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in Dominican Republic:
General: The
Dominican Republic (Spanish: República
Dominicana, IPA [re'pußlika domini'kana])
is a Latin American country that currently occupies
the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island
called Hispaniola. It shares a border with the
Republic of Haiti, making it one of two Caribbean
islands that are split by two governments; the
other is Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten. Hispaniola
is the second-largest of the Greater Antilles
islands, and lies west of Puerto Rico and east
of Cuba and Jamaica.
Dominicans sometimes refer
to their country as Kiskeya or Quisqueya, a name
for Hispaniola that is debated to have been used
by indigenous Taíno people meaning "mother
of all lands". Other names for Hispanola
are Bohio and Ayiti ("land of the high mountains"),
referring to Pico Duarte, the highest mountain
in the Caribbean.
For much of the twentieth
century, the government of the Dominican Republic
was unsettled and mostly non-representative. Since
the death of military dictator Rafael Leónidas
Trujillo in 1961, the Dominican Republic has moved
toward representative democracy.
Currency: The peso oro
is the currency of the Dominican Republic. Its
symbol is "$", with "RD$"
used when distinction from other pesos (or dollars)
is required; its ISO 4217 code is "DOP".
Each peso is divided into 100 centavos, for which
the ¢ symbol is used. It is the only currency
which is legal tender for all monetary transactions,
whether public or private, in the Dominican Republic.
Language: Spanish
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