Leonel Fernández

Name	Leonel Fernández
Order	50th, 52nd & 53rd President of the Dominican Republic
Honorific-prefix	His Excellency
Alt	A portrait shot of a middle-aged man smiling somewhat and looking straight ahead. He has light brown skin, slightly African/Negroid facial features, curly dark hair. He is mustachioed and wears a suit and tie.
Term start	16 August 2004
Vicepresident	Rafael Alburquerque
Predecessor	Hipólito Mejía
Term start2	16 August 1996
Term end2	16 August 2000
Vicepresident2	Jaime David Fernández Mirabal
Predecessor2	Joaquín Balaguer
Successor2	Hipólito Mejía
Birth date	December 26, 1953
Birth place	Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Party	Dominican Liberation Party (PLD)
Occupation	Lawyer
Spouse	Margarita Cedeño de Fernández
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature	FirmaLF.jpg
Signature alt	Leonel Fernández

Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna (born 26 December 1953) is a Dominican lawyer, academic, and the current President of the Dominican Republic, since 2004. He held the same office between 1996 and 2000.

Fernández has served as president thrice, becoming the first head of state of the Dominican Republic from his political party, the Dominican Liberation Party (Partido de la Liberación Dominicana [PLD]). Fernández is serving his second consecutive term in office, after his re-election in 2008. His new four-year term ends in 2012.

He is a native of the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, and lived for much of his childhood in New York City.

His administrations have focused much on technological development, and are criticized for insufficient focus on social issues. There has been a great deal of criticism about government corruption during his tenures.

Early life and beginning of political career

He was born in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, on December 26, 1953 as the son of Mr. José Antonio Fernández Collado and Mrs. Yolanda Reyna Romero. The family moved to the United States and Leonel spent his childhood and formative years in Washington Heights, New York City.

After he finished high school, he returned to his country and started Law Studies in the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (UASD). There he joined the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) at its inception in 1973, when former Dominican President Juan Bosch left the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) to create the new party. Fernández was a close pupil of Bosch, and was presented as a vice-presidential candidate with the latter during the 1994 presidential election.

First presidential term (1996–2000)

. Next to Fernández, looking on, are Miguel Cocco and Juan Temístocles Montás.]]

A special election was slated for May 1996 after the 1994 presidential election had been widely criticized as a fraudulent and corrupt circus led by incumbent President Joaquín Balaguer of the Reformist Social Christian Party (PRSC).

In the first-round election on 16 May 1996 Fernández received 38.9% of the vote in a three-way race, placing second behind José Francisco Peña Gómez of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). Neither candidate having obtained a majority (50% plus one), a second round was required, per the Constitution, between Peña Gómez and Fernández. For the second round on 30 June, the PLD and PRSC became allies, and Fernández thus secured 51.2% of the votes to win the election. He was sworn in as President on 16 August, succeeding Balaguer.

During his term in office, Fernández's political agenda was one of economic and critical reform. He helped enhance Dominican participation in hemispheric forums, such as the Organization of American States and the Summit of the Americas (Miami Summit). The Dominican economy enjoyed an average growth rate of seven percent, the highest in Latin America in that period, along with countries like South Korea. Inflation was stabilized in the low single digits, the lowest in all of Latin America.

Fernández also began a very personal and visionary plan to run the Dominican Republic. When developers proposed the country's first modern port during his first term, he said that "We can be the Singapore of the Caribbean".

In Santo Domingo, he built highways and tunnels and favored foreign investment, but delayed fundamental social reforms, like education and public health.

Fernández was unable to run for a consecutive term, as the constitution did not allow it, and thus, his party chose his right-hand man, Danilo Medina, as its candidate for the 2000 election. However, Medina was defeated by a charismatic populist PRD leader, Hipólito Mejía, who captured the popular sentiment at the time, as many Dominicans felt that the Fernández reforms had not improved their lives greatly, and questioned claims of unprecedented economic growth.

Second presidential term (2004–2008)

Fernández was elected to a second term of office in the presidential election held on 16 May 2004 with an absolute majority and the second highest percentage ever in Dominican history (57%). He was sworn in on 16 August 2004. His victory was due in large part to the collapse of the Dominican economy. This collapse has been attributed to skyrocketing oil prices and a slumping international economy post-9/11, excessive borrowing under the Mejía administration and the failure of three of the biggest banks in the country: Banco Intercontinental (Baninter), Bancrédito and Banco Mercantil. In an effort to avoid further economic chaos, the Mejía administration effectively underwrote all three banks, repaying their customers but generating even greater public debt. Some of the bankers involved have been or are on trial, yet the extent of their fraud is hard to measure as their widespread largess with officials within both the Fernández and Mejía administrations has made it nearly impossible to achieve a true accounting of what conditions led to the banks's demise.

Fernández is seen by many Dominicans as a forward and innovative thinker, yet he is considered very traditional regarding social investment. According to local sociologist José Oviedo, "The country trusts him with the economy, but he does not seem to pay that much attention to social issues." Economic prosperity, which his government boasts of, doesn't seem to reach enough people. Vargas accepted the defeat the same day, 16 May, at around 11:30pm. Fernández was sworn in for his third term on 16 August 2008, with the traditional ceremony at the National Congress.

Criticisms and corruption allegations

Since his first presidential term Fernandez's government has been accused of widespread corruption, more notably but not limited to the final months of his first term, from 1996 to 2000. These allegations were acted upon as charges of contract kickbacks, embezzlement, and exorbitant pensions to outgoing officials of his administration were raised by the succeeding government. Although these were ultimately dismissed, the awareness level of the public was raised as to the possible corruption occurring in Fernández's administration.

Increased corruption allegations have continued since his return to power in 2004 and subsequent reelection in 2008. These have led in several instances to media reports and investigations that have exposed illegal activities by high ranking officials within his government, and a public outcry for more action to be taken to control corruption. Many of the government officials that are exposed in the media are not removed from the administration or prosecuted, but moved to other positions of power different from the ones in which they are being exposed.

Awards, honours, and memberships

Collar of the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella

Collar of the Order of Christopher Columbus

Membership in the Club of Madrid

President Fernández has received the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the following institutions:

University of Paris 1 or La Sorbonne – 1999

Harvard University – 1999

Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureňa – 2000

Seton Hall – 2000

Universidad de Santiago de Chile – 2002

Lehman College – 2002

Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey – 2004

University of Massachusetts – 2005

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea – 2006

Chinese Culture University, Taiwan – 2006

Institute of High studies of Defense of the Dominican Air Forces – 2009

See also

Politics of the Dominican Republic

References

External links

Dominican Republic Presidency's official website

Biography by CIDOB Foundation (in Spanish)

Biography (in English)

Biography (in French)

Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:People from Santo Domingo Category:Presidents of the Dominican Republic Category:Dominican Republic lawyers Category:Current national leaders Category:Dominican Liberation Party politicians