Does the Dominican government have the capacity to achieve meaningful reforms?

The attendance of the Dominican Public Ministry at a recent meeting between the Dominican National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) is a positive sign by the United States for promoting greater accountability from the Public Ministry.

Last weekend, Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher Landberg of INL met with DNCD President Vice Admiral José Manuel Cabrera Ulloa to discuss strengthening cooperation in the fight against “drug trafficking, money laundering, and transnational organized crime, among other issues.”

This meeting was noteworthy given the ministry’s growing list of international human rights organizations condemning the Public Ministry and the DR’s continued difficulties with drug trafficking. Both domestic and international human rights organizations – including the State Department itself – have expressed concerns about persistent and unaddressed abuses within the justice system at the hands of the Public Ministry. These concerns include significant questions about its independence and the capacity of the Dominican government to serve as a regional leader.

The visit from INL appears to be a message from the State Department: If the Dominican Republic wants to be a model host country for the Summit of the Americas in 2025 and lead the anti-corruption pillar of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP), the Public Ministry should take concrete actions to address worsening humanitarian crises within the Dominican justice system.

Can the Public Ministry Support U.S. and Regional Priorities?

In 2010, the U.S. launched the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), a security cooperation partnership with thirteen Caribbean countries. Through CBSI, U.S. taxpayer dollars are meant to promote “transparency and effectiveness in criminal justice systems” and “improve the quality of prosecution and enhance access to justice in the Dominican Republic”. Of the initiative’s participants, the Dominican Republic is far and away the country with the most capacity – on paper – to lead CBSI priorities in the Caribbean.

However, the Public Ministry repeated disregard for international human rights standards and the rule of law puts that leadership role into question. According to the State Department’s 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in the Dominican Republic, the Public Ministry has failed to take “credible steps to identify and punish officials involved in human rights abuses.”

This followed the decision by the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) which found that prosecutors in the Public Ministry “systematically interrupted” the “right to a fair trial” and excessively and unlawfully using preventive detention, violating due process and other basic pillars of the rule of law.

Currently, 80% of prisoners in the Dominican Republic are held under preventive detention, a practice that violates both international and Dominican law. This places the country among the world’s highest users of preventive detention, compounding concerns about its justice system.

Continued Silence on Independence Concerns

The WGAD referred the DR Public Ministry case to “to the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers” given the UN body’s inability to consider the DR justice system to be “independent and impartial.”

This issue was highlighted further by outgoing Dominican Attorney General Miriam Germán Brito, who criticized alleged persecution of a judge by prosecutors in the Public Ministry. Yet, instead of calling for an independent investigation, Germán suggested that the Public Ministry investigate itself.

Germán further expressed frustration with the lack of involvement in the Ministry’s decisions, stating that she often learned about announcements through the media rather than from within the office she heads. This public admission underscores the internal dysfunction and lack of communication within the Public Ministry, further validating concerns about its autonomy and efficacy.

Ultimately, the Dominican government is supposed to be a leader in the region and help the U.S. government make progress on its goal of building capacity to “disrupt illicit trafficking and transnational crime.” As of 2022, the U.S. government has committed more than $832 million in CBSI funding to the benefit of Caribbean partners, including the Dominican Republic. Yet as long as the Public Ministry remains the tip of the Dominican spear on these efforts, progress will continue to stall, and the State Department will have to result to more forceful measures beyond meetings to ensure U.S priorities in the region do not further lapse.