Santo Domingo.- President Hugo Chavez visited Dominican Republic for the first time, as a presidential candidate, in 1998 and officially as president in April 1999, for the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS).
He forged strong ties of friendship between Caracas and Santo Domingo, as well as with former presidents Leonel Fernandez, Hipolito Mejia, Joaquin Balaguer and Juan Bosch.
Chavez made ??several official visits to the country during the administrations of Hipólito Mejía and Leonel Fernandez, and hailed the electoral win of current president Danilo Medina, with a message stating that wwith the PLD party’s victory it was expected to continue the hopes of a future of dignity and sovereignty for the entire region.
During his three terms, Chavez consolidated the brotherhood between Dominican Republic and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and repeatedly recalled that those ties are rooted in the era of founding father Juan Pablo Duarte, who lived his last years and much of his life exiled to "the great land of Simon Bolivar."