Luis Abinader

Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈlwis roˈðolfo aβinaˈðeɾ koˈɾona]; born 12 July 1967) is a Dominican economist, businessman, and politician who is serving as the 54th president of the Dominican Republic since 2020. He served as the Modern Revolutionary Party candidate for President of the Dominican Republic in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Abinader and the second or maternal family name is Corona.
His Excellency
Luis Abinader
Abinader in 2022
54th President of the Dominican Republic
Assumed office
16 August 2020
Vice PresidentRaquel Peña de Antuña
Preceded byDanilo Medina
Personal details
Born
Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona

(1967-07-12) 12 July 1967
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Political partyModern Revolutionary Party
Other political
affiliations		Dominican Revolutionary Party (until 2014)
Spouse
​
(m. 1995)​
Children3
Parents
Alma materHult International Business School
Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo
WebsitePersonal website

Before becoming president, Abinader was the general manager of Grupo Abicor, his family's business consortium, which was started by his father, a former senator and finance minister. The conglomerate includes a real estate and construction company focused mainly on the tourism industry, a cement factory and a private university. He also owns several offshore companies, as revealed by Pandora Papers.[1]

Prior becoming President, he filed a public declaration of assets stating that he had a net worth of over 76 million US dollars. Abinader was proclaimed by Bloomberg as Latin America's richest president.[2]

Early life

Abinader was born in Santo Domingo on 12 July 1967. His parents are from the Cibao region: his mother, Rosa Ramona Sulina "Sula" Corona Caba,[3] is of colonial Canary Islander ancestry and from the province of La Vega; his father was the businessman and political leader José Rafael Abinader, of Lebanese descent and a native of the Santiago Province.[4]

José Sesin Abinader, the grandfather of Luis Abinader (April 1945)

His paternal grandfather was José S. Abinader, a Lebanese immigrant from Baskinta, Mount Lebanon, who arrived to the country in 1898 and settled in the town of Tamboril (located near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros).[5]

Abinader did his secondary education at the Colegio Loyola (Spanish: Loyola High School); He graduated in economics from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (Spanish: Santo Domingo Institute of Technology). He did postgraduate studies in Project Management at Hult International Business School (at the time named Arthur D. Little Institute) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Career
Abinader in 2011
Abinader (second from the right) with Hipólito Mejía, Tavito Suberví and Fello Suberví

He was elected vice president of the Dominican Revolutionary Party in its 2005 National Convention.

He is currently Executive Chairman of ABICOR Group, which has developed and operated major tourism projects in the country. This family group led the business plan of what is today the company Cementos Santo Domingo, of which he is Vice President.

He has been president of the Association of Hotels in the Puerto Plata area and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (ASONAHORES).

He is member of the Board of Directors of the O&M University's Foundation.

He was recognized by the Rhode Island General Assembly for his career in public service, education, and business. He also received acknowledgments from the City Hall of Boston and the Massachusetts Senate for his contributions to higher education, civic engagement, and community service.

Abinader was the vice-presidential candidate of the Dominican Revolutionary Party in the 2012 election and in 2005 was pre-candidate for senator from the province of Santo Domingo.

2016 presidential election
Main article: 2016 Dominican Republic general election

Abinader was the presidential candidate of the Dominican Humanist Party[6] and the Modern Revolutionary Party[7] for the past general elections on 15 May 2016.

Abinader was, along with Soraya Aquino, one of the two presidential candidates in 2016 who had not been born during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).[8] Giuliani Partners, specifically Rudy Giuliani and John Huvane, advised Abinader in the campaign as security consultants.[9][10]

2020 presidential election
Main article: 2020 Dominican Republic general election

Abinader successfully ran for President in the 2020 election.[11] Rudy Giuliani and John Huvane once again advised Abinader in the campaign as security consultants.[9][12]

Suspicions of tax evasion

In October 2021, Abinader was named in the Pandora Papers leak.[13]

The investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) found that Abinader "is linked to two Panamanian companies" (both created before Abinader became president of the country).[14]

  • Littlecot Inc. (created on 24 March 2011 and which he owns with his sister and brother). Abinader interviewed by the ICIJ said that Littlecot Inc. holds family property in the Dominican Republic.
  • Padreso SA (created on 8 January 2014, and in which his three siblings are shareholders). This company owns and manages shares in six other entities that own properties and extensions of the private university (also owned by his family).

Documents found in the Pandora Papers show that these two companies originally had bearer shares, not registered in the name of any particular person. It also shows that after in 2015, Panamanian law required companies to disclose the identity of the owners of their bearer shares, in 2018, a lawyer for the Abinaders filed a form with an "offshore service company" (Overseas Management Co. or OMC Group) listing Luis Abinader's siblings as shareholders of the companies, instead of "the bearer".

OMC Group is also the service provider that created the company Offshore Dorado Asset Management Ltd. on 2 July 2004 in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands on behalf of Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. Once president, Abinader created the company Offshore Dorado.

Once president, Abinader declared these two companies (and at least seven other offshore companies under a revocable trust). His net worth was approximately US$70 million, according to a public declaration of assets he filed a month after being elected president in 2020.

