Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
Fernandez's arrival to the presidency illustrated many of the
dramatic changes that had taken place in the country. At the
time of the death of Trujillo in 1961, the Dominican Republic
was a predominantly rural country with a population isolated
from international contact and an economy largely dependent
on the export of sugar and other agricultural crops. By 1996
the country was mostly urban, and its economy and culture
were far more linked to the outside world. Sugar was fading in
importance; the country's major sources of foreign exchange
were now tourism, exports from free trade zones, and remittances
from overseas migrants. Indeed, the new president had
spent part of his youth as a migrant in New York, where as
many as one in fourteen Dominicans currently live; he could
converse comfortably in English or Spanish about the implications
of economic globalization, the threat of drug trafficking
routes through the island republic, or the records of the dozens
of Dominican baseball players in the major leagues of the
United States.
The 1996 elections were the first in the country since 1962
when neither Balaguer nor Bosch was a candidate. Political
change was evident, as were elements of continuity and conflict.
Fernandez obtained the presidency, but the new electoral
calendar established by the 1994 reform meant that congressional
elections would now be held at the midpoint of the presidential
term. Indeed, his party had a very small representation
in Congress because of its poor performance in the 1994 elections.
Soon after Fernandez's electoral victory, Balaguer's PRSC
negotiated a pact with the PRD to obtain leadership positions
in Congress. Without congressional support, however, as of
mid-1998 the Fernandez administration was stymied in its
efforts to pass legislation.
Midway through his presidential term in office, Fernandez
had been governing in a more democratic fashion than Balaguer.
As of mid-1998, the Fernandez administration had had
two major political successes. One was the appointment in
August 1997 of a new Supreme Court—widely viewed as comprising
many distinguished jurists—in a much more open process
through a Council of the Magistrature established by the
constitutional reform of 1994. The other was the holding of
fair congressional and municipal elections on May 16, 1998. At
the same time, the death of Peha Gomez, one of the country's
political leaders, on May 10, 1998, was an indicator of the transition
in Dominican politics at the close of the twentieth cen-
52