El Nacional poll: 84% of readers want UN Refugees rep out

Santo Domingo.- 84% of elnacional.com.do readers support declaring UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Dominican Republic Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, persona non grata, while 16% rebuke Juliana Deguis’ invitation to participate in a seminar on statelessness, held in Spain.

Over the weekend historian and senior member of Dominican Republic’s ruling PLD party Euclides Gutiérrez and leftist movement leader Miguel Mejia accused Vargas Llosa of heading an international campaign against the country for allegedly mistreating Haitians.

They agreed separately that Deguis isn’t stateless because she has been issued a Dominican ID card (cedula) with all required documents, and called her invitation to the seminar "malicious."

Gutiérrez said the UNHCR representative should leave the country in the next 48 hours, accusing Vargas Llosa of working for the economic powers he affirms promote Dominican Republic’s unification with Haiti.

Moreover, the conservative FNP party has repeatedly warned of efforts to unify Hispaniola, because in its view, “the international community has realized that Haiti is a failed and unviable State," and want Dominican Republic to bear its burden.