Cristina Lizardo, Dominican Republic's First Female Senate President

By Megan Cook
Latin America Advisor, August 20, 2014

Cristina Lizardo on Aug. 16 became the first woman to head the Senate of the Dominican Republic. A senator from the province of Santo Domingo and member of the governing Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Lizardo was elected unanimously to the position on Aug. 4 by the political committee of the PLD and will lead the Senate during the 2014-2015 period. She replaces PLD Senator Reinaldo Pared Pérez, who had served in the position since 2006 but did not present himself for re-election in order to dedicate himself to seeking the party's presidential nomination.

"I assure all the men and women of all the provinces of the country that here, in the Senate of the Republic, with our colleagues, we will be working in your favor," Lizardo said upon assuming the presidency, the newspaper Primicias reported. Mary Fernández Rodríguez, a founding partner of the Santo Domingo-based law firm Headrick Rizik Alvarez & Fernández told the Advisor that her election as the first woman to occupy the presidency of the Senate "has been generally well received." Fernández added in an email message to the Advisor that, "One positive aspect is that her election breaks the reelection of the post in the Senate (the incumbent had been serving for many years), and she will be in an excellent position to promote positive changes since she is a close associate of the president and her brother is the current finance minister."

Lizardo, who has served as a senator and vice president of the Senate since 2006, was born in the southwestern province of San Juan de la Maguana. She moved to Santo Domingo to study at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, where she received a degree in education, and before entering politics, worked as an educator. She joined the PLD in 1978 inspired by the example of party founder Juan Bosch. She served as a councilwoman of the national district from 1990-1994 and again from 1994-1998. She then represented Santo Domingo for two terms in the Chamber of Deputies, from 1998-2002 and from 2002-2006. Lizardo was elected to the Senate in 2006 and was re-elected to serve from 2010-2016. She is married to Freddy Antonio Madera Durán, with whom she has two children.

"Senator Lizardo has been a strong supporter of small business promotion and education," Fernández told the Advisor. As a legislator, she championed programs to fight illiteracy, and earlier this year played an important role in getting the Senate to quickly pass a bill to grant the children migrant parents in the Dominican Republic citizenship. Fernández said she would like to see Lizardo use her new position to promote legislative changes that "would ensure women's sexual and reproductive rights" as well as the elimination of the funds granted annually to individual Congress members for social issues in their constituencies, known as the 'barrilito,' a system that has been criticized for promoting patronage, according to Fernández.

The PLD currently has 31 of 32 seats in the Senate and also controls the Chamber of Deputies. There are two groups within the PLD that share internal leadership, one led by President Danilo Medina and one headed by former President Leonel Fernández. While Lizardo, a "danilista," was chosen to lead the Senate, "leonelista" Abel Martínez was chosen to continue leading the Chamber of Deputies. Lizardo joins Rafaela Albuquerque, a member of the Social Christian Reformist Party and representative from San Pedro de Macorís, as the only two women to lead chambers of the country's Congress. Albuquerque was president of the Chamber of Deputies from 1999 to 2003.

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