Pres. Hipólito Mejía

Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez (born 22 February 1941, in Gurabo , Santiago de los Caballeros). President of the Dominican Republic from August 16 2000 to August 16 2004.

The second son of the marriage between Hipólito de Jesús Mejía and María Josefa Domínguez. When he concluded secondary education, in Santiago, he moved to San Cristobal to study agronomy in the Loyola Polytechnic Institute , where he graduated in 1962. Two years later, at age 23, he went to North Carolina State University, in the United States, to continue his studies in his professional area.

He has been married with Rosa Gómez for thirty years, and have four children: Carolina, Lisa, Felipe and Ramón Hipólito.

At just twenty-four years of age, he was appointed director of the Tobacco Institute, with a rank of under secretary. Years later, in 1978, President Antonio Guzmán appointed him Minister of Agriculture and coordinator of the entire agricultural sector. During this period agri-business incentive laws were passed, and the most ambitious program to promote rural agriculture development and technification was undertaken.

In 1982 he was cast in the senatorial contest for his Santiago province and the results were not favorable. In 1990 he was named vice-presidential candidate to accompany PRD leader José Francisco Peña Gómez, and the luck was the same. These experiences did not discourage him, he always kept his stability, as well as his joviality which is an intrinsic part of him. On August 16, 2000 he was sworn in as Constitutional President after winning in the elections held May 16 of that year. He won the Dominican Revolutionary Party convention with 75 percent of the rank and file’s votes.

Running for president on a program to increase health, education, and social security services through tax hikes, he was elected on May 16 2000 with a 49.9% share of the vote. His main opponents, Danilo Medina and former president Joaquín Balaguer, received 24.9% and 24.6%, respectively. A runoff was scheduled between Medina and Mejía, but Medina withdrew, and Mejía took office on 16 August of that year.

Critics claim that on his watch, economic growth has stagnated and poverty has increased, and that this is the result of a sharp increase in the external debt, the mismanagement of the 2003 banking crisis, and increased corruption in all branches of the government. During 2003 the country's inflation rate hit 42% and the peso suffered a 50% devaluation, making his term in office quite surely one of the worse in the last 50 years of Dominican history.

Hipólito Mejía stood for a second term in the presidential election slated to take place on 16 May 2004. However, he was defeated by former President Leonel Fernández who campaigned on a platform of stabilising the economy and reducing inflation.