Dr. Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna (born 26 December 1953) is a politician from the Dominican Republic. He was born in Santo Domingo but spent his childhood and formative years in New York City, USA. December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Dominican Republic is a Spanish-speaking representative democracy located on the eastern portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, bordering Haiti. ... Santo Domingo, population 2,061,200 (2003), is the capital of the Dominican Republic. ...

Leonel Fernández Reyna at the UN

He joined the PLD (see further below) since its inception in the early seventies, when the late Juan Bosch left the PRD party to create the new party. Fernández was a close pupil of Bosch, and was presented as a vice-president candidate with the latter during the 1994 presidential elections. Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño (30 June 1909, La Vega – 1 November 2001, Santo Domingo) was the first democratically elected president of the Dominican Republic after the end of the Trujillo dictatorship in 1961. ...

He served a four-year term as president between 1996 and 2000. In the first-round election on 16 May 1996 he polled 38.9% and was placed second behind José Francisco Peña Gómez of the left-leaning Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). In the second round on 30 June, however, he secured 51.2%. He was subsequently sworn in as president on 16 August, succeeding incumbent president President Joaquín Balaguer of the Christian Democratic PRSC. May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... The Dominican Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, or PRD) is one of the main political parties of the Dominican Republic. ... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo (September 1, 1906 – July 14, 2002) was the President of the Dominican Republic from 1960 to 1962,from 1966 to 1978, and again from 1986 to 1996. ... Christian Democracy is a political ideology, born at the end of the 19th century, largely as a result of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, in which the Vatican recognizes workers misery and agrees that something should be done about it, in reaction to the rise of... The Social Christian Reformist Party (Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, PRSC) is a party formed by Joaquín Balaguer and his political heirs in the Dominican Republic. ...

During his term in office, Fernández's political agenda was one of economic and judicial reform. He helped enhance Dominican participation in hemispheric forums, such as the Organization of American States and the Miami Summit follow-up mechanism. During Fernández's first term, the Dominican economy enjoyed an average growth rate of seven per cent, the highest growth rate in that period, along with countries like South Korea. Inflation was stabilised in the low single digits, the lowest in all of Latin America. The Organization of American States (OAS; OEA in the other three official languages) is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., USA. Its members are the 35 independent nations of the Americas. ... The Summit of the Americas is the name for one of a sequence of summits bringing together the countries of the Americas for discussion of a variety of issues. ...

At the end of his mandate, he was succeeded by Hipólito Mejía of the PRD.

After a four-year hiatus, he was elected to a second term of office in the presidential election held on 16 May 2004 with absolute majority, representing the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), greatly due to the precarious situation the country was in because of the poor judgement, administration and corruption of the PRD mandate. He was sworn in on 16 August 2004. The Dominican Republic held a presidential election on Sunday, 16 May 2004. ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... This article is part of or related to the Liberalism series Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | Dominican Republic political parties | Liberal parties ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

Fernández is the author of several books whose topics include politics and economics.