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Carlos Fernández Onofre, minister of defense. José de León
Defense minister guarantees security in border zone
Carlos Antonio Fernández Onofre, lieutenant general and minister of defense, affirmed that the Dominican Republic’s border is “sealed tight” thanks to the deployment of additional military personnel and advanced technologies aimed at minimizing the trafficking of people, goods, drugs, weapons, and other contraband.
The high-ranking official noted that new military outposts have been established along the frontier, and surveillance has been significantly intensified to curb smuggling and irregular activity at border crossings.
Speaking after attending a Mass marking the 37th anniversary of the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) at the Santa Bárbara military cathedral, Fernández Onofre dismissed rumors that Haitian gang members had seized control of customs operations in Jimaní.
“What occurred there was a dispute among merchants, transport operators, and customs agents—not an incursion by Haitian gangs, as has been suggested,” he clarified.
“The security of the border zone is fully guaranteed. The Armed Forces are ensuring absolute safety from Pedernales to Montecristi,” Fernández Onofre stressed.
He also reminded the public that the Armed Forces recently dispatched 1,600 troops to the border region, strategically stationed across four battalions, ready to fulfill their mission.
Just two days ago, the defense minister conducted a supervisory tour of key positions along the border corridor.
A guarantee in the RD is questionable. “Sealed tight” is questionable.
I am not pro nor anti immigration since I do not even live in the DR (live in Canada with a french and Canadian citizenship)… But let me say this, the Dominican border has to be one of the world least secured border… Getting in from Haiti is so easy….
But my guess is it is like this by design… Look, let us only talk facts…:
40% of the Dominican economy is tourism… And the main reason people (especially American and Canadian) go to the DR is because it is cheap and also many American and Canadian from Haitian origin go to see their families in the DR… And this is because of the cheap Haitian labor… Like I say, just facts and facts do not care about emotions nor feeling…
You can deport all Haitian, increase wages and hire Dominican but that would be a double edged sword… When something cost more, customer s are the ones paying the bills meaning prices will be higher for tourists… They will simply start going somewhere else, the DR is not the only country with good weather… You have Mexico, Bahamas, Barbados, Columbia, Belize, Costa Rica… The government are aware of this this is why they do not really try to deport all Haitian because it will be bad for the economy despite what some people are saying. If it cost me more to go and enjoy the sun in punta Cana than San juan… I will go to San Juan. Tourism is not some dover castle blue ocean thing… There is nothing innovative like AI or tech, any functioning country with good weather can do it. So by making the industry more expensive, the government will simply shoot itself in the foot..
I know I will get downvotes but like I said, facts do not care about feelings.
It is not like the DR (or many latin america countries except Brazil) has any world class universities that attract foreign students like Canada and the US have, or lot of high tech jobs like in us, Canada, Brazil or Europe and Australia or Kenya… It is basically tourism, low level economy… Look, I study AI and machine learning and also work in the video game industry… If tomorrow I decide to move to the DR, it would be because I decided it, not because I found a high paying job b like I would in canada, USA, Australia, Kenya, UK or South Africa (heck even Namibia) or Brazil.
Would my quality of life be better compared to the US and Canada? I believe so based on my experience, but it won’t be because of the salary. And salary is what attract people… So unless you have an economic shift from tourism to more high tech, you will be stuck in that situation where the government only do symbolic action but never adress the problem. And also, having Haitian is benefic for the government because they will be used as a scapegoat to blame everything on them… If there is no more Haitian to blame everything on, people might realize that the issue is in fact the bad governance, the corruption too many lazy people (say whatever you want but it is not normal that Western Union is way more packed than the banks), police extortion…