Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez (born 22 February 1941) is a
Dominican politician who served as
President of the Dominican Republic
The president of the Dominican Republic ( es, Presidente de la República Dominicana) is both the head of state and head of government of the Dominican Republic. The presidential system was established in 1844, following the proclamation of th ...
from 2000 to 2004.
During his presidential term in office the country was affected by one of its worst economic crises, generated by the bankruptcy of three major commercial banks in the country, which resulted in high inflation, high country risk rating, currency devaluation and increasing local poverty. Further damaging to Mejía's reputation was the arrest of ex-army captain
Quirino Paulino
Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo, a.k.a. "el Don" (born 8 September 1960 in Comendador, Elías Piña Province) is an ex-captain of the army of the Dominican Republic, and alleged boss of a drug-trafficking organization responsible for importing t ...
. Quirino was arrested after being linked to a large drug trafficking ring, and in the legal and political aftermath, connections to Mejía were discovered. Mejía sent 604 Dominican troops to fight in the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
.
In the
presidential election of 2004, he ran for a second term as the candidate of the
Dominican Revolutionary Party
The Dominican Revolutionary Party ( es, link=no, Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, PRD) is a political party in the Dominican Republic. Traditionally a left-of-centre party and social democratic in nature, the party has shifted since the 200 ...
but he was defeated by
Leonel Fernández
Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna () (born 26 December 1953) is a Dominican Republic, Dominican lawyer, academic, and was the 50th and 52nd President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2012. From 2016 until 2020, he was ...
, whom he had succeeded as President in 2000,
from the
Dominican Liberation Party
The Dominican Liberation Party (Spanish: Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, referred to here by its Spanish acronym, the PLD) is a political party in the Dominican Republic. Founded in 1973 by former president Juan Bosch, the party, along ...
.
Early life
Mejía Domínguez was born on 22 February 1941 at the ''José María Cabral y Báez'' Hospital in
Santiago de los Caballeros
Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...
, as the first child of Hipólito de Jesús ‘Polín’ Mejía Díaz and María Josefa ‘Marina’ Domínguez Viñals, both native of La Chichigua in
Gurabo, place where he was raised. In his hometown he is known as ''Cabuyita'', diminutive for ''cabuya'' (
Latin American Spanish
The different varieties of the Spanish language spoken in the Americas are distinct from each other as well as from those varieties spoken in the Iberian peninsula, collectively known as Peninsular Spanish and Spanish spoken elsewhere, such as in ...
for "
Agave
''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some ''Agave'' species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known for ...
twine
Twine is a strong Thread (yarn), thread, light String (cord), string or cord composed of two or more thinner strands twisted, and then twisted together (Plying, plied). The strands are plied in the opposite direction to that of their twist, whic ...
"), because of the long
blond
Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can ...
straight hair that he had during his youth.
Mejía received a high school diploma from the
Loyola Polytechnic Institute
Loyola Polytechnic Institute ( es, Instituto Politécnico Loyola or IPL) is an educational institution of basic and technological education in the Dominican Republic, founded by the Society of Jesus in 1952. Its Loyola Specialized Institute of H ...
in
San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic
San Cristóbal is a city in the southern region of Dominican Republic. It is the municipal (''municipio'') capital of the San Cristóbal province. The municipality is located in a valley at the foothills of the mountains belonging to the Cordiller ...
, graduating in 1962. Two years later, he attended special programs at
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...
in the United States. On 4 July 1964 he married
Rosa Gómez Arias, his
third cousin
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...
. They have four children, among them,
Carolina Mejía de Garrigó
Rosa Carolina Mejía Gómez (born 28 March 1969) is a Dominican politician, economist, and businesswoman. She is the current mayor of Distrito Nacional, the first woman to assume the position.
Early life
Rosa Carolina Mejía Gómez was born in S ...
, a 2016 vice-presidential candidate.
At age twenty-four, he was appointed director and undersecretary of the national Tobacco Institute. In 1978, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture under the government of President
Antonio Guzmán Fernández
Silvestre Antonio Guzmán Fernández (February 12, 1911 – July 4, 1982), best known as Antonio Guzmán, was a Dominican businessman and a politician. He was President of the Dominican Republic, from 1978 to 1982.
Early life
Antonio Guzm ...
