Is Bonao really that dangerous?

Berzin

Banned
Nov 17, 2004
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I read recently that Bonao was taken over by some police captain and that all of the existing officers in the precinct were removed. They were even looking for 2 officers who recently killed a man who was on his way to the precinct to report that he had been robbed(by the same officers that killed him).

Is this place really that out of control? I read in my Lonely Planet guide that this was a scruffy, poor and crime-ridden town that you did not need to stop over to visit. Yet on my way to Santiago my friends and I stopped there along the highway and the little shops there seemed very nice.

I guess if you actually go inside from the highway it changes that dramatically?
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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Apparently. I used to visit the town regularly, but it seems that it is undergoing a crime wave. One paper talked about the crooks doing ten robberies in just one day.
the story about killing the wittness is quite true..

HB :(:(:(
 

bonao99

Member
Jun 11, 2005
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I do not feel safe in Bonao anymore

In last 4 visits to DR I have not stop in Bonao for more than 2 hours. I felt safer in Santiago or la Capital. There have been a lot of hijackings, Murder, drugs, robberies etc. A lot of these are done by police men or ex-policemen

Bonao99
?Common sense is not so common.? Voltaire
 

Chris_NJ

Bronze
Dec 17, 2003
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My 2 hour impression of Bonao...

In January I stopped for lunch with a few friends in Bonao at a nice roadside restaurant(in fact there were two almost identical places with the same name a few minutes from each other). I am not sure if the clientele eating there were just passing thru from other cities but based on quality of the restaurant, the class of the patrons, and the beauty of the surrounding hills I thought Bonao might be a nice place to live. Maybe I got a skewed representation of what Bonao was like.
 

suarezn

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Feb 3, 2002
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Chris_NJ said:
In January I stopped for lunch with a few friends in Bonao at a nice roadside restaurant(in fact there were two almost identical places with the same name a few minutes from each other). I am not sure if the clientele eating there were just passing thru from other cities but based on quality of the restaurant, the class of the patrons, and the beauty of the surrounding hills I thought Bonao might be a nice place to live. Maybe I got a skewed representation of what Bonao was like.

That wasn't really Bonao. You probably stopped at one of the plazas by the side of the higway (i.e. Jacaranda). The actual town of Bonao is not right on the highway...

I would sucpect that crime in Bonao may be higher because of the transient population (a lot of people who stop by for just a little while as it is in between Santo Domingo and Santiago and right off the highway). In addition my understanding was that the biggest problem was a police force which was corrupt to the core (more so than other towns). This police force has now been transferred to another town, which is the usual "punishment" for bad cops in The DR.

Bonao could be a very nice place to live as it is centrally located, has nice beautiful mountains and rivers nearby, etc...
 
Jan 5, 2006
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On my last couple of trips I've spent some time in Bonao (in town) and never really felt unsafe, even at night. However, my cousin, who does most of the driving and guiding when I'm in DR, kept mentioning how unsafe it was as you head out ot town and approach the Duarte highway. He told me that since it gets really dark and you have to stop to look out for traffic, there are a lot of robberies committed in that particular area.
 

Dolores1

DR1
May 3, 2000
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You have to take note that the DR was a crime-free society until recently. The best explanation is that in the past government there was much complacency to drug trafficking and now there is a lot of catch up to be carried out to break the stronghold these people have on the police forces. Ditto, robberies have escalated as the system hasn't kept up with the too modern civil rights emphasizing penal code that is in effect. All adding up, many bandits are caught and then the judges or prosecutors let them out and they are back on the streets.

The tendency here has been to work parallel to government and private security has grown, but now it is clear that private security is not enough. Also, with the government abandoning the police, corruption has set in the force and that is another battle the authorities have to fight -- crime within the force and crime outside.

In the meanwhile, Dominicans are scandalized by the feeling of escalating crime after so many years of no-crime. The scandalizing is good because it puts the pressure on the authorities to move against crime and correct the major deficiencies in the system.

