Santo Domingo, RD.
He has only had one important position in the State: that of Minister of Public Works and Communications. And without vast experience in politics, and in his first candidacy, Gonzalo Castillo Terrero wants to sit in the ambitious presidential chair this summer.
In little less than a year, he stepped from the ministerial chair to embody the presidential candidacy of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), a position that only names like Juan Bosch, Leonel Fernández and Danilo Medina they had occupied.
Six years after the founding of the PLD, at the age of 18, in 1979, Gonzalo Castillo entered the purple organization. At that time he was dedicated to attending caravans in support of the former President of the Republic and founder of the party, Juan Bosch.
Castillo, now 59, began in political activism when he was part of the movement of the External Sector called the Dominican Morality Movement (Purple).
The bartender, with a barber father and a housewife mother as he has repeated so many times in this campaign, joined the PLD Central Committee in 2005 and became a member of the party’s Political Committee in 2014.
Castillo’s candidacy arose after intense months of speculation about whether the current President of the Republic, Danilo Medina, would modify the Dominican Constitution to enable a presidential reelection. On July 22, 2019, the president announced that he was declining such an action, which, if achieved, would have allowed him for the third consecutive time to choose the presidential candidacy for the PLD.
66 days before the simultaneous primary elections of 2019 were held, which had an open pattern for the PLD, the then Minister of Public Works announced his intention to be a presidential candidate for the purple party.
Until then Gonzalo Castillo had never aspired to any political candidacy. To apply, he had to resign as Minister of Public Works, a position he held for seven years, a period belonging to Danilo Medina’s two presidential terms (2012-2016; 2016-2020).
In August 2019 Gonzalo Castillo developed his political proposal and his transition from Minister of Public Works and Communications to his presidential aspirations.
But Castillo was not the only pre-candidate, on August 10 the PLD had formalized the presidential nominations of ten others: Carlos Amarante Baret, former Minister of the Interior and Police; Manuel Crespo; Francisco Domínguez Brito, former Minister of Environment and Natural Resources; Leonel Fernández, former President of the Republic; Maritza Hernández, former Minister of Labor; Temístocles Montás, current president of the PLD; Andrés Navarro García, former Minister of Education; Reinaldo Pared Pérez, President of the Senate; Melanio Paredes, former Minister of Education and Radhamés Segura, who was administrator of the CDEEE.
Despite the fact that the PLD had proposed eleven candidates, at the end of August the danilista current agreed to choose who was best favored in the polls in order to have a stronger pre-candidate before Leonel Fernández.
By October 6, when automated voting was first implemented, the PLD candidates were Gonzalo Castillo, Leonel Fernández, Melanio Paredes, Rosa Maritza Hernández and Manuel de Jesús Crespo Pérez (in the end he declined and supported Leonel).
Castillo, who obtained a degree in Industrial Electronics from the Loyola Polytechnic Institute, obtained 48.72 percent of the automated votes in the primary elections, while the former President of the Republic and at that time President of the PLD, Leonel Fernández, obtained 47.29 for hundred.
The triumph of the new candidate caused a rupture of the ruling party. Days after the results were announced, Leonel Fernández resigned from the PLD presidency and left it to create his own political organization, Fuerza del Pueblo.
Since then, the electoral landscape has been on three sides. The PLD and Gonzalo Castillo on the one hand; Luis Abinader, of the Modern Revolutionary, on the other, and Fernández and his new organization as the third pole.
Gonzalo is the owner of companies such as the Helidosa and Aeroambulancia aviation group and has completed postgraduate courses in Digital Electronics and Microprocessors at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (Pucmm), among other specialties related to business.
In early 2020, Gonzalo Castillo announced to the current Vice President of the Republic (2012-2016; 2016-2020), Margarita Cedeño, as the vice-presidential candidate for the Peledeista party.
Gonzalo Castillo married nuptials with Silvia López, with whom he had three children: Gonzalo Alexander, Mónica and Silvia Aimée.
On July 5 the Dominican Republic will elect a new president. The candidates are the former President of the Republic, Leonel Fernández (People’s Force); the businessman and leader of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Luis Abinader, and Gonzalo Castillo.
In the event that any of the participants does not reach 50% plus one vote, a second electoral round would be necessary, to be held at the end of July.
Since last February 26, part of the parties that agreed alliances with the PLD are the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Alternative Democratic Movement (Fashion), Civic Renewal Party (PCR), Christian Democratic Union (UDC), Christian People’s Party (PPC), Liberal Action Party (PAL), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Independent Revolutionary Party (PRI) .
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