Dominican Republic’s New President Luis Rodolfo Abinader Takes Office Warning of Tough Recovery

MD Nasir from New Jersey USA :

Luis Rodolfo Abinader has been sworn in as president of the Dominican Republic following his election win last month. The 53-year-old businessman, who had never held elected office, won a four-year term on July 5, ending a 16-year run in power by a centre-left party.Luis Rodolfo, Abinader studied high school at the Loyola School. He obtained a BA in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo and did postgraduate studies in Project Management at the Arthur D. Little Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also studied Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering at Harvard University and Advanced Management at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Dominican Republic’s New President Luis Rodolfo Abinader has been president of the Association of Hotels of Sosua and Cabarete. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic (Asonahores). Member of the Board of Directors of the Fundación Universitaria O&M.

He was recognized by the State Congress of Rhode Island, United States, for his public, educational, and business fields. And for his contributions to higher education, civic engagement, and community service, he received recognition from the Mayor of Boston and the Massachusetts State Senate.

He had finished second in the 2016 presidential election.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among the attendees at Sunday’s swearing-in ceremony in Santo Domingo.

His trip came two days after the Dominican Republic was the only country on the 15-member UN security council to support a US resolution to indefinitely extend an arms embargo against Iran. This election resounds as an example to other nations of the power of democracy and what is possible when countries prioritize the wishes of their people,” Pompeo tweeted after Abinader’s inauguration, saying he was “optimistic about this chapter in US-Dominican partnership”.

The elections in the Dominican Republic took place as the coronavirus pandemic was sweeping across the Caribbean nation of some 10.5 million people.

Abinader himself had spent weeks before the election in isolation following a positive test for the virus, and the vote itself had been postponed from May due to COVID-19.