Amable Aristy

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" ("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%). <!-- TO  BE  TRANSLATED

Vida y Carrera política
Amable Aristy es hijo de Don Luis Aristy, chofer de profesión, y de Doña Oliva Castro, ama de casa. Por vía patrilineal desciende del colono vasco José Agustín Aristy Chagoya, natural de Pasajes, Guipúzcoa, arribado a la isla en el siglo XVIII. Nació en el seno de una familia pobre en la provicia de La Romana (la provincia La Altagracia fue creada en 1963 ).

A los 9 años de edad comienza a su vida laboral, como dependiente en el colmado de su tío "Chichí" Aristy. Luego se desempeña como vendedor ambulante, limpiabotas, conserje, empleado municipal, secretario de la Fiscalía de Higüey y luego mensajero de un banco en el que llega a ser su gerente.

Ingresa al entonces Partido Reformista en 1976 (actual Partido Reformista Social Cristiano). Su carrera política se inicia en 1982 cuando es elegido diputado de la República por la provincia La Altagracia, con apenas 33 años de edad, siendo reelegido en 1986. En 1989 un diputado del opositor PRD lo acusó de organizar viajes clandestinos (e ilegales) de personas hacia Puerto Rico.

Fue elegido senador en para el período 1990-1994, siendo reelegido para el cuatrienio siguiente (1994-1998), en ambos períodos ocupando la presidencia del Senado. Como presidente del Senado tuvo el privilegio de colocar la banda presidencial a Joaquín Balaguer en 1994 y a Leonel Fernández en 1996. En 1997 se ve envuelto en un escándalo internacional, tras ordenar el desalojo de terrenos de una playa comprada por inversionistas estadounidenses, españoles y venezolanos por 50 millones de dólares, quienes llevaron su queja ante sus respectivas misiones diplomáticas denunciando que los terrenos con vocación turística que habían adquirido fueron entregados de manera irregular a familiares de Aristy.

Tras sufrir su partido la pérdida de la mayoría en el Senado en las elecciones de 1998, Aristy que había sido reelecto decide renunciar a su curul por tener imposibilitada su reelección como presidente del Senado y asume como secretario general de la Liga Municipal Dominicana (LMD). Volvió a ganar en 2002 la senaduría, renunciando a juramentarse otra vez y repite esta acción en 2006 al ser reelecto, dejando su vacante al Dr. Germán Castro García tanto en 2002 como en 2006, permaneciendo Aristy en la LMD.

Según un cable desclasificado de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos por Wikileaks, en 2006 el gobierno de los Estados Unidos le quitó el visado por vincularlo al tráfico de drogas y lavado de dinero proveniente de actividades ilícitas.

En 2010 el Dr. Castro García se presenta como candidato por el Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, siendo derrotado por Aristy. Amable Aristy Castro planteó públicamente que podría volver a renunciar a la Senaduría para seguir dirigiéndo la Liga Municipal Dominicana.

No se juramentó el 16 de agosto de 2010, día marcado por la Constitución como el inicio de su período. Meses después tras verse amenazado por un posible juicio político por dejar vacante su curul, Aristy toma su cargo como senador y deja la presidencia de la LMD a Fidias Aristy, un primo suyo.

En abril de 2011 la Cámara de Diputados envió a la Cámara de Cuentas una solicitud de juicio político por presuntas irregularidades en el manejo de las arcas de la LMD, su caso fue archivado debido a su inmunidad parlamentaria; en 2012 el nuevo procurador general de la República, Francisco Domínguez Brito, reabrió su expediente; se le acusa de malversación de fondos públicos, desfalco, prevaricación, asociación de malhechores, peculado y nepotismo.

Fue expulsado del PRSC junto a centenares de dirigentes reformistas por no acatar la Alianza con el PLD en los comicios del 20 de mayo del 2012. Estos recurren ante el recién creado Tribunal Superior Electoral (TSE). En febrero de 2013 el TSE declaró inconstitucional el artículo 11 de los estatutos del PRSC al considerar que este "viola el derecho al debido proceso establecido en el artículo 69 de la Carta Magna" y declaró nula las expulsiones de 247 reformistas, incluyendo a Aristy Castro. -->