Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Republic is willing to facilitate work permits to Venezuelan citizens with expired documentation, given that the consular and diplomatic representation left the country by order of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and they do not have the possibility of renewing their passports, said this Monday the Dominican president, Luis Abinader.
“We have already done it in the past. We have facilitated work permits, without them (Venezuelans) having their documents up to date (…) and, if we have to do it again, we will do it,” said Abinader in response to a question in this regard during his weekly press conference.
According to Abinader, “The Dominican Republic has a debt with Venezuela, since Rómulo Betancourt, who fought for democracy against the Trujillo dictatorship, and for many years afterwards that country has also helped us fight for democracy.”
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At one point, “more than 250,000 Dominicans were working in Venezuela and they opened their doors to us. Therefore, it is time for us to reciprocate the historic help that Venezuela has given us,” he insisted.
The Venezuelan government has triggered a diplomatic crisis with seven countries, including the Dominican Republic, over its questioning of the transparency and fairness of the July 28 elections in which, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), Nicolás Maduro was re-elected for a third term, a result that the opposition considers “fraudulent.”
After their leaders expressed concern about the electoral process, Maduro’s government demanded that Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay “immediately withdraw their representatives from Venezuelan territory” and announced the withdrawal of its representatives from those nations.
On Monday, Abinader maintained his position of requesting the publication of the electoral records: “That has been our position, we will continue to maintain it and we will also continue to support democracy in Venezuela,” he said, but avoided making an express recognition of Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of the elections.
