SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) – Luis Rodolfo Abinader was sworn in as President of the Dominican Republic on Sunday in a rite attended by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Abinader, a 53-year-old businessman who had never been elected, was elected to a four-year term on July 5, ending 16 years in force through a centre-left party. He finished by the 2016 presidential election.
On Friday, the Trump administration only won that of the Dominican Republic when the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council strongly defeated a US solution to indefinitely widen the UN arms embargo against Iran.
“This election resonates as an example to other nations of the strength of democracy and what is imaginable when countries prioritize the wishes of their people,” Pompeo tweeted after Abinader’s inauguration.
Elections in the Dominican Republic took a stand when the new coronavirus pandemic swept through the Caribbean country through some 10.5 million people. Abinader himself had passed weeks before the solitary confinement elections after testing positive for the virus, and the vote itself had been postponed from May due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.