Baby shot in Sosua in drug gangs shoot out.

trina

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Jan 3, 2002
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OMG, this broke my heart. There are way too many drugs in La Piedra. In both articles, it mentions the name of the father, but not the mother. Does anyone know the mother's name?

Thanks for posting it, Lambada...parents should never have to outlive their children...I don't know what I'd do. Of course, being totally emotional and pregnant right now, I just cannot read about things like this without turning into a mess.
 

stallion

Mr. Main Event
May 28, 2004
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This is really sad news. 2 year old dead in the middle of a drug shootout. Is susua becoming that dangerous?
 

trina

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Jan 3, 2002
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stallion said:
This is really sad news. 2 year old dead in the middle of a drug shootout. Is susua becoming that dangerous?


I don't believe Sosua is becoming that dangerous, Stallion...any city has it's dangers. There are areas to avoid in Sosua, funny thing is, I didn't consider La Piedra one of them before. There is a lot of drug trafficking in the area, and anytime there's drugs of that caliber involved, it's best to watch your back and avoid trouble.
 

stallion

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May 28, 2004
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trina said:
I don't believe Sosua is becoming that dangerous, Stallion...any city has it's dangers. There are areas to avoid in Sosua, funny thing is, I didn't consider La Piedra one of them before. There is a lot of drug trafficking in the area, and anytime there's drugs of that caliber involved, it's best to watch your back and avoid trouble.

Well El Presidente better get to the crackdown on the drugs really soon. Drugs are all over the island, you got cops even selling this stuff.
 

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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trina said:
OMG, this broke my heart. There are way too many drugs in La Piedra. In both articles, it mentions the name of the father, but not the mother. Does anyone know the mother's name?

Thanks for posting it, Lambada...parents should never have to outlive their children...I don't know what I'd do. Of course, being totally emotional and pregnant right now, I just cannot read about things like this without turning into a mess.

I'm hoping when the Sosua folk come on, they can fill in the missing pieces, like mother's name, trina. One of the DR1 crowd at least must have been at this funeral.........or know someone who was.

But these 'incidents' are definitely on the up, it isn't just that they're being reported more frequently. We now have armoured personnel carrier patrolling at night where I live in Puerto Plata.........organised by Junta de Vecinos.
 

Jane J.

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Jan 3, 2002
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I can only imagine the pain the town of Sosua is in right now and the fear of all mothers there.

La Piedra is, of course, "una cueva de delincuentes" but, as in every depressed area, there live very many decent, humble, hard-working people who have no choice but to live in a less-than-desirable area.

Lambada, I'm glad to hear the Junta de Vecinos is active in Puerto Plata. I can only hope that such a tragic incident as the one reported here is met with further activity on the part of Sosua's people to combat a probelm that is rampant across the country.
 

AnnaC

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Jan 2, 2002
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That is so sad. :cry:

I can't beleive this is the same DR of the 80's.

Where exactly is La Piedra?
 

DominicanScotty

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Jun 12, 2004
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Lambada said:
A 2 year old was buried earlier today in Sosua, shot in the head as a result of drug gangs confrontation. Very large funeral in La Piedra. A bit surprised none of the Sosua posters have commented.
http://www.elnacional.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=22631

Also in Hoy
http://www.hoy.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=33934


Thanks Lambada,

I just got back a few hours ago and wanted to see if anyone posted about this. I heard about this yesterday. It happened in Los Charimicos to be exact. The DR is now going big time and the drugs are flowing "in". Don't just look at the Hatian border also look at who is coming off of these planes. In December I over heard a couple of guys sitting in front talking about "scoring big" and I don't mean with the woman. They talked about how easy it is to do whatever they were doing. They weren't Americans and they weren't Dominicans but they were heading back to Miami to resupply. They never said anything illegal therefore what could be done but to shake your head? It was amazing how brash they were!
 

DMAO

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Oct 30, 2004
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Sad

How terrible! Death of a child is always sadening, especially if the child was killed.
Is the gov't going to do anything about this? The traffickers are getting out of conrol. In no time they will be ruling the neighborhoods. How much does the gov't have to see before they do something.
All the gov't does is talk about how they are going to do this and that. Nothing is done. The drug problem getting bigger by the day, and remember that the DR is a SMALL country.
 

hugoke01

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Dec 31, 2004
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Tourism and crime

Those who deny that crime is increasing in the DR are wrong .. Crime especially drug related crimes are increasing drastically at a rate that it will start harming the country in general and specifically tourism . It means also that the number of drug addicts are increasing drastically and as we all know this is implying and always results in crime rates going up .
In many of this treads I see an increased concern about the securuty , safety in the DR. l am visiting the DR since 8 years now and can only tell you that the DR becomes a less and less attractive place . This government should realize that tourism is a major income for this country .
Spain 60 years ago has recognized quickly that tourism was a big income for the country and have provided infrastructure and security for the tourists .. Today Spain has over 50 million tourists per year and tourism is their major income . Over 50 million means that they have 25% more tourists than own habitants .. The Dominican Republic has all the possibilities to grow economically by taking special care of their tourists ,, who shoudn't be bound to stay in their hotels ..although it looks more and more like this will will be the rule ..
As said the DR is not a big country and is on top of it it's an island .. so I believe that the government can do something to limit this drugrelated crime rate if it's not yet too late .. The DR has to offer a lot ...beautiful nature , in general good people however if this is going to continue it will become a dangerous place and believe me there are other islands in the world that offer the same things without beingreally asdangerous ..
The Dominicans better take care of their island or they might end up somewhere where nobody wants to be .. Now that globalization is even treatening some of their core businesses it might become hell instead of heaven ..
No good infrastructure ( just read in "El Nacional " that POP could become totallly isolated because of raod problems between POP and Santiago -due to the heavy and continuous rains) .. when will there be a decent road to the South ..have seen that the roadworks to get to Bani aren't finished yet ,.. it's and has been a really dangerous road since I have visited the DR.
and if they really don't stop or limit the corruption many time linked to drugdealing don't see how this country can become again an attractive country to live in ..

