Santiago.- The former Dominican president, Leonel Fernández, described it as disrespectful and an affront to the Dominican Republicthat international organizations are demanding that the Constitution be modified to establish that the children of foreigners who live in the country in irregular migratory conditions are also Dominicans.
“They want to tell us who is Dominican and who is not Dominican, and we say that Dominican is everyone who is born in the territory of the Dominican Republic, of Dominican mothers and fathers. That Dominican is he, that although he is born in foreign territory, he is the son of Dominican fathers and mothers, ”he said.
“We are never going to accept that,” Fernández declared when participating in a meeting with intellectuals from the province of Santiago, during a talk in memory of the 210 years of Juan Pablo Duartefather of the country.
“When international organizations demand that we modify the Constitution of the Republic, to establish that those born to foreign parents in irregular migratory conditions are also Dominicans, we have said, that is an affront, that is disrespectful that we in the Dominican Republic, We are never going to accept”, stressed the three-time ruler (1996-2000. 2004-2012).
Fernández, together with the former Defense Minister, retired General José Miguel Soto Jiménez and the former deputy and leader of the Fuerza Nacional Progresista (FNP) party, Pelegrín Castillo, analyzed the life and work of Juan Pablo Duarte, during a discussion organized by Ateneo Amantes de La Luz, a scenario in which everyone agreed to establish that 210 years after his birth, the patrician guides the steps of the people, guides the leaders and outlines the guidelines on how to defend the identity and existence as the Dominican people.
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Fernández recalled that the country has had to go through multiple vicissitudes, among them that, 17 years after the proclamation of Independence, “national sovereignty was eclipsed and the Restoration of the Republic had to take place, so that in 1865, we could raise again the tricolor flag and consider ourselves as Dominicans”.
In the conversation, Fernández also recalled the foreign interventions in the national territory and the dictatorships of Ulises Heureaux and Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.
The also president of the Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) party specified that, even today, the Dominican people feel threatened “with regard to existence as a nation and perpetuation as a national identity, because from outside they have wanted to force us to to assume norms, values and principles that are contrary to those we have in the Dominican Republic”.
For his part, Soto Jiménez warned of the threat posed to the Dominican Republic by the Haitian drama and unbridled immigration, while highlighting the qualities and skills of Leonel Fernández, who in his opinion is about to become President of the Republic for fourth time, establishing that the president of the People’s Force is in the best conditions to return to serve the country.
