President Medina sworn in for second term

The Dominican Republic’s President Danilo Medina was sworn in Tuesday for his second term, after riding an economic boom to win re-election in a landslide despite deep and lingering poverty. Dressed in a white suit with the red, white and blue presidential sash draped across his chest, Medina took the oath of office before the […]

The Dominican Republic’s President Danilo Medina was sworn in Tuesday for his second term, after riding an economic boom to win re-election in a landslide despite deep and lingering poverty. Dressed in a white suit with the red, white and blue presidential sash draped across his chest, Medina took the oath of office before the Caribbean tourist paradise’s National Assembly.
His audience included Presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, three of Latin America’s most outspoken leftists.
Medina, a 64-year-old economist and head of the centrist Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), won the country’s May 15 election with 62 percent of the vote after pushing through a constitutional amendment to allow him to stand for a second four-year term.
On the eve of his second inauguration, his government boasted of its accomplishments over the past four years: investment in education, loans and support for small farmers, and a sharp drop in poverty, from 42.2 percent of the population to 32.3 percent.