Break the silence on the Dominican Republic’s human rights record

When it comes to governments that routinely violate human rights, there appears to be a policy of selective outrage from the Biden administration. 

The U.S. should always stand against the practice of arbitrary arrests and the regular imprisonment of people held without charge, especially when victims are American citizens or legal permanent residents. But when it comes to the Dominican Republic, where these tactics are causing instability, President Biden has been mute.

The silence from the White House is striking, especially given that the State Department itself issued a travel alert in November 2022 after “darker skinned U.S. citizens and U.S. citizens of African descent” were being wrongly detained by Dominican authorities. The most recent Dominican country report from the State Department documented “unlawful or arbitrary killings by government security forces; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by police and other government agents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions [and] arbitrary detention.”

Over 2.4 million people of Dominican descent live in the U.S., many of them dual nationals with family in both countries. More than 4 million Americans travel to the Dominican Republic as tourists every year. The Biden administration admits to the danger many visitors face but will not pressure the Dominican government to stand by its international human rights obligations.

On Feb. 28 in Washington, the human rights arm of the Organization of American States heard testimony about an “inhuman” justice system that denies the right to a defense, and overcrowded prisons that are “a cemetery for the living,” where torture and untreated illnesses can be fatal.

The prison population in the Dominican Republic is above 200 percent capacity, resulting in generally deplorable conditions. And according to the National Commission on Human Rights in the Dominican Republic, more than 80 percent of prisoners are held under preventive detention orders. Preventive detention is the practice of arresting and locking people up without ever being charged. Those held are often even being refused the ability to mount a legal defense or see the inside of a courtroom.

There has not been a word of protest from the Biden administration. In fact, the White House rolled out a red carpet for an Oval Office visit by Dominican President Luis Abinader last November. There was no indication that human rights were raised in the meeting with Biden or any other U.S. official Abinader met.

Within days of the U.S. diplomatic pomp for Abinader, an arm of the UN Human Rights Council condemned the Dominican Republic’s Public Ministry for violating international human rights prohibitions against arbitrary arrest. Their findings singled out prosecutors whom Abinader appointed, but his government refuses to address it.

In fact, a Santo Domingo judge who has been pressured in court by those same prosecutors now says that she and her family are being followed and intimidated. This raises alarming questions about the independence of the Dominican judiciary and whether the rule of law even exists there anymore.

There is also no agency within the Biden administration that will report on how many U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents have been arbitrarily arrested or held under lengthy preventive detention in Dominican prisons.

The situation prompted a letter from Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking how many U.S. nationals have been detained and whether the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo checks on their welfare and offers assistance. The State Department has yet to reply.

Such silence from Washington can only encourage human rights abusers. That is the unfortunate result of the frustrating policy of ignoring what is happening in the Dominican justice system, even when Americans are endangered by it. It is time for the government of the Dominican Republic to face concerted pressure to clean up its act.

Mario H. Lopez is president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, which launched the Dominican Justice Initiative in 2023.