We are at a turning point -- such as NY was in the early 80s. The fact that you are hearing of corrupt police in the press is good because something is being done about this that was covered up in the past.

I do not think Bonao has any more problems than other urban areas of the country. It is just so different because it was previously crime free.

Now everyone must take precautions as if living in any big city.

The person must have been referring to Tipico Bonao.

Actually, I have a friend who has a lovely vacation home in Bonao and I have always thought it was a lovely place to live.

With the actions being taken recently, let us hope that in a year or two the authorities get a grip on crime.
 

Mirador

On Permanent Vacation!
Apr 15, 2004
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Bonao has been under a dragnet for the last 36 hours. The National Chief of Police, General Bernard Santana Paez, has personally taken over the operations, and has publicly called for the surrender of the escaped officers. The entire Bonao police detachment has been suspended, and a popular news program reported that drug tests on suspended officers had resulted positive with very few exceptions. There has been a popular outcry from the scores of arrests, searches and raids, carried out mostly in the impoverished barrios....
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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Mirador said:
Bonao has been under a dragnet for the last 36 hours. The National Chief of Police, General Bernard Santana Paez, has personally taken over the operations, and has publicly called for the surrender of the escaped officers. The entire Bonao police detachment has been suspended, and a popular news program reported that drug tests on suspended officers had resulted positive with very few exceptions. There has been a popular outcry from the scores of arrests, searches and raids, carried out mostly in the impoverished barrios....
Maybe this is a sign of things to come.

Everywhere.

The only way to ea an elephant is one bite at a time.
 

rellosk

Silver
Mar 18, 2002
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suarezn said:
Bonao could be a very nice place to live as it is centrally located, has nice beautiful mountains and rivers nearby, etc...
I haven't been there in a quite a few years, but that matches my recollections.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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cobraboy said:
Maybe this is a sign of things to come.

Everywhere.

The only way to ea an elephant is one bite at a time.
On a lighter note,

Has anyone asked the Chinese in Bonao of any development on this?

Remember the old saying "Eso lo saben hasta los chinos de Bonao!"

:cheeky: :cheeky: :cheeky:

Well, for the uninformed, that comment says " Even the Chinese from Bonao knows that!" and its a popular saying among Dominicans (the older they are, the more popular it is) whenever they want to refer to something that is widely known.

The Chinese community in Bonao was always in the "know" of what was going on in the country politically, before anyone else! Much of the reason had to do with the rest areas along the Autopista Duarte which were owned by Chinese-Dominicans, politicians transitting between the Cibao and SDQ and making a stop in those rest areas. Add to that the scores of confidential information that was exchanged among the visitors and the Chinese-Dominicans overhearing the conversations and voila, the Chinese from Bonao knew everything before anyone else! :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This news story is actually a good news!

It shows that at least the top levels of the police force is determined to combat crime and corrupt police officers.

I wish them luck and progress in their determination to bring normalcy back into the Dominican reality!

-NALs
 

M.A.R.

Silver
Feb 18, 2006
3,210
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NALs said:
On a lighter note,

Remember the old saying "Eso lo saben hasta los chinos de Bonao!"

:cheeky: :cheeky: :cheeky:

Well, for the uninformed, that comment says " Even the Chinese from Bonao knows that!" and its a popular saying among Dominicans (the older they are, the more popular it is) whenever they want to refer to something that is widely known.

The Chinese community in Bonao was always in the "know" of what was going on in the country politically, before anyone else! Much of the reason had to do with the rest areas along the Autopista Duarte which were owned by Chinese-Dominicans, politicians transitting between the Cibao and SDQ and making a stop in those rest areas. Add to that the scores of confidential information that was exchanged among the visitors and the Chinese-Dominicans overhearing the conversations and voila, the Chinese from Bonao knew everything before anyone else! :)


-NALs


thank you Nals, so that's why they say that. I always heard that saying and didn't know or even stopped to think how it came about. :)