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Amable Aristy Castro (10 May 1949 – 4 December 2022) was a politician and businessman from the Dominican Republic. He was a senior leader of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) and was a Senator for the province of La Altagracia. Aristy was the presidential candidate for his party in the 2008 presidential election. Due to the remarkable power and influence that he wielded on his native province, he was known as the "Chieftain of Higüey" ("Spanish: El Cacique de Higüey").

Aristy was elected senator for La Altagracia 7 times in a row: in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2016. Nevertheless, he was not a senator for all those years as he resigned in the 1998-2002 period and he did not swear in in 2002 and 2006 leaving his senatorship to close friends; while he was chairman of the League of Dominican Municipalities (from 1999 to 2010). In 2010 he was threatened with impeachment and political disqualification if he left his senatorship to a friend again; he left his office in the League to a cousin of his and decided to be sworn in on 10 November 2010, nearly three months after August the 16th, the date marked by the constitution to do so.

Aristy was described as one of the least laborious senators.

Political leader Amable Aristy Castro died on December 4 in Higüey, La Altagracia province, from a cardiac arrest at the age of 73.

According to local sources, he suffered a cardiac arrest at his home, after participating in the inauguration of a shopping mall. He was transferred to the Perozo Clinic, where he was pronounce dead.

Castro was born in the community of El Bonao, Higüey, La Altagracia province, on May 10, 1949. He had been president of the Liberal Reform Party (PRL) since 2015.

He began his political career in the Social Christian Reform Party (PRSC), which he joined in 1976 and for which he was elected twice as a representative and seven times as a senator. He also presented his presidential candidacy for this political party in 2008. He was president of the Senate four times and held the position of general secretary of the Municipal League (LMD) on three occasions.

Political life

Known as “the chief of Higüey”, Aristy Castro had a turbulent political life that began in the 1970s, being elected to public office for the first time in the 1982 elections, occupying a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

He spent eight years in the Lower House, and from 1990 to 1998 he served as a Senator of the Republic representing the province of La Altagracia.

In 1999, he resigned from the Senate to become general secretary of the Dominican Municipal League (LMD), after an agreement between the PRSC and the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).

In the 2002 congressional elections, he was again elected as a senator. In that legislative period, he once again assumed the leadership of the LMD, with the support of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), for which he had to resign from his seat in the Senate again in 2003.

In 2006, he returned to the National Congress as a senator, a post he vacated to return to the LMD, under a support agreement between the PLD and PRD.

Four years later, in 2010, he was elected to the Senate for the PRSC, but two years later he was expelled by the Permanent Presidential Commission of that political party for opposing an alliance with the PLD for the 2012 elections.

After his expulsion from the PRSC, after being one of its main leaders for 36 years, in 2015 he founded the Liberal Reform Party (PRL), a political organization for which he was re-elected senator in an agreement with the PLD to support the re-election of President Danilo Medina.

In November 2019, the PLR continued as an ally of the PLD, with the candidacy of Gonzalo Castillo, but less than a month before the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, it announced its support for Luis Abinader, then presidential candidate for the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), while expressing his intention to be re-elected again as a senator.

However, the PRM had its candidate for the Senate for the province of La Altagracia, Virgilio Cedano, who won with 38,403 votes (43.77%) against 25,270 votes (28.80%) achieved by Aristy Castro. Robert de la Cruz, from the PLD, obtained 22,160 votes (25.26%).

References

1. ^ Mateo, Víctor (2013). "República Dominicana ha tenido 17 presidentes del Senado desde 1962" (in Spanish). Observatorio Político Dominicano. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
2. "Murió a sus 73 años de edad el exlegislador Amable Aristy Castro". n.com.do (in Spanish). 4 December 2022.
3. ^ "Perfil del candidato del PRSC: Amable Aristy Castro". Hoy. 16 May 2008. Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
4. Mejía, Mariela (6 December 2010). "El Senado de RD está integrado por millonarios". Diario Libre. Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2013. (...) Otro senador con una importante fortuna es el representante de La Altagracia y ex secretario general de la Liga Municipal Dominicana (LMD) por casi 12 años, Amable Aristy Castro, quien posee un total de activos ascendente a RD$91,734,500, de los que RD$82,889,500 son de un crédito pendiente de pago de la Compañía Amable Aristy Castro S.A.
   Aristy, quien juró en su cargo de senador el pasado 10 de noviembre, presentó su declaración jurada de bienes el pasado mes. El documento, que por demás es escueto, señala que tiene RD$8,845,000 en bienes muebles y RD$8,857,750 en pasivos. (...)
5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 June 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Official exchange rate
6. Rojas, Lissette (10 July 2011). "Amable Aristy Castro, tres decenios en el cacicazgo de la inmunidad". Acento. Archived from the original on 3 December 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
7. "Amable Aristy buscará senaduría de la Altagracia por séptima vez consecutiva". Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
8. "Amable ha sido electo 8 veces como senador - el Nacional". 24 May 2010. Archived from the original on 25 June 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
9. "Amable jura miércoles; deja la Liga a un primo - el Nacional". November 2010. Archived from the original on 25 June 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
10. "Fidias Aristy, el primo de Amable, asume en la Liga Municipal - el Día". Archived from the original on 5 August 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
11. "Yvonne Chahín y Félix Bautista, los senadores menos productivos" (in Spanish). Diario Libre. 9 August 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
12. "Former Senator Amable Aristy Castro dies at 73". Dominican News. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
13. "Fallece Amable Aristy Castro, exsenador por provincia La Altagracia". El Nuevo Diario. 4 December 2022. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
14. "Former Senator Amable Aristy Castro dies at 73". Dominican News. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
15. "Former Senator Amable Aristy Castro dies at 73". Dominican News. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.

External links

• 1949 births
• 2022 deaths
• People from La Altagracia Province
• Dominican Republic people of Basque descent
• Social Christian Reformist Party politicians
• Presidents of the Senate of the Dominican Republic
• Universidad de la Tercera Edad alumni
• Candidates for President of the Dominican Republic
• 20th-century Dominican Republic politicians
• 21st-century Dominican Republic politicians