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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — A prominent Dominican LGBT rights advocate has declared his candidacy for the Santo Domingo Municipal Council.

The Citizens Movement, a group that seeks to increase the number of Dominican civil society members who participate in the country’s political process, on June 8 announced that Deivis Ventura, coordinator of the Amigos Siempre Amigos Network of Volunteers, which is based in the Dominican capital, is a candidate for the legislative body.

Ventura, 41, is one of three LGBT rights advocates who are running for seats on the Santo Domingo Municipal Council. He would represent the Dominican capital’s Colonial Zone and San Carlos neighborhood if he garners enough votes in local elections that are scheduled to take place in May 2016.

Ventura told the Washington Blade on June 19 during an interview at his office near the Presidential Palace that human rights factor prominently into his campaign platform. He said he hopes to make Santo Domingo a city that “is really for everyone” and where transgender people, gay and black men and everyone else “can enjoy public spaces without any type of discrimination.”

“We are going to have a city that really is for everyone, and also a city that is free of discrimination,” Ventura told the Blade.

Ventura said he also supports a proposed ordinance that would ban businesses from discriminating against potential patrons and clients. These include black, gay and poor people whom the advocate maintains are frequently prevented from entering bars in Santo Domingo because of their appearance.

“We want to put pressure on them,” said Ventura, referring to businesses he says discriminate against these groups.

Gay ambassador ‘forced’ gov’t to acknowledge LGBT Dominicans

Ventura is among the LGBT rights advocates from Latin America and the Caribbean who visited Washington and other U.S. cities in 2014 as part of a State Department-sponsored trip. The Dominican activist also attended a training sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and the U.S. Agency for International Development that took place last September in the Peruvian capital of Lima.

Ventura told the Blade that he feels gay U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic James “Wally” Brewster has helped to make the local LGBT community more visible since President Obama confirmed him to the post in late 2013.

“He’s working very well as an ambassador,” said Ventura. “He has forced the government to acknowledge the LGBT community because he is LGBT.”

Ventura described efforts to promote LGBT tourism and business in the Dominican Republic as “good initiatives.” He nevertheless remains highly critical of the Dominican government and its response to LGBT-specific issues.

Victor Terrero, director of the National HIV and AIDS Council, which implements the country’s response to the epidemic, told the Blade during a June 19 press event in Santo Domingo’s Colonial Zone that a proposed anti-discrimination bill includes sexual orientation and gender identity. Ventura said the measure does not specifically mention LGBT Dominicans, those of African descent and other marginalized groups.

“We do not seem visible in the government’s agenda as LGBT people,” Ventura told the Blade. “There is no article that mentions us in which specific action towards our population appears.”

“There is a very rich, very innovative communal outlook among the groups,” he added, referring to Dominican LGBT advocacy organizations. “There are many more Dominicans who feel that the Dominican LGBT groups are maturing, but we still have this big challenge now with this formula that the government has planted.”

Ventura told the Blade one of the many challenges that local advocates continue to face is violence that trans Dominicans — and especially those who engage in sex work — face.

“They don’t have any other option,” he said, referring to a lack of employment opportunities for many trans Dominicans. “This has not changed.”

Ventura spoke with the Blade two days after the deadline for migrants to register with the Dominican government under its controversial plan to document them passed.

The majority of the migrants impacted by the new policy are of Haitian descent.

Ventura described the situation as an “intersection of conflict of interests between Haitian and Dominican sectors.” He said there are groups in both countries that want to take advantage of the situation for their own political and economic interests.

A 2004 law sought to prohibit the recognition of children of undocumented immigrants who were born in the country as Dominican citizens based on the fact that their parents were “in transit.” The Dominican Republic in 2010 amended its constitution to specifically deny citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants at birth.

The Dominican Constitutional Court three years later issued a ruling that essentially stripped those who were born in the Dominican Republic to undocumented migrants after 1929 of their Dominican citizenship. The ruling also ordered the Dominican government to implement a plan to document migrants based on the 2004 law.

Ventura acknowledged the controversy over the plan to document migrants reflects tensions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti that date back centuries. These include the massacre of tens of thousands of Haitians by then-Dominican President Rafael Trujillo in 1937 during what became known as the Parsley Massacre.

“The controversy over the plan to document migrant is a fight of interests among groups that really has caused a hand-to-hand drama,” Ventura told the Blade. “People are going to suffer. And this is unacceptable here in the Dominican Republic or any other country in the world.”