Since becoming vice president of the republic on August 16, Raquel Peña has been one of the officials who has earned the most headlines in the media.
And what power of decision does he have, given his responsibilities, in President Luis Abinader’s fledgling government.
That fact is not accidental. Raquel Peña, an academic born in Santiago 54 years ago, has led the government response team to the new coronavirus pandemic. She has done it as coordinator of the health cabinet founded by President Luis Abinader.
Peña received and executed the order to negotiate the agreement with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca that has guaranteed 10 million doses of its Covid vaccine to the country for a cost of $ 40 million.
That number of vaccinations is the highest amount the Dominican Republic has agreed with a pharmaceutical company to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, and where hopes of fighting the virus are centered.
As early as Monday, February 15, the Dominican Republic received a first batch of 20,000 doses of Covishield vaccine from India, containing the AstraZeneca formula, and an additional 30,000 antidotes against the feared virus are expected to be donated for today, Friday.
The importance and trust that President Abinader places in her is also evident in his presence in most protocols and unofficial acts of the Presidency of the Republic, actions that find no replication in the mandates of former Presidents Danilo Medina, Leonel Fernández or Hipólito Mejía.
“Without a doubt, this very specific circumstance (being the coordinator of the health cabinet during the pandemic’s fallout) contributed to her being seen as one of the most active vice-presidents in recent history,” said historian Juan de la Cruz. .
Raquel Peña’s immediate comparison with her predecessor, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, comes to the fore almost immediately.
Cedeño managed the social policy of the two governments of Danilo Medina, 2012-2020. But apart from these functions, their range was limited.
The same can be said of Rafael Alburquerque, who also coordinated the cabinet of social policy in Leonel Fernández’s administrations between 2004 and 2012.
Milagros Ortiz Bosch had a large participation, as she was Minister of Education while serving as Vice President (the first in the history of the Dominican Republic), contributed to a massive increase in the education sector and even succeeded. to run competitions, ”De la Cruz recalls. Professor at the Autonomous State University of Santo Domingo (UASD).
De la Cruz says those negotiations would require reaching Carlos Morales Troncoso, who, while serving as vice president in one of Joaquín Balaguer’s governments, was also the country’s foreign relations minister.
Perhaps the greatest show of confidence and influence that can be shown to advance the thesis that Raquel Peña has been the country’s most powerful vice president in the last 60 years is her role as interim president of the National Council. of the Magistracy.
Dominican political tradition shows that the Presidents of the Republic (Fernández, Mejía and Medina) have been the ones who led the entire process of interviews and selection of judges in the Dominican Republic.
During the last days of interviews conducted by the National Council of the Magistracy, in the search for four judges for the Constitutional Court, Raquel Peña twice assumed the position of President of the Council on behalf of President Luis Abinader, who was absent “. because of previous commitments. “
Abinader’s decision was based on Article 4 of Law 138-11 of the National Council of the Magistracy, which stipulates that if the President is absent from council meetings for any reason, the Vice President of the country can replace him .
The Vice Presidents … in other positions
Looking at the country’s recent history, we see Rafael Alburquerque, Vice President of Leonel Fernández in his two governments from 2004-2012, who was one of the founders of the Social Cabinet.
In 1996, under the leadership of the first government of Leonel Fernández, the participation of then Vice President Jaime David Fernández did not find major presidential duties, he devoted himself to promoting a reforestation policy with the “Quisqueya Verde” program.
Between 1978-1982, Antonio Guzmán Fernández’s vice president, Jacobo Majluta, was also general manager of the Dominican Corporation of State Companies (Corde), and according to various journalistic reports of the time, he had a total of 24 companies.
Majluta succeeded Guzmán Fernández to power after his suicide with 41 days before the transition.
The vice presidents during Joaquín Balaguer’s reigns focused on minor participation, except in the case of Carlos Morales Troncoso. He became Secretary of State and Ambassador of the country to the United States for the period 1989-1990, concurrent with his work as second-in-command.