SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic. - Leaders of political parties, social activists, and community leaders said an awakening of the people and the democratic unification of the opposition forces will defeat former President Leonel Fernandez's intentions of keeping the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in power for more than 40 consecutive years.

It is for this reason that political scientist Peter Catrain has called on citizens to mobilize, in a joint action, to address what he described as the "PLD Corporation."

Catrain stated that the union of these sectors is enough to weaken and eradicate this corrupt system of government.

He added that much can be achieved in terms of social protest without having to burn anything, because these are methods of the past.

Former vice presidential candidate, Luis Abinader, stated that "those of us who believe in quality education for all need to support convergence; for those of us who believe in gender equality, in social security according to law, and for high courts to respond to national interests, we need to support convergence."

"We must begin by demanding the resignations of the members of these high courts," said Abinader.

In the forum organized by the group, Citizens for Democracy (CCD), at the Amante de la Luz, included Catrain, Abinader, Fidel Santana, president of the Frente Amplio, Hector Guzman, representing Hipolito Mejia's faction, and other representatives of political groups and social activists of Santiago, have set the goal of creating a democratic political opposition to work with the objective of avoiding the permanence in power of what they have described as the PLD Corporation beyond 2016.

"We reiterate that we will be part of an effort to build a political alternative with every democratic sector in the country to remove this mafia from power, the PLD Corporation," said Fidel Santana.

Hector Guzman demanded that President Danilo Medina comply with an agreement that he signed in which a new law for parties and electoral order would be established.

Those gathered also described the [PLD] governments as undemocratic for having installed a system that acts as a powerful network that controls the Dominican Republic by becoming increasingly strong and authoritarian.

The university professor and economist, Radhames Garcia, said that this event was the start of a social mobilization program across the country, to unite citizens in a real democracy.

"This is a proposal to which were invited all organizations and individuals who advocate for a change in the political leadership of the state and the Dominican society," social activists and representative political parties commented.

"Faced with the progressive deterioration of the rule of law, civil insecurity, high cost of living, civil genocide of thousands of Dominicans, poor public services, the destruction of our ecosystems and the wake of corruption and impunity has triggered this type of mobilization," said Anselmo Muñiz, prior to the event.

The activists argued that all political opposition members, civil society organizations, and social movements, all in a great convergence, must create the conditions to eradicate the dominant group from the government, which has built fortunes with resources from the national treasury.

"The democratic opposition should focus on replace the exhausted and excluding development model with another one based on strengthening the productive sector, competitiveness, social inclusion and justice," said economist Radhames Garcia.