1985 Edition
CIA World Factbook 1985 (Internet Archive)
Geography
Agriculture
main crops — sugarcane, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, rice, corn
Area
100 km North Atlantic Ocean ^Puerto Plata ahia de Samana Caribbean Sea See region*! map III Land 48,734 km2; the size of New Hampshire and Vermont combined; 45% forest, 20% built on or waste, 17% meadow and pasture, 14% cultivated, 4% fallow
Branches
President popularly elected for a four-year term; bicameral legislature (National Congress — 27-seat Senate and 120-seat Chamber of Deputies elected for four-year terms); Supreme Court
Capital
Santo Domingo
Coastline
1,288 km People
Communists
an estimated 7,000 to 9,000 members in several legal and illegal factions; effectiveness limited by ideological differences and organizational inadequacies
Elections
last national election May 1982; next election May 1986 Political parties and leaders: Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Jose Francisco Pena Gomez; Reformist Social Christian Party (PRSC), Joaquin Balaguer (formed in 1984 by merger of Reformist Party and Revolutionary Social Christian Party); Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Juan Bosch; Democratic Quisqueyan Party (POD), Elias Wessin y Wessin; Movement of National Conciliation (MCN), Jaime Manuel Fernandez Gonzalez; Antireelection Movement of Democratic Integration (MIDA), Francisco Augusto Lora; National Civic Union (UCN), Guillermo Delmonte Urraca; National Salvation Movement (MSN), Luis Julian Perez; Popular Democratic Party (PDP), Luis Homero Lajara Burgos; Dominican Communist Party (PCD), Narciso Isa Conde, central committee, legalized in 1978; Dominican Popular Movement (MPD), illegal; 12th of January National Liberation Movement (ML-12E), Plinio Mates Moquete, illegal; Communist Party of the Dominican Republic (PACOREDO), Luis Montas Gonzalez, illegal; Popular Socialist Party (PSP), illegal; Anti-Imperialist Patriotic Union (UPA), Ivan Rodriguez; Democratic Union (UD), Ramon Antonio Flores; Revolutionary League of Workers (LRT), Claudio Tavarez; in 1983 several leftist parties, including the Communists, joined to form the Dominican Leftist Front (FID); however, they still retain individual party structures
Electric power
1,360,000 kW capacity (1984); 3.1 billion kWh produced (1984), 483 kWh per capita
Ethnic divisions
73% mixed, 16% white, 11% black
Exports
$781.7 million (f.o.b., 1983); sugar, nickel, coffee, tobacco, cocoa
GNP
$7.6 billion (1982), $1,400 per capita; real GDP growth - 1.0% (1982)
Government leader
Salvador JORGE Blanco, President (since May 1982)
Imports
$1.3 billion (f.o.b., 1983); foodstuffs, petroleum, industrial raw materials, capital equipment
Labor force
1.2 million; 47% agriculture, 23% industry and commerce, 16% government, 14% services
Land boundaries
361 km Water
Language
Spanish
Legal system
based on French civil codes; 1966 constitution
Limits of territorial waters (claimed)
6 nm (economic, including fishing, 200 nm)
Literacy
68%
Major industries
tourism, sugar processing, nickel mining, gold mining, textiles, cement
Major trade partners
exports — 46% US, including Puerto Rico (1980); imports— 45% US, including Puerto Rico (1980) Dominican Republic (continued)
Member of
FAO, G-77, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBA, IBRD, ICAO, ICO, IDA, IDB— Inter-American Development Bank, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOOC, IRC, ISO, ITU, OAS, PAHO, SELA, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WTO Economy
National holiday
Independence Day, 27 February
Nationality
noun — Dominican(s); adjective— Dominican
Official name
Dominican Republic
Organized labor
12% of labor force Government
Political subdivisions
26 provinces and the National District
Population
6,588,000 (July 1985), average annual growth rate 2.7%
Religion
95% Roman Catholic
Suffrage
universal and compulsory, over age 18 or married, except members of the armed forces and police, who cannot vote
Type
republic
Voting strength
(1982 election) 74% voter turnout; 46.76% PRD, 39.14% PR, 9.69% PLD; 4.41% minor parties