President of the Dominican Republic
Inauguration ceremony, 16 August 2020

Abinader was sworn in as the President of the Dominican Republic on 16 August 2020.[15][16]

The inauguration had a reduced number of guests due to the measures taken for the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the international guests was the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, who attended on behalf of President Donald Trump.[17]

He made the fight against illegal immigration one of his priorities. In February 2022, he began construction of a separation wall with Haiti, which will extend over 164 of the 380 kilometers of border.[18]

Foreign relations
Abinader meets with Mike Pompeo, 16 August 2020

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among those in attendance at Abinader's swearing-in ceremony.[15] Under Luis Abinader's leadership, the Dominican Republic is set to form stronger economic and diplomatic ties with the United States.[19] Under his administration, the Dominican Republic became one of the countries that, along with the US, voted to maintain the arms embargo on Iran.[20]

He is close to the Lima Group, which brings together conservative governments in the Americas to isolate Venezuela and contribute to the fall of its government.[21]

On 24 February 2022, Abinader released a statement denouncing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[22]

In 2023, a dispute over water in the Dajabón River led President Abinader to close the Dominican Republic-Haiti border.[23]


Personal life
President Luis Abinader at the launch event for the Second Stage of Revitalization of the Colonial City of Santo Domingo. To the left of the President, Carolina Mejía (Mayor of the National District), and to the right David Collado (Minister of Tourism).

Abinader has been married to Raquel Arbaje Soneh since 1995. She is the daughter of businesspersons Elías Arbaje Farah and Margarita Soneh, both of Lebanese descent. They have three children: Esther Patricia, Graciela Lucía, and Adriana Margarita.[24]

References
  1. "Power Players - ICIJ". 2 October 2021.
  2. https://www.bloomberglinea.com/2022/06/26/luis-abinader-el-presidente-mas-rico-de-america-latina/
  3. "Abinader felicita y da las gracias a las madres por el apoyo". Sin Reservas (in Spanish). 30 May 2016.
  4. Irrizarri, Evelyn (26 September 2013). "José Rafael Abinader: "Me arrepiento del tiempo que le dediqué a la política"". El Caribe (Dominican Republic) (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  5. Núñez Núñez, Miliciades Humberto. "Luis Abinader Corona, Ancestros y Parientes Colaterales". Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía, Inc. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  6. Thomas, Juan Eduardo (8 December 2014). "Partido escoge a Abinader como candidato presidencial". Listín Diario (in Spanish). Santo Domingo. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  7. "Luis Abinader le ganó ayer la convención del PRM a Hipólito Mejía". Diario Libre (in Spanish). Santo Domingo. 27 April 2015.
  8. Santana, Rose Mary (19 September 2015). "Luis Abinader se reunirá con la comunidad dominicana de Nueva York". Acento.com.do (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  9. Partlow, Joshua; Dawsey, Josh (20 February 2020). "Amid Ukraine swirl, Giuliani's work for candidate in Dominican Republic caused unease". The Washington Post. Retrieved 22 February 2020. Since 2015, Giuliani has been hired by Abinader as a security consultant two times, according to Samuel Pereyra, an official in the Abinader campaign who managed the contracts. His most recent contract, for $75,000, was secured last June, Pereyra said, more than a year after Giuliani joined Trump's legal team.
  10. Huvane, John. "Dominican Republic: Saftey (sic) And Security" (PDF). Giuliani Safety & Security. Retrieved 22 February 2020 – via WashingtonPost.com.
  11. "Change in Dominican Republic as opposition wins presidency". Yahoo! News. 6 July 2020. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020.
  12. "Giuliani jumps into Dominican Republic's reelection fray". Dominican Today. 17 July 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  13. "Panama's Pandora Papers snag Dominican leader". Dominican Today. 4 October 2021.
  14. "Power Players". ICIJ. 2 October 2021.
  15. "Luis Abinader sworn in as Dominican leader; Pompeo attends". Associated Press. 16 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  16. Abiu Lopez, Ezequiel (16 August 2020). "Dominican Republic's new president takes office warning of tough recovery". Reuters. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  17. "Dominican Republic to construct fence along border with Haiti". Reuters. 27 February 2021. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  18. "Dominican Republic begins building border wall with Haiti". Reuters. 21 February 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  19. Vicente Romero, Geovanny (16 August 2020). "This is the beginning of a new chapter in US-Dominican relations". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  20. Pompeo, Mike [@SecPompeo] (20 August 2020). "Grateful to the Dominican Republic for standing with the United States and voting to extend the arms embargo on Iran at the @UN Security Council. We appreciate their support as we work to prevent Iran from gaining access to new and powerful weapons. Also, Abinader has helped to earn money. hello I'm 6" (Tweet). Retrieved 9 September 2020 – via Twitter.
  21. "República Dominicana ya no reconoce a Guaidó como presidente de Venezuela". Swissinfo (in Spanish). 27 January 2021.
  22. Abinader, Luis [@luisabinader] (25 February 2022). "Mi declaración sobre Ucrania" (Tweet) (in Spanish) – via Twitter.
  23. Klimnt, Alex (17 September 2023). "Dispute over water rights threatens to close Haiti's border". GZERO. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  24. Núñez Núñez, Milcíades Humberto. "Descendientes de Raymundo Núñez" [Raymundo Núñez's Descendants]. Genealogy.com (in Spanish). Séptima generación. Archived from the original on 20 January 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
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