NEW YORK.- The general coordinator of Alianza País (AlPaís) for the United States and the rest of the world, Luis Mayobanex Rodríguez, proclaimed that it is necessary to take to the streets of all the cities and countries where there are Dominican consulates to demand that the current government respond to the demands that the prices of consular services be lowered.
He argued that the general director of passports of the DR, Néstor Cruz Pichardo, “reacting to the demands of political, social and community sectors for the prices of passports to be lowered, indicated that in the country the price of the passport comes out at 25 dollars ”.
Likewise, “that what is related to the cost of passports abroad is a decision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (MIREX) and the consuls, and that is marking distance with the theft that is being done in the consular offices with the issue of passports”.
“While he says it costs $25, in the case of the NY consulate, a passport renewal costs $130 dollars. We are facing a real scam that cannot continue to be accepted. That means that from 2018 to December 31, 2020, the consulate in the Big Apple accumulated product only in passports for $13 million dollars and the Dominican State only received a little more than $3 million, ”said the political leader.
“To this we must add the assault that the spoils of war mean, that is why the consulates for the Dominican community are extremely high and seriously harm our fellow citizens,” said Mayobanex Rodríguez.
He stated that AlPaís has been insisting for years that the prices of consular services be lowered, and this is the moment due to the existing economic crisis in the US, given that inflation in US territory is the highest in the last 40 years, standing at 8.5% and that affects the working class.
“AlPaís tells President Luis Abinader that he has continued to the letter the looting policy of previous PLD governments, that he decree a 40% reduction in all consular services for at least 1 year,” he sentenced.
“To this persistent demand for a reduction in consular services, at the moment we are talking, the Abinader government has just announced a pilot plan for the privatization of consular services. With this announced policy, the president does not respond to the claim to lower said services, ”he stressed.
Mayobanex Rodríguez concluded by urging “to take to the streets of all the cities and countries where there are Dominican consulates to demand that the government give the demands we are making.”
His statements were issued this Wednesday afternoon during a crowded press conference at the main premises of the political entity, located in Upper Manhattan.
