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Can youth buck the trend of failed democracy in the Dominican Republic? - YouTube
Channel: Democracy Now!
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Talk about the diaspora of the Dominican Republic.
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And also, can people vote here for the Dominican
Republic elections?
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So, yes, people can vote here for the Dominican
Republic elections.
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Sometimes thereâs this sort of nickname
that we have, specifically for the community
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in New York, and thatâs Provincia 33.
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Right?
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So itâs sort of like the 33rd province of
the Dominican Republic.
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And, you know, I think, even for me, being
part of the diaspora, we care so much about
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whatâs happening in the country, because
a lot of the issues that happen in the Dominican
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Republic and a lot of the conditions of the
people there actually lead to there being
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such a widespread diaspora.
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I mean, weâre talking about Dominicans being
not only in New York City, not only in different
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parts of the United States, but thereâs
a large population of Dominicans in Spain,
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and thereâs Dominicans all across the globe.
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And I think these protests are actually â have
become an opportunity for people to almost
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come out and say, âHey, you know, weâre
Dominicans, and weâre also living in the exterior.
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And we would love to live in our country,
but itâs difficult to live there, because
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of these very issues that are happening.â
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You know?
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And earlier you asked me about the PLD, right?
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So, people are saying that there was attempts
at fraud.
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You know, so whenever people went to the ballot
and they tried to vote for their candidate
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of preference, some of the candidates were
not showing up on the ballot.
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And this is very, very questionable.
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Itâs very shady, to say the least.
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And people see this as an attempt at sabotage.
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You know, this is the first time in 18 years,
or the first time at least in a decade, when
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the PLD is no longer ahead in the polls, you
know, when, instead, itâs the opposition
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party â which is also questionable â is
ahead in the polls.
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Right?
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So, this is the first time when the PLD might
not win the elections.
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And they found themselves in a situation of
fear, and instead of allowing for the democratic
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process to happen, people see this as an attempt
at sabotaging that democratic process.
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I wanted to ask you about the attempt to redo
the election.
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This time theyâre going to paper ballots,
because the problem, apparently, they claim,
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was that this was an electronic voting system
that somehow malfunctioned, as if we havenât
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heard this story before.
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Yeah.
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Didnât we just hear about Iowa?
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Havenât we heard about all these other problems
with electronic voting?
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So now theyâre going back to the old-fashioned
paper ballot.
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And then they have a presidential election
in May, isnât there?
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Yeah.
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Thatâs correct, yeah.
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So, these elections were not only meant for
people to choose their local leaders â and
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we know how important it is to choose the
mayor that represents you, to choose the regional
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leader that represents you â but these ballots
were also going to create momentum, or were
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an opportunity to create momentum, for the
opposition come the presidential elections.
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Now that momentum has been lost, you know,
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because there is no credibility in the election process.
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And we have no idea whatâs going to happen
on March 15.
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Also, they spent $19 million on these voting
machines.
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And people are angry about that.
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A lot of the signs that I have seen in protests,
you know, they say, âThese dollars, they
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went to the trash.â
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How can you spend $19 million and all of that,
and the machines donât work?
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Like, you canât do that.
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Thereâs been no connection between Dominican
Republic and Iowa thatâs been uncovered,
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has there?
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Not that we know of, but I wouldnât be surprised.
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But also, Amanda, you talk about this, and,
Juan, you write about this in Harvest of Empire.
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Talk about the history of the Dominican Republic
and U.S. relations there, with U.S. soldiers
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moving into the Dominican Republic, invading
the Dominican Republic in 1965, and then how
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that shapes modern-day Dominican Republic.
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Yeah.
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So, you know, there were memes popping up
during the â on Sunday of the face of JoaquĂn Balaguer.
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And the meme was basically him laughing and
saying, âWow!
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You donât even know how to properly steal
an election.â
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You know, so, JoaquĂn Balaguer was the man
that the United States helped put in power
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once there was a U.S.-backed coup in 1965.
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And he was president â you know, I like
to talk about this a lot, because I feel that
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Dominican Republic doesnât get â I feel
that people normally look at Trujillo, right?
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The Trujillo dictatorship that lasted 30 years,
that was like a very, very tough, stronghold
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regime where a lot of people were killed,
a lot of people were disappeared.
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And they think, âOK, after Trujillo happened,
we had democracy.
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Thatâs it.â
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And that wasnât the case.
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Balaguer was president starting from the â like
the late 1960s up until the early 1990s.
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Weâre talking about like two to three generations
of Dominicans who saw Balaguer on and off
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in power.
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And his was also a right-wing sort of strong
regime and a repressive regime.
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And people are already seeing the connection,
you know, between his time in presidency and
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also how long the PLD has been in power and
how they have crushed the opposition.
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And talking about U.S. interventions, there
was an article in The Washington Post that
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came out where Giuliani â weâre talking
about President Donald Trumpâs attorney
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â was in the Dominican Republic consulting
for Luis Abinader, who is the opposition leader.
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You know, so already the other opposition
parties are saying, âWell, this guy is trying
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to get U.S. backing,â because, in the end
of the day, it is the U.S. that has a stronghold
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in Dominican Republic, and foreign American
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investments that have a stronghold in the country.
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