I find it strange defending the level of crime in Santo Domingo considering I'm always complaining to my friends about it, however that newspaper article was pretty sensationalist.
1. POINT: the article says a body was dumped in Mirador a while back.
COUNTERPOINT: who knows where this person was killed? it doesn't say the person was jogging and was murdered in mirador, or it was part of a complicated stick-em-up. Who knows how many people are murdered in this city daily or weekly, but a dark unlit area like mirador at night time seems like a great place to dump a body. In fact if you notice by the 4km mark, there's even a 'garbage dump' sort of area behind the trees... so yeah, this point is immaterial about your safety of jogging in Mirador, it's just a general statement about the safety of this city.
2. POINT: the article says some ripped up clothes were found in mirador. suggesting then that somebody was raped in mirador.
COUNTERPOINT: where to start? a) if someone was raped, doesn't mean they were a jogger pulled into the bushes to be raped, there's just too many people in this park for that to happen. b) if ripped clothes are found, does not mean a rape occurred, 4km mark has a garbage dump near it, then there's all the Haitian illegals that are working on the construction site near the anacaona side, they all wear ripped clothes, and use ripped clothes for headbands, who knows what ripped rag has been thrown there for what reason? bottom line it's a pretty big leap of faith to suggest the existence of ripped clothes = somebody got raped in a park, or to even fear that it could be a jogger that this would happen to.
3. POINT: taxi's claim at night time, they are afraid of stopping in Mirador.
COUNTERPOINT: replace Mirador with anywhere dark in this city. it's a meaningless sensationalist point.
4. POINT: guy was Robbed in Daylight - yes I can see that happening. In fact I saw that happen in Mirador myself. Old guy walking with a wallet, headphones, watch etc etc, somebody ran by and grabbed his wallet. Everyone who saw pursued but couldn't catch him as he jumped over the cliff are and disappeared.
COUNTERPOINT: why go jogging with anything on your person? like the guy that was shot at jardin botanico by accident when he was exercising, he had a rolex, his wallet with cash, car keys, headsets, etc. Why do you need stuff to jog with? Just take your keys and run. OKay if you need an mp3 player, take your ipod and run. If you get robbed, they have a sweaty ipod with your disco songs on it. Big deal you lose 149$. Move on. People get robbed and pick-pocketed everyday in this city in car publico's, or busy places, don't think the probability of this happening in a park is escalated. If anything I would assume it's reduced considering joggers don't have purses full of wallets and cash/goodies to steal (one would hope they'd be smart enough to leave that all at home).
I run this park daily, and this article wouldn't sway me to stop. I am an ugly male though, so maybe I have a natural stalker defense.