Dominican Republic expels nine diplomats from the Cuban Embassy

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Republic expelled nine Cuban diplomats and their families, who will have a period of seven days to leave the country, the Foreign Ministry reported this Thursday in a brief statement in which it did not explain the reasons for this decision.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mirex), this measure “is in line with the powers that international law recognizes to the receiving State and with the relevant provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, of which the Dominican Republic is a State party”.

He explained that the Dominican Government “abides by current regulations” and “will continue to handle this matter with due discretion and through established diplomatic channels, in the interest of preserving relations between both countries”.

“As these are diplomatic communications, we inform you that no further details will be provided on this matter,” the note adds.

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According to the local media outlet ‘Listín Diario’, the total number of expelled Cubans would reach about 21 people, including diplomats and their family members.

The state of relations between Cuba and the Dominican Republic

As the most notable recent events in bilateral relations, last May the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, pointed out that Cuba “is obviously not a democratic state.”

«It is not a democratic state, they have a system, a revolution, and I believe that they themselves are realizing that they have to make a change and they are heading in that direction», he indicated in an interview with ‘Infobae’.

After decades of diplomatic rupture during the era of the dictatorship of Dominican military leader Rafael Leónidas Trujillo (1930-1961), relations between Cuba and the Dominican Republic were formally re-established in April 1996 under the first administration of Dominican president Leonel Fernández.

This restoration of relations was followed by the mutual opening of embassies and a historic official visit by Fidel Castro to Dominican territory in August 1998.