. During this period,
agri-business incentive laws were passed and programs to promote rural agriculture development and technification were undertaken.
In 1982, Mejia was defeated in his campaign to become senator from Santiago Province. In 1990, he was named vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of
Dominican Revolutionary Party
The Dominican Revolutionary Party ( es, link=no, Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, PRD) is a political party in the Dominican Republic. Traditionally a left-of-centre party and social democratic in nature, the party has shifted since the 200 ...
leader
José Francisco Peña Gómez
José Francisco Peña Gómez (6 March 1937 – 10 May 1998) was a politician from the Dominican Republic. He was the leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), a three-time candidate for president of the Dominican Republic and former May ...
.
Presidency
In 2000, Mejía ran for president as the candidate of the left leaning Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) on a program to increase health, education, and social security services through tax hikes. He led the field in the
2000 presidential election, taking 49.87% of the vote in the first round. His main opponents,
Danilo Medina
Danilo Medina Sánchez ( : born 10 November 1951) is a Dominican politician who was President of the Dominican Republic from 2012 to 2020.
Medina previously served as Chief of Staff to the President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 1999 ...
and former president
Joaquín Balaguer
Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo (1 September 1906 – 14 July 2002) was a Dominican politician, scholar, writer, and lawyer. He was President of the Dominican Republic serving three non-consecutive terms for that office from 1960 to 1962 ...
, received 24.9% and 24.6% of the vote, respectively.
![Hipolito mejia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Hipolito_mejia.jpg)
With Mejía just a few thousand votes short of the threshold for avoiding a runoff, his supporters claimed victory and urged Medina to concede. Medina soon realized that he stood no chance of closing a nearly 25-point gap with Mejía, especially when Balaguer suggested that some of his supporters might cross over to the PRD in the runoff. Medina would have needed nearly all of Balaguer's voters to cross over to him in order to have any realistic chance of winning. Accordingly, Medina pulled out of the runoff, handing the presidency to Mejía.
Mejía took office on 16 August of that year.
During his presidency, he supported many popular issues, like social security, helping small businesses, agriculture, improving education and helping with adequate housing. He received considerable support from the people during the first two years of his mandate, which caused his party to win the congressional and municipal elections taking control of the Senate with 29 out of 31 senators.
![Defense](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Defense.gov_News_Photo_030521-D-9880W-015.jpg)
During Mejía’s term, the country's second largest privately held commercial bank,
Baninter
Banco Intercontinental (or BANINTER) was the second largest privately held commercial bank in the Dominican Republic before collapsing in 2003 in a fraud tied to political corruption.
Ramón Báez Figueroa and expansion of BANINTER
Banco Interco ...
, collapsed in a spectacular failure tied to long-standing political corruption. However, no evidence has ever linked Mejia to any corruption nor was he ever taken to court. Actually, it was later proved by international organizations such as the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
that the bank was fraudulently caused to fail − something for which its President and CEO
Ramón Báez Figueroa Ramón Buenaventura Báez Figueroa (born in 1956) is the former president of Banco Intercontinental (BANINTER) from the Dominican Republic, accused in 2003 of masterminding the country's most spectacular banking fraud scandal, amounting to more than ...
was years later found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
During his term, Mejía attempted to spread government resources and services to thousands of smaller, rural communities scattered around the country instead of the traditional efforts to concentrate on big cities (where most voters live). He established the country's first social security type retirement system, and created a fixed advanced corporate tax of 1.5% to aid in government revenue collection.
His administration was packed with corruption and cronyism and also was not able to achieve the economic success and stability of his predecessor.
In March 2004, the Haiti Commission of Inquiry, headed by former US attorney general
Ramsey Clark
William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021) was an American lawyer, activist, and federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Presi ...
, published its findings : "Noting that 200 US special forces had travelled to the Dominican Republic for “military exercises” in February 2003, the commission accused the US of arming and training Haitian rebels there. With permission from the Dominican president, Hipólito Mejía, US forces trained near the border, in an area used by former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army to launch attacks on Haitian state property." In the
2004 presidential election, he was defeated by
Leonel Fernández
Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna () (born 26 December 1953) is a Dominican Republic, Dominican lawyer, academic, and was the 50th and 52nd President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2012. From 2016 until 2020, he was ...
, when he ran for re-election for a second term.
