DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

Military spending by the Dominican Republic rose by 14% in 2023 in response to worsening gang violence in neighboring Haiti. The Dominican Republic’s military spending has risen steeply since 2021, when the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse threw Haiti into a worse crisis than in previous years.

New data on the rising military costs the Dominican Republic has had to assume was shared in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), presented on 21 April 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The SIPRI report revealed that the Dominican Republic increased its military spending by 14% in 2023 due to the worsening of gang violence in Haiti.

“The use of the military to quell gang violence has been a growing trend in the region for years, as governments are unable to solve the problem with conventional means or prefer immediate and often...