Article ruffles feathers of Dominican, US ambassadors

Santo Domingo.- The U.S. Embassyon Wednesday called an article published in outlet Listin Diario by journalistand diplomat Cesar Medina, “completely baseless and false speculation,”referring to a recent visit to president Danilo Medina by US State Dept. deputysecretary Juan Gonzalez.

In the letter to Listin editor-in-chiefMiguel Franjul, the embassy said González is a person who’d never disrespectany ambassador or colleague, as it affirms Medina suggested in his article.

The US Embassy’s letter in itsentirety translated by Dominican Today:

Santo Domingo, D. N.

May 4, 2016

Mr. Miguel Franjul

Listin Diario Director

Your office

Distinguished Director,

After a cordial greeting I amwriting to you regarding a recent article by César Medina titled, "US presageselection results" published last May 1. The article contains severalerrors that I would like to clarify. Before addressing them, I want toemphasize that one of the privileges and responsibilities corresponding to therepresentatives of the diplomatic corps, by virtue of their diplomatic status,is the ability to hold private meetings with officials of the host government.

For this reason, I prefer not todisclose the exact details discussed during the meeting with President DaniloMedina, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, Juan Gonzalezand Ambassador Brewster.

Contrary to what was outlined inthe article, and as is customary for such meetings, there was in fact atranslator present who assisted both President Medina as the US delegation ofwhich I was part. Additionally, there are a number of speculations which arecompletely unfounded and completely false. For example, contrary to what is mentionedin the article, an ambassador of the United States is the personalrepresentative of the President of the United States and therefore is alwaysconsidered the representative of the Government of the United States of thehighest rank in the country. It was in that role that I welcomed the DeputyAssistant Secretary Juan Gonzalez (who is a colleague and friend, and a personwho would never adopt a disrespectful tone towards any ambassador or colleague,as Cesar Medina suggested in his article).

The visit of Deputy SecretaryGonzalez is just one of several visits to the country by senior officials ofthe US government over the past two years. As the aforementioned visits andmeetings between representatives of the US Embassy in Santo Domingo and theDominican government counterparts ensure that relations between our countrieswill continue to flourish.

Generating speculations andincorrect reviews on these meetings would not be beneficial to either of the twocountries.

The US Embassy in Santo Domingoand the Government of the United States in Washington enjoy a closerelationship with the government of the Dominican Republic and its people. Wehope that future reports on meetings between representatives of our twocountries correctly reflect this longstanding friendship.

Regards,

The Embassy of the United Statesof America.

Editor’s note: The article byCesar Medina, the Dominican ambassador to Panama, is the latest ruffling of thefeathers resulting from Washington’s designation of the openly gay envoy JamesW. Brewster, who like Medina is an outspoken diplomat.