Beach town break-in signals major opposition party’s continuing strife

Boca Chica, Dominican Republic.– Opposition PRD party deputy Josefa Castillo, accompanied by supporters and armed people reportedly violently burst into that organization’s municipal political facilities in the resort town, to proclaim a campaign office parallel to the one sworn in by the entity’s presidential candidate Hipólito Mejía.

According to reports, the lawmaker together with a group of individuals bearing different caliber weapons, broke the padlocks and went into the premises without the authorization of the PRD’s campaign directors.

Quoted by news source elcaribe.com.do, witnesses said Castillo, of the Luis Abinader faction, sought to proclaim one of her sons as youth coordinator and create a new rival campaign office. The lawmaker, one of Mejía’s three convention campaign coordinators in the municipality, was excluded after his win and in the wake of negotiations with the then disgruntled PRD president Miguel Vargas.

PRD Boca Chica municipal president Jose Manuel Báez called Castillo’s action reckless and violated party discipline.