By the time Mejía left office, the Dominican Republic was undergoing a major economic crisis.
Mejía again contested the
2012 presidential election, losing to
Danilo Medina
Danilo Medina Sánchez ( : born 10 November 1951) is a Dominican politician who was President of the Dominican Republic from 2012 to 2020.
Medina previously served as Chief of Staff to the President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 1999 ...
, his 2000 election opponent.
Criticism
In his time, Mejía faced both the highest and then the lowest approval ratings for a Constitutional President in recent times.
[''"La popularidad de Mejía se sitúa, en todas las encuestas, en el 10%, más o menos."'' The popularity of Mejía is placed, in all the polls, in the 10%, give or take]
www.AmericaEconomica.com
Mejía's first presidential campaign in 2000 won him the first Dominican presidency under then new electoral rules that required a "50 más 1" (50 percent plus one of the total votes in order to win in the first voting round.) This was in stark contrast to the late
PRD leader,
José Francisco Peña Gómez
José Francisco Peña Gómez (6 March 1937 – 10 May 1998) was a politician from the Dominican Republic. He was the leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), a three-time candidate for president of the Dominican Republic and former May ...
, who unsuccessfully ran for office three times consecutively (1990, 1994 and 1996) and never received the support that Mejia received in his first attempt.
While holding the seat of Head of State, Mejía actively sought to change the then current
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
in order for it to allow consecutive presidential re-elections. This was achieved with the aid of his party's majority stake at both legislative chambers (Senate and Lower Chamber). The original constitution prevented the previous president from contending against him in 2000.
Ancestry
Three of Mejía′s grandparents were farmers native to Gurabo (Santiago Province, not to be confused with
a city in Puerto Rico) while his paternal grandfather, Segundo Mejía Mejía, was from Hato de San Marcos de Cañafístol (Peravia Province), then a ranch estate near
Baní
Baní is a capital town of the Peravia Province, Dominican Republic. It is the commercial and manufacturing center in the southern region of Valdesia. The town is located 65 km south of the capital city Santo Domingo.
Baní is the headquarte ...
.
The Domínguez and the Díaz hails from Gurabo, being of colonial Canarian background. These families were traditionally farmers and merchants.
The Viñals hails from Santo Domingo of colonial Catalan background.
The Mejías from Cañafístol, Baní, were well-to-do
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
ranchers linked to the colonial petite aristocracy since the 1500s; endogamy was the custom in small communities and almost every generation of the Mejías married with relatives, meaning that Hipólito Mejía's bloodline includes several
cousin marriage
A cousin marriage is a marriage where the spouses are cousins (i.e. people with common grandparents or people who share other fairly recent ancestors). The practice was common in earlier times, and continues to be common in some societies toda ...
s. President Mejía himself was married to a cousin, as well, until his wife's death in 2022.
Through his Báez, Villar and Soto ancestors, President Mejía is distantly related through many lines to President
Danilo Medina
Danilo Medina Sánchez ( : born 10 November 1951) is a Dominican politician who was President of the Dominican Republic from 2012 to 2020.
Medina previously served as Chief of Staff to the President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 1999 ...
, via Medina′s paternal grandfather —José María Medina Báez— who, alike Mejía′s paternal grandfather, was also from Baní. Three of Medina Báez grandparents were surnamed Báez. Their shared ancestors includes Lorenzo Báez de Cuéllar-Albornoz (seven times seventh cousins through him), Pedro del Villar María (four times seventh cousins through him), María de la Cruz de Arambule Maldonado (four times sixth cousins through her), Esteban Peguero Gómez (seven times ninth cousins through him), and Antonio de Soto y Hernández de Andújar.
References
Most references are translated into English, although their external verifiable sources are written in Spanish. No attempts of 100% textual translations are or will be attempted, but the message conveyed is mostly accurate and following
Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View.
External links
Biography by CIDOB(in Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mejia, Hipolito
1941 births
Dominican Republic people of Canarian descent
Dominican Republic people of Catalan descent
Dominican Republic Roman Catholics
Dominican Revolutionary Party politicians
Living people
Modern Revolutionary Party politicians
People from Santiago de los Caballeros
Presidents of the Dominican Republic
Recipients of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin
Recipients of the Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay
Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 1st class
White Dominicans