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Thirty two legislators from all political parties have complained that for the last 10 years the DR has been the target of a smear campaign “from both outside and from within” about Haitian immigration issues. “This campaign is deeply affecting our country’s well-earned historical reputation. And if we do not face it with the truth, it will generate, as seems to be the case, devastating economic and social consequences for our people,” says a letter the legislators sent to Pedro Ramirez Jiminian, director of Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

The letter is in protest at a story called “The final battle against slavery” that was published in a supplement to the online version of the Spanish daily, reporting that the Dominican Congress has outlawed slavery.

In the story by journalist Paco Rego, this legislative measure is described as “a historical measure provoked by the actions of Spanish priest Christopher Hartley Sartorius”, who was said to have been forced to leave the country “because of death threats.”

The legislators go on to say that while they respect the right to freedom of expression, they say that it “should be exercised responsibly.” Furthermore, they say that any historical research will show that slavery was abolished in 1822 and has never been re-established.

They said that the current constitutional reform process is certainly “not influenced by the unfortunate declarations of a priest with delusions of grandeur who thinks that he can influence the decisions of the National Congress composed of 178 deputies and 32 senators.”

They continue by listing all the international human rights declarations that the country has signed, and complain: “but to say that a person far removed from our institutional life (Hartley) has influenced in decisions of the Constitutional Revisory Assembly, beyond the new constitutional trends in Latin America and Europe, and above and beyond the international treaties signed more than 60 years ago, is excessive and we cannot remain silent.”

The legislators, 32 in all, signed the letter. While observing that the abolition of slavery is in the text of the new Constitution, they clarified that this was not the first time however, since it has been in all Dominican constitutions since 1844.