Dominican Republic orders nine Cuban diplomats to leave

The Dominican government has ordered nine officials from the Cuban Embassy in Santo Domingo to depart the country, setting a deadline of August 16 for their exit. As of now, Dominican authorities have not publicly stated the specific reasons motivating this decision.

The affected officials are part of the Cuban diplomatic mission accredited to the Dominican Republic. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mirex) convened a meeting on Thursday to discuss the matter, with an official statement expected subsequently.

Diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and Cuba have a turbulent past. They were severed on June 26, 1959, amidst the confrontation between Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution and Rafael Leónidas Trujillo's dictatorship. The crisis escalated following an attack on the Cuban embassy in Ciudad Trujillo and subsequent expeditions organized from Cuba to destabilize the Dominican regime. Cuba formally broke relations, ending diplomatic ties that quickly devolved from distrust to open hostility. This rupture persisted for nearly four decades.

Relations began to normalize gradually, gaining institutional character during Leonel Fernández's first presidential term. In June 1997, both nations signed a consular and migratory understanding memorandum. This paved the way for the full restoration of diplomatic relations on April 16, 1998. Cuba reopened its consulate in Santo Domingo, and the Dominican Republic did the same in Havana, eventually leading to the exchange of ambassadors. This normalization concluded almost 39 years of estrangement, marked by Fidel Castro's visit to the Dominican Republic that same year, solidifying the new chapter in bilateral relations.