.61% of GDP, about 360,8 million dollars

The last big defense program was the adquisition of 8 light attack planes Embraer Super Tucano for 93,7 million dollars.

Sources used for the investigation:

• For Politics:

o www.ejercito.mil.do

o www.etimologias.dechile.net • For Society and People:

o www.un.org o www.studylands.com o www.dominicanaonline.org o www.pld.org.do o www.prd.org.do o www.alianzapais.com.do o www.dxc.do o www.one.gov.do o www.tradingeconomics..com

• For Geography:

o Wikipedia

o www.hoy.com.do o http://www.onamet.gov.do/

• For Economy:

o www.dominicantoday.com o www.tradinfeconimics.com o www.acento.dom.do o www.forbes.com

• For Domestic Policy:

o www.poderjudicial.gob.do o www.senado.gov.do

o www.duluclawyer.com/ o www.minerd.gob.do

• For Foreign Policy:

o www.un.org o www.exteriores.gov.es