Just one more comment : There is obviously a middle class in the DR.. but a lot of the so-called wealthy or middle class people have their wealth form drug dealing .. this is what the proper Dominicans tell me all over the country ..this linked to a high level corruption .. don't see all easily solved

DMAO said:
How terrible! Death of a child is always sadening, especially if the child was killed.
Is the gov't going to do anything about this? The traffickers are getting out of conrol. In no time they will be ruling the neighborhoods. How much does the gov't have to see before they do something.
All the gov't does is talk about how they are going to do this and that. Nothing is done. The drug problem getting bigger by the day, and remember that the DR is a SMALL country.
 

Gringo

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Jan 1, 2002
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Look what happened in Jamaca

The same thing could very well happen here, The Capital in the DR. could become like Kingston Jamaca..........

I think before this happends however Uncle Sam will get involved as they have far to much at stake to see this Country fall to the Drug Loards and let Tourism go down the crapper......
 

Escott

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Jan 14, 2002
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For those that don't know this...

Charamicos is the section of Sosua that Dominicans live. Most Gringos live in El Batey. I go there all the time especially to pick up a 7 year old little girl I put in private school and she lives on what I would call "Tabacco Road" which is the road that goes down to the river and it not much more than tiny shacks with tin roofs where you can see through the siding. Very poor to say the least.

While I haven't heard one word about this shooting locally and I don't read newspapers as I get my news off of the internet I of course think it is a horrible thing to happen but it has affected NADA in Sosua. There are probably several times the shootings in Puerto Plata and you won't hear about those either for the most part.

These two parts of Sosua are separated by about 1.5 miles of beach at the closest point.

Escott
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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I am not surprised to see that not a single gringo knew about this incident that happened in their backyard. Like I always say, these foreigners live a sheltered life where ever they go. they live inside Gated communities and only socialize with each other. Not a single expat know a real dominican.
This funeral doesn't interest anyone there, nor they care to know about the incident. Now if a drunken expat had slipped on a dog's poo poo and broke his 80 yrs old hip, you would have had a huge "get well" thread on this person who does nothing but drink cuba libre all day at a sosua bar.
Now don't get me wrong, Lambada is not your average expat living in POP. She has lived in many african countries before she moved here. I have a feeling she has lived a greater part of her life, living away from england. she is an extremely accomplished lady. She takes interest in her surroundings and especially in her community. Sadly, there aren't too many expats like her in the north coast anymore.
 

Ken

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Jan 1, 2002
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DominicanScotty said:
It happened in Los Charimicos to be exact.

Both La Piedra and Charamicos are correct. La Piedra is the name of a barrio in Charamicos. It is a dangerous place. People are poor, houses are jammed together wall to wall, and fights with machetes are common. Problems in La Piedra are not the sort of thing most Dominicans bemoan, though they may know about it through the grape vine. I think a child being shot in La Union or some other Dominican area would be talked about more widely.

And AZB, despite all his bluster, I doubt if he hears about eveny incident in the worst barrio in Santiago. (Assuming, that is, his friends are really the high-class people he claims they are.)
 

Simon & Nicky

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Feb 3, 2004
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Think you're wrong AZB

My wife and I knew about it, so did most of our friends - bad news always travels fast. I didn't think it was the sort of thing that many readers wish to discuss on what is essentially an English speaking message board, the readers of which having very little to do with drug crime in Los Charamicos. The baby was caught in cross-fire, the perpetrators will be severly punished, it was very sad, what else is there to add?
 

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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Simon, I'm disappointed.......

'A baby was caught in cross fire'...........in the town where you & others live. If it had been a foreign baby............how much would we have heard? You yourself are going to be a Dad soon, aren't you?

The fact that DR1 posters have little 'to do' with drug crime does not mean it doesn't impact on all of us.

AZB & I disagree on a lot of things, but there is one thing we don't disagree on. This is now 'our' country.........what happens to everyone is important to all of us. I'm just surprised that no one has answered Trina's question about the name of the mother. OK DR1 posters don't live in Los Charamicos, well, certainly not in La Piedra, but their maids, gardeners etc do. Had this happened in Mercedes' barrio (my cleaning lady) it would have been the first thing we spoke about.

No of course all the foreigners in Sosua don't live in gated communities, of course they don't only socialise with each other.

Now could someone please prove it & answer Trina's question?
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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All of the expats that live in La Piedra and Charamicos who post on the DR1 board need to prove that you know something about your community. Answer Lambada's question dammit!. Should you have employees living in La Piedra and Charamicos and you post on the DR1 board you need to answer the questions. Expats need to know after all. How dare you not know the mother's name... OK, I'm pushing it to the limit here.

People, these things happen. It is unbearably sad. Just like the 12 year old boy who died in the waterfall recently. Just like all the people who simply disappeared in the recent Tsunami. Just like all the kids who died in the streets of Calcutta today.

I have never been to La Piedra and I would not go there. I just wonder why it is so necessary to prove anything?. What are you looking for Lambada? Live and let live already! Drug crime does *not* impact me, unless I happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that will also be sad and unfortunate.