Dominican Republic 2016 Country Review http://www.countrywatch.com Table of Contents Chapter 1 1 Country Overview 1 Country Overview 2 Key Data 3 Dominican Republic 4 Central America and the Caribbean 5 Chapter 2 7 Political Overview 7 History 8 Political Conditions 10 Political Risk Index 26 Political Stability 40 Freedom Rankings 56 Human Rights 67 Government Functions 70 Government Structure 71 Principal Government Officials 74 Leader Biography 75 Leader Biography 75 Foreign Relations 77 National Security 81 Defense Forces 82 Chapter 3 84 Economic Overview 84 Economic Overview 85 Nominal GDP and Components 88 Population and GDP Per Capita 90 Real GDP and Inflation 91 Government Spending and Taxation 92 Money Supply, Interest Rates and Unemployment 93 Foreign Trade and the Exchange Rate 94 Data in US Dollars 95 Energy Consumption and Production Standard Units 96 Energy Consumption and Production QUADS 98 World Energy Price Summary 99 CO2 Emissions 100 Agriculture Consumption and Production 101 World Agriculture Pricing Summary 103 Metals Consumption and Production 104 World Metals Pricing Summary 107 Economic Performance Index 108 Chapter 4 120 Investment Overview 120 Foreign Investment Climate 121 Foreign Investment Index 124 Corruption Perceptions Index 137 Competitiveness Ranking 149 Taxation 158 Stock Market 159 Partner Links 159 Chapter 5 160 Social Overview 160 People 161 Human Development Index 162 Life Satisfaction Index 166 Happy Planet Index 177 Status of Women 186 Global Gender Gap Index 189 Culture and Arts 198 Etiquette 199 Travel Information 200 Diseases/Health Data 209 Chapter 6 215 Environmental Overview 215 Environmental Issues 216 Environmental Policy 217 Greenhouse Gas Ranking 218 Global Environmental Snapshot 229 Global Environmental Concepts 240 International Environmental Agreements and Associations 254 Appendices 279 Bibliography 280 Dominican Republic Chapter 1 Country Overview Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 1 of 292 pages Dominican Republic Country Overview DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Hispaniola in 1492, and beginning in 1503 the Spanish brought African slaves to the island working on the plantations. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which in 1804 became Haiti. The Haitians conquered the whole island in 1822 until an 1844 revolution drove the Haitians out and established the Dominican Republic as an independent state. In 1861, with the country plagued by political chaos and an extremely poor economy, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire, but independence was restored in 1865. Following independence, the country experienced periods of instability, with tight political control, military coups, and United States military intervention. Since 1996, the Dominican electoral process has been seen as generally free and fair. Former President (1996-2000) Leonel Fernández Reyna was elected to a second term in 2004 following a constitutional amendment allowing presidents to serve more than one term, and he won his third term in May 2008. He was succeeded in 2012 by President Danilo Medina Sanchez and he continues at the helm to date. The Dominican Republic is one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean, and there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. The global recession starting in 2008 had a significant impact on the country’s economy, particularly on tourism and remittances, two of its most important economic contributors. Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 2 of 292 pages Dominican Republic Key Data Key Data Region: Central America and the Caribbean Population: 10478756 Tropical maritime; little seasonal temperature variation; seasonal rainfall Climate: variation, Languages: Spanish Currency: 1 Dominican peso (RD$) = 100 centavos Holiday: Independence Day is 27 February (1844), Restoration Day is 16 August Area Total: 48730 Area Land: 48380 Coast Line: 1288 Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 3 of 292 pages Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Country Map Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 4 of 292 pages Dominican Republic Central America and the Caribbean Regional Map Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 5 of 292 pages Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 6 of 292 pages Dominican Republic Chapter 2 Political Overview Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 7 of 292 pages Dominican Republic History The island of Hispaniola was originally inhabited by the Taino people, a sub-group of the Arawak people who resided throughout the Caribbean and Central America. Said to have been quite peaceful, Taino society was based on a highly organized, paternal hierarchy, and its people subsided on fishing, small-game hunting and the cultivation of crops such as cassava, corn, squash, beans, peppers, sweet potatoes, yams and peanuts. In the late 15th century, there were five different Taino kingdoms on the island of Hispaniola, each with a leader, called a "cacique." The population size of the Taino people on pre-Columbian Hispaniola is unknown; estimates range from 100,000 to four