Washington.- Dominican ambassador to the U.S. Aníbal de Castro on Thursday slammed the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation (RFK) for what he called a disinformation campaign against the country for allegedly fostering statelessness.
In a letter to Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and Santiago Canton, director RFK Partners for Human Rights, said the latter’s most recent article in El Pais, "brazenly insists on ignoring both the realities of our country as positive and the far-reaching measures enacted by the Government to reduce the vulnerability of undocumented immigrants.”
He said Canton manipulates the issue to discredit the country, "to the point of trying to undermine its business relationship with key international partners such as the United States," which are actions that contradict the humanitarian goals which the organization touts.
Castro rebuked Canton’s accusation that the country violates its international obligations when it ignores the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ (IACHR) considerations on the issue of acquiring Dominican citizenship.
He said that as the second argument, Canton suggests that the country "should disregard the Constitutional Court ruling in 2013, violating the principle of separation of powers and therefore the democratic system in which this is based.”
The diplomat also rejected Canton’s claim that "when make decisions concerning immigration Dominicans are motivated by a supposed spirit of discrimination against persons, particularly dark-skinned Haitians."