Y. E.
Mr. Hans Hertell
Ambassador of the United States of
America
César Nicolás Penson St.
City,

Distinguished Mr. Ambassador:

I have read with thoroughness your recent farewell address to the American Chamber of Commerce, and I rush to express my appreciation for your genuine worry shown about the future wellbeing of the Dominican people.

Likewise, I would like to communicate my disagreement with some of your appreciations, by which you not only wrongly interpret the situations that you describe and comment about, but you incursion into topics that pertain to the sovereign realm of the Dominican State.

I refer to, specifically, to your allusions about the problem of the massive illegal immigration of Haitian citizens, a real headache in the everyday handling of our relationships with Haiti, country with which we share the island and from which we are separated by a lamentably, much vulnerable border.

Your comments about the topic breach the awareness of someone who during five years has taken notice of the hardships of a problematic situation, into the attitude of the foreign diplomat that takes public partisanship on a Dominican constitutional matter.

The lack of issuance of birth registrations to children of foreigners who find themselves illegally in Dominican territory, it is not, like you have wrongfully interpreted, an administrative problem.

I am amazed that you have taken the time to find this euphemism to advance this in your address, given that it is a matter that during your permanence here as an Ambassador has been clarified by a constitutional interpretation by our Supreme Court of Justice.

Also, we consider it unacceptable, Mr. Ambassador, your veiled suggestion that in some manner the Dominican Republic lacks the human resources or mechanisms to assure that the foreigners who reside in this country may enjoy the guarantees set forward by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Allow me to make use of this opportunity to reiterate sentiments of my highest consideration and personal esteem.

Very courteously,

Carlos A. Morales Troncoso
Minister of Foreign Relations

(November 24, 2006)