million. Hispaniola was the first New World land discovered by Christopher Columbus, and Santo Domingo the first American colony established for Spain. The Tainos welcomed Columbus in his initial voyage in 1492, and after a few attempts to settle in the North, the Spanish established their first permanent settlement on the south coast, calling it Santo Domingo. Subsequent colonizers were brutal to the Taino population; attacks, theft and other abuse of the indigenous people became commonplace. The colonists' "repartimiento" system and later, the crown's "encomienda" system established an order of forced Taino labor for the colony's agricultural economy. After a crushed revolt in 1495, the native population died off rapidly from disease, exhaustion, starvation and mistreatment. It is generally agreed that the number of Tainos in Hispaniola was reduced to 60,000 by 1507, and to 600 by 1531. The Spanish brought African slaves to the island beginning in 1503 in order to ensure adequate labor for plantations. Some theorize that African slaves intermingled with natives of the island before the latter entirely died off. The two groups may have intermarried, or at any rate there might have been an opportunity for the Native Americans to transmit some of their cultural traditions to the people arriving from Africa. But, aside from this speculative survival of some prehistoric folkways, Hispaniola's original inhabitants vanished without a trace. Santo Domingo's importance for the Spanish Crown diminished in the early 16th century due to the discovery of gold and silver in Mexico and Peru, and the Caribbean colony's population dwindled. The economy remained basically stagnant for the next 250 years, approximately. Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 8 of 292 pages Dominican Republic In the mid-1600s, French buccaneers settled in the western end of the island, and soon France moved to colonize the area. Spain ceded the territory to France in 1697, after three decades of intermittent warfare. The French colony of Saint-Domingue soon became the most productive agricultural economy in the Western Hemisphere. With the transition in Spain from the Hapsburg to the Bourbon Dynasty in 1700, trade restrictions were gradually lifted in the 18th century for the New World Spanish colonies. As a result, Santo Domingo's economy picked up, and its population increased from approximately 6,000 in 1737 to around 125,000 in 1790. Of this number, about 40,000 were white landowners, about 25,000 were black or mulatto freedmen, and some 60,000 were slaves. The composition of Santo Domingo's population contrasted sharply with that of the neighboring French colony of Saint-Domingue, where some 30,000 whites and 27,000 freedmen extracted labor from at least 500,000 black slaves. In 1804, after a long, brutal revolution led by the former black slave Toussaint L'Ouverture and later by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the colony of Saint-Domingue became the Republic of Haiti. For around five years, Haiti claimed control of the entire island, although it failed to occupy most of the eastern portion. The Spanish colony of Santo Domingo remained very weak from 1809 to 1821, and in 1822, the Haitians conquered the whole island under the leadership of President Jean-Pierre Boyer. The 22 years of Haitian rule that followed were characterized by economic decline and brutality that led to an extreme resentment of Haiti among Dominicans that has persisted into the 21st century. In 1844, forces led by Juan Pablo Duarte, the hero of Dominican independence, drove the Haitians out and established the Dominican Republic as an independent state. Two leaders, Gen. Pedro Santana Familias and Buenaventura Báez Méndez, dominated the Dominican political scene from 1844 to 1864. The two alternated in power using factionalism, force and recurring movements to establish the protection or annexation of the Dominican Republic by a foreign power. Their era of political power secured the tradition of dominant caudillo rule in the newly established nation. In 1861, with the country plagued by political chaos and an extremely poor economy, Santana voluntarily turned the Dominican Republic back over to the Spanish Empire. Popular support for the annexation was not as great as Santana had anticipated, however, and in 1865, independence was restored following a series of revolts. Note on History: In certain entries, open source content from the State Department Background Dominican Republic Review 2016 Page 9 of 292 pages Dominican Republic Notes and Country Guides have been used. A full listing of sources is available in the Bibliography. Political Conditions Political Chronology A contest for power among various leaders ended in the dictatorship of Ulises Heureaux, who ruled from 1882 until his assassination in 1899. Economic difficulties, the threat of European intervention, and ongoing internal disorders led to a United States (U.S.) occupation in 1916 and the establishment of a military government in the Dominican Republic. The occupation ended in 1924, and a democratically elected Dominican government took over with Horacio Vásquez Lajara as president.