Dominican Republic deploys 7,200 troops to the border due to crisis in Haiti
The Dominican Armed Forces have deployed 7,200 troops on the border with Haiti and so far this year they intercepted and returned to the neighboring country more than 38,000 Haitians who illegally crossed the territorial division, according to military sources.
“If we need more soldiers, we will use them, so that the country is safe in this part of the territory”, said the general commander of the Dominican Republic Army, Julio Ernesto Florián Pérez to reporters during a tour of the border area.
Major General Florián highlighted that the Dominican military recently caught “some people required” by the Haitian justice, as well as “some criminals” who were handed over to the National Police of that country in the border province of Dajabón.
The former mayor of Port-au-Prince Ralph Youry Chevry was arrested last Sunday in the city of Dajabón along with former official Wenson Pierre, the Haitian policeman Antonine Maquendy and the civilian Wiquenesonnt Despiene because they did not have passports or a visa to enter the national territory, the Ministry said. defense.
Chevry, against whom an arrest warrant is being issued by the Haitian Government, has not requested asylum in the Dominican Republic, according to Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez, who also stated that Haiti has not requested his extradition.
Florián assured that surveillance by air and land will be maintained in order to “provide all security”, as a result of the socio-political situation that Haiti is going through at the moment.
“We are vigilant together with the General Directorate of Migration (…) more than 38,000 people who tried to enter the country illegally have already been captured,” said the senior military officer.
Likewise, he warned that “the persecution against undocumented persons who carried out agricultural and construction work” is going to begin to be regularized, as the authorities granted grace to these people as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
He stressed, in this sense, that the Armed Forces will provide the collaboration of place to the General Directorate of Migration.
Last week, the Ministry of Defense reported through its social networks the reinforcement of surveillance on the border with Haiti, including the deployment of several Super Tucano fighter jets.
Army troops and armored cars have also been mobilized, as well as vehicles and personnel from the Specialized Corps for Land Border Security (Cesfront).
Hundreds of Haitians demonstrated this Friday in Port-au-Prince to denounce the multiplication of kidnapping cases and the “dictatorship” that, according to them, the Haitian president, Jovenl Moise, is trying to establish.
There were at least two demonstrations, organized at the initiative of students and lawyers, accompanied by opposition activists, to demand the release of two people who have been kidnapped for several days, including the judge and university professor Abbias Edumé.
Haiti is going through a crisis due to the confrontation between Moise and the opposition that demands the resignation of the ruler, considering that his mandate ended on February 7.
Moise categorically rejects that position and reiterates that he was elected in 2017 to serve a five-year term that ends in February 2022.
On February 7, Moise denounced that the opposition was preparing a coup and planning to assassinate him, and the authorities made at least twenty arrests of opponents.