Last week, U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat attempted to whitewash the Dominican Republic’s horrendous human rights record when he attacked the State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Dominican Republic stating it was “highly distorted from reality” and “excessive and aggressive.”

It is clear this is an intentional effort by the Congressman to protect President Abinader’s government, and to ensure the America’s Act, which he is a lead sponsor, is not derailed by concerns with the Dominican Republic’s record on human rights, combatting sexual exploitation of children, drug trafficking, forced labor, including child forced labor and so on.

In response, today, the leader of the Dominican Justice Initiative and president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, Mario H. Lopez, expressed deep concern in a letter to Rep. Espaillat noting the Congressman “attacked” the report’s veracity “without providing substantiation or evidence.”

Lopez writes that the State Department’s report is “the culmination of research led by the Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and in cooperation with U.S. Embassies, partner countries, engagement with local civil society, first-hand interviews, among other sources.”

In the letter, Lopez detailed publicly documented facts backing up each of the key findings in the 2023 report, many of which have been extensively reported in the Dominican media. They include findings by State on the abuse of preventive detention, arbitrary arrest, inhuman prison conditions, the brutalization of prisoners and the failure to verify nationality or residency status of prisoners have been documented extensively by Dominican civil society organizations and raised concerns among Espaillat’s fellow Members of Congress, Lopez noted.

Regarding State’s findings on forced labor, Lopez pointed to “stark reports about the dire living conditions for these exploited workers, often without electricity and running water, when they’re forced to work for 12 to 14 hours for less than $2 a day.” This was confirmed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Lopez wrote, “when it issued a Withhold Release Order for sugar imports emanating from the Dominican Republic.”

Lopez also informed Rep. Espaillat that the reports findings on human trafficking and child exploitation followed “the downgrade of the Dominican Republic in June 2023 to the Tier 2 Watch List for the Abinader government’s failure to address human trafficking throughout the country.” He pointed out that “the June 2023 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report specifically called out the Dominican government’s failure to strengthen laws “that would remove the requirement to prove force, fraud, or coercion in sex trafficking cases involving child victims.”

“In fact,” Lopez added, “the report’s findings support arguments for downgrading the Dominican Republic to Tier 3 on the Watch List under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).”

The full letter is available here and copied below:

May 9, 2024

Dear Representative Espaillat:

On behalf of the Dominican Justice Initiative, a project of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, I want to respectfully express concerns about your recent comments attacking the U.S. State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Dominican Republic.

The State Department’s annual report is focused on documenting “internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.” The report is not something that the State Department invented overnight.  Rather, it is the culmination of research led by the Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and is produced by engaging with U.S. Embassies, partner countries, local civil society organizations, and conducting first-hand interviews, among other sources.

Despite this, and without providing substantiation or evidence, you labeled the report “excessive and aggressive.”

We strongly urge you to consider these facts about human rights abuses that take place at the hands of the Dominican government:

  • Abuse of Pretrial Detention: According to the report, “Many suspects endured long pretrial detention. A judge could order detention lasting between three and 18 months…with some detentions reportedly lasting years.” The Dominican National Human Rights Commission (CNDH-RD) has repeatedly urged the Dominican Public Ministry to address the preventive detention crisis. The CNDH has reported that over 80% of the prison population within the Dominican Republic are being held under preventive detention, which directly violates both Dominican law and specific international human rights agreements.
  • Inhumane Prison Conditions: According to the report, the Dominican Republic’s prison and detention center system is riddled with, “harsh and life-threatening conditions in old-model prisons, such as overcrowding, violence, physical abuse, and poor living and sanitary conditions.” These conditions, including severe overcrowding, have been extensively documented and publicly reported. Recent deadly fires at La Victoria, Higüey, along with the riot this past weekend at Barahona, have underscored urgent issues that the Abinader government has failed to address.
  • Inhumane Treatment of Prisoners: According to the report, the “National Office of Public Defense, government authorities did not adequately investigate credible allegations of mistreatment in prisons.” The director of the National Public Defense Office, Rodolfo Valentín Santos, has publicly reported “recurrent” physical abuse of inmates by prison staff at El Pinto de La Vega. Despite obvious signs of physical abuse, staff labeled injuries as mere “acts of submission to obedience” and denied further medical assistance to injured inmates.
  • Arbitrary Arrest: According to the report, “Arbitrary arrests and detentions without judicial authorization remained a problem.” Last November, the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) determined that the Dominican government’s actions regarding former Attorney General Jean Rodríguez Sánchez violated multiple articles of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Dominican officials, in an effort to whitewash their abusive judicial system, dismissed the UN’s legal opinion as “blackmail.”
  • Unlawful Detention of U.S. Nationals: According to the report, “During detention operations and at detention facilities, migration officials did not have access to a centralized database to verify nationality or residency status of detained persons.” There is a strong likelihood that U.S. Nationals have been caught up in the Dominican government’s preventive detention crisis. Chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul expressed concern to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a letter that U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents may be under preventive detention orders in the Dominican Republic. 
  • Forced Labor: According to the report, “The process for addressing labor violations through criminal courts could take years, leaving workers with limited protection in the meantime.” The Dominican Republic has suffered for years with serious problems of forced labor, which advocates labeling it as “modern day slavery.” There are stark reports about the dire living conditions for these exploited workers, often without electricity and running water, when they’re forced to work for 12 to 14 hours for less than $2 a day. In 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed this concern when it issued a Withhold Release Order for sugar imports emanating from the Dominican Republic.
  • Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking and Child Exploitation:According to the report, “[c]hild pornography was rampant and growing due to the ease of online exploitation” over the government’s failure to “enforce the law effectively.” This follows the downgrade of the Dominican Republic in June 2023 to the Tier 2 Watch List for the Abinader government’s failure to address human trafficking throughout the country. The June 2023 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report specifically called out the Dominican government’s failure to strengthen laws “that would remove the requirement to prove force, fraud, or coercion in sex trafficking cases involving child victims.”

As a Dominican-born Member of Congress who represents a district where over 30% of the population is of Dominican origin, surely the findings from the Biden administration’s own report can’t be simply dismissed. In fact, the report’s findings support arguments for downgrading the Dominican Republic to Tier 3 on the Watch List under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

We urge you to consider the reality of the human rights abuses taking place in the Dominican Republic.  And if there is evidence that the State Department’s report is falsified, we encourage you to make your findings public and communicate them directly to the Secretary of State.

Sincerely,

Mario H. Lopez

President, Hispanic Leadership Fund/Dominican Justice Initiative