Santo Domingo metro drivers strike for nine days

Peaceful Assembly

Dominican Medical College on strike

On 31st July, the Dominican Medical Association (CMD) and the Specialised Medical Societies began a 12-hour strike in response to the lack of an agreement reached in meetings with government health institutions. The CMD and the Medical Societies demanded, among other health reforms, the creation of a Universal Basic Health Plan and a single tariff system that would allow for a more democratic management of the country’s medical resources.

Both public and private institutions took part in the strike, and both sectors are interested in the creation of a Social Security Law that would guarantee the quality of health services as a right.

Santo Domingo metro drivers strike for nine days

On 20th June, the drivers of the Santo Domingo metro went on strike for nine days to protest the dismissal of dozens of their colleagues and to demand better working conditions.

More than 150 drivers joined the peaceful strike called "brazos caídos".

On 28th June, metro workers marched from the Juan Pablo Duarte station on Máximo Gómez Avenue to the National Palace to present their demands. There, a commission they had selected, met with Benny Metz, deputy minister for relations with civil society in the Ministry of the Presidency. As a result of this meeting, they agreed to suspend the strike for a week. During this period, the government promised to prepare a response to their demands.

Protests over lack of drinking water

On 20th June, community organisations and the Pro-Development Committee of the Los Girasoles district of the capital Santo Domingo marched in protest over the lack of water and power cuts.

According to the press, the coordinator of the community movement, José Abreu, denounced the failure of the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation to provide drinking water through the community's networks. The president of the Junta de Vecinos de Los Girasoles called on President Luis Abinader to support the residents of the area where all social services have collapsed.

Olivos Ramirez, president of the Junta de Vecinos de Los Palmares, accused the authorities of failing to keep their promise to build two wells, and said that, despite the rains, representatives of the state institution claim that the dams have low water levels.

On 4th July, demonstrators in Bonao set fire to tyres and blocked the streets in the sectors of Los Transformadores and Eugenio María de Hostos to demand drinking water and an end to power cuts.

According to press reports, some demonstrators said that the protests would continue because the power cuts were long and residents in the affected sectors had to pay their monthly bills regardless or have their service cut off.

Protests and clashes in Navarrete

On 15th May, protesters paralysed traffic and commercial activities in the municipality of Navarrete, north of Santiago, for several hours. The mobilisation called by Conalucha, the Popular Front of Navarrete (FPN), and the 14 de Junio movement, was to demand a mandatory review of the imprisonment of one of its leaders who was accused of allegedly shooting a police officer in 2022. The leader, Armando García, is being held in prison after being arrested for the shooting of police Sergeant José Joel Torres in February 2022.

During the mobilisation, there was a confrontation between police officers and protesters, but no injuries were reported.

After the removal of debris from public roads by the police and volunteers, traffic returned to normal as well as commercial, industrial, and other activities resumed in Navarrete.

Teacher-led protest

On 11th May, the Dominican Teachers' Association (ADP) announced the second phase of the mobilisation plan to improve the health conditions of retired and pensioned teachers.

This plan included municipal assemblies on 19 May and a rally at the Ministry of Education on 26th May, culminating in a national rally at the National Palace on 7th June. This last activity was postponed after a meeting with President Luis Abinader confirmed for 20th June.

Following a meeting chaired by President Luis Abinader and attended by the Minister of Education and part of the ADP leadership, an agreement was signed that aims to improve the quality of Dominican education by improving aspects such as respect for teaching hours, salaries, pensions and access to health services for teachers.

Expression

Research done by Amnesty International revealed that the communications of investigative journalist Nuria Piera were being subjected to illegal surveillance. Amnesty´s Security Lab analysed the journalist's mobile device, discovering she had been the target of surveillance using the NSO Group's Pegasus software on at least three occasions between 2020 and 2021.

The journalist was working on sensitive investigations into the alleged corruption of high-ranking government officials and relatives of a former president at the time her device was infected with the spyware.

“As an investigative journalist, we are always aware that we are under constant scrutiny, but thanks to Amnesty International this is the first time that I have proof that my phone was bugged. In our country there’s not one single case in which a government official has been prosecuted for an illegal intervention, which shows the weakness of our system,” said Piera in The Guardian report.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression (RFOE) expressed their concern and have called for an investigation.

As reported by the IACHR, the State noted that it respects the right to privacy and freedom of expression and that it strongly opposes any attempts to engage in illegal, selective surveillance of any citizen, especially a journalist. It further stressed that wiretapping can only be done with judicial authorisation, pointing out that the requirements for obtaining this kind of authorisation is rigorous and requires solid evidence to justify the need for it. The State added that during the current administration, which began on 16th August 2020, it has not contracted the services of the NSO Group or any other company operating in this field.

According to The Guardian, this case is the first confirmation that NSO’s military-grade spyware Pegasus has been used to target journalists in the Dominican Republic, making it the third country in Latin America – after Mexico and El Salvador – where such a violation has been discovered.

Association

Dominicans of Haitian descent struggle for national identity

Nine years after the enactment of Law 169-14, when the Dominican government claimed to address the situation of Dominicans affected by denationalisation policies such as Ruling 168-13 of the Constitutional Court, it has been more difficult for Dominicans with foreign-born parents to maintain their national identity.

According to Reconoci.do, a national, independent civic network composed primarily of Haitian-born Dominicans, the real purpose of this law was to neutralise national and international complaints and demobilise protests, thereby denationalising thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent. During these nine years, the government has left people in legal limbo without civil registration, with expired documentation, and without access to Dominican nationality with its guaranteed access to economic, political, and social rights in the country.

Rule 169-14 was intended to limit the 168-13 judgment of the Constitutional Court, which threatened the right to nationality for descendants of foreigners born in the Dominican Republic between 1929 and 2010. The 168-13 ruling ratified article 18 of the constitution which states that "only the children of a Dominican mother or father are Dominicans", thereby discriminating the right to nationality for descendants of foreigners born in the Dominican Republic between 1929 and 2010. More than 250,000 Dominicans of foreign parents, mostly from Haiti, lost their nationality due to the 2013 ruling applied retroactively to those born between 1929 and 2010.

On 23rd May, Grupo Reconocido staged a demonstration outside Congress. The group demanded that the Dominican government take concrete steps to address the needs of its citizens and ensure that those who were born in the country have unfettered access to the rights inherent to other nationals. Reconocido has documented how the lack of identity documents hinders the mobility of Dominicans of Haitian descent, noting dozens of arbitrary detentions during immigration interdiction operations.

Abuses against Haitian migrants denounced

On 13th June, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH-RD) denounced abuses committed by the migration authorities against Haitian migrants during their operations.

The CNDH-RD denounced illegal practices such as deportations of minors and pregnant women by migration agents and routine searches without warrants of homes where Haitian migrants live.

The CNDH-RD condemned these practices, which, in addition to being illegal, violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Pact of San José, the Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the Constitution of the Republic and the Migration Law.

In its communiqué, the CNDH-RD demanded an end to the mass deportation of children and adolescents and pregnant women and condemned the forced entry into homes. Similarly, the migration agents who engage in this illegal practice should be sanctioned and removed from their posts.