A high-stakes bilateral meeting between senior Spanish development cooperation officials and Dominican Republic’s top prosecutorial leadership has reinforced ongoing collaborative work to advance victims’ rights and expand equitable access to justice across the Caribbean nation. Álvaro Borrega, Deputy Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in charge of partnership programming with Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, traveled to Santo Domingo to review joint initiatives and align future priorities for institutional capacity building.
During closed-door discussions with Dominican Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso, Borrega offered public praise for the transformative work the Dominican Public Prosecutor’s Office has delivered in reforming the national justice sector in recent years. He underscored the strong strategic alignment between the AECID’s development priorities and the Dominican government’s goals for institutional strengthening, reaffirming Spain’s long-standing commitment to funding programs that shield vulnerable populations and reinforce the rule of law.
Hosted by Spain’s Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Laura Oroz Ulibarri, Borrega took part in a series of official engagement activities, including a guided tour of the headquarters of the National Service for Legal Representation of Victims’ Rights, commonly known by its Spanish acronym Relevic. During the tour, the Spanish delegation received a detailed walkthrough of the free nationwide legal assistance services Relevic provides to people impacted by all types of crime.
Borrega shared that he left the visit impressed by how effectively AECID funding has been deployed to advance shared goals, noting that contributions from Spanish taxpayers are being strategically invested in initiatives that directly remove barriers to justice and defend the fundamental rights of crime victims. He specifically commended Relevic’s innovative model of victim support, which prioritizes preventing revictimization by ensuring survivors receive consistent, informed legal guidance and wraparound support at every stage of judicial proceedings.
María Rosalba Díaz Henríquez, Director of Relevic, walked the delegation through the organization’s community-centered legal representation framework, highlighting a key recent expansion of the service: the addition of 100 new criminal law specialists that has grown the institution’s total legal workforce to 142 attorneys, who now serve clients across 37 regional offices covering all major regions of the country.
The meeting also included updates on two high-priority Dominican prosecutorial initiatives: the Attorney General’s 2026-2029 Institutional Strategic Plan, and the Vitalia Initiative, a landmark coordinated program designed to deliver comprehensive specialized support services for women survivors of gender-based violence. Closing the visit, Borrega reiterated AECID’s pledge to continue backing the Dominican Republic’s ongoing efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, expand victim support infrastructure, and make equal access to justice a reality for all citizens.