Jose Rafael Vargas is doctor in law, journalist and lawyer in philosophy and letters, graduated of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo - UASD -. He is a writer, and one of his works obtained the national prize of journalism in the history line. At this time, Dr. Vargas is Minister and President of the Board of Directors of Instituto Dominicano de las Telecomunicaciones (INDOTEL).
He has been director and head of editing of important televised, written and radial means of the country, and has evolved as producer and conductor of programs of great hearing in the main television channels of the Dominican Republic.
Director of the News of Rahintel, commentator of Color Vision, Writing Head of the Newspaper La Noticias, Co-producer of Jornada Extra (three times winner of the Casandra prize), producer of the TV space "Balance Semanal". Vargas has participated in courses and seminars in Germany, Japan, the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Consultant of communication of the Unicef-UN, Director of Communication of the National Census of 1993, the actual President of the Dominican Instituto of Telecommunications –Indotel- has been mentor, conductor and founder of important organizations of services of the country, like the Youthful Center Don Bosco, the cultural grouping Pedro Henríquez Ureña, the School of Journalists, the Association of Professional Journalists, and at the moment he is the Secretary General of the Latin American Federation of Journalists - Felap.
As writer has four works: Valió la Pena el Golpe de Estado Contra Bosch? (Was it worth the trouble the Coup d'etat Against Bosch?), work of historical character around that important event of our contemporary life. His second work titled: Trujillo: El Final de una Tiranía (Trujillo: The End of a Tyranny), made him deserver of the National Prize of Journalism 1985, of the National Library, an essay on the era of 31 years of the dictatorship of Rafael L. Trujillo.
His third book is his thesis work, which obtained an outstanding grade with which he reached the title of Lawyer in Education, mention philosophy and letters, and that the UASD put in circulation in the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Don Pedro Henríquez Ureña in 1985. It is titled: El Nacionalismo de Pedro Henríquez Ureña”("The Nationalism of Pedro Henríquez Ureña").
One fourth work gathers everything that had been written in the world to date on the life of what the insigne son of Doña Salomé Ureña de Henríquez and Francisco Henríquez and Carvajal. It is titled: “La Integridad Himanística de Pedro Henríquez Ureña” ("The Humanistic Integrity of Pedro Henríquez Ureña"), an inestimable compilation of documents and testimonies of dominican and foreign authors.
He has published other important essays on the Dominican social reality, the Proceridad of Don Américo Lugo and the armed revolt of 1965.
Recognitions:
He has received the main awards that are granted in the country to its public figures:
1.Selected outstanding young of the year, by the grouping Jaycee`s 72, the highest recognition granted to the ten outstanding youngsters in the country every year.
2.The National prize of Journalism, 1985.
3.The Prize "El Gordo del Año”, that granted the program "El Gordo de la Semana” to the most outstanding personalities of the country.
4.The statuette "La Cotorra", that was granted in Santiago de los Caballeros to the most excellent personalities of the region.
Memberships:
1.Secretary General of the Latin American Federation of Journalists - Felap -, that groups more than 80 thousand journalists of the region.
2.Founder of the Cultural Grouping "Pedro Henríquez Ureña".
3.Leader of the Youthful Center Don Bosco.
4.Founder of the DominicanSchool of Journalists
5.Founder of the Association of Professional Journalists.