DR and Drugs

cobraboy

cobraboy

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I remember Miami when it was taken over by druglords, thugs and corrupt cops. One of my ex-college teammates was gunned down in a bar by an off-duty cop in a typical-for the era-assasination. Back then bullets flew and bodies laid in the streets from competing drug gangs and bad cops.

The recent news about the fiscal in Sosua is disturbing to me. Not because of ther location or event, but what it may project about the future.

Do the locals see the DR becoming like Columbia or Miami with drugs and drug gangs pretty much controlling or directly affecting nearly every aspect of life? Is my apprehension exagerated?

Prosecutors gunned down by cops (or whomever). Really scary stuff, IMO.

What do y'all think?
 
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Lambada

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cobraboy said:
Prosecutors gunned down by cops (or whomever). Really scary stuff, IMO.
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There will probably be an 'explanation' offered for this killing. Whether any of us will believe it is another matter. I can't compare with Columbia (never been there) and have only visited Miami - never lived there. So I can't really comment on that part of your question. But I can offer my observations about what is going on here and what amazes me is the blatancy. Middle class Dominican business people having parties where the coke lines are already on the table for guests and it all being regarded as so normal. Members of the authorities not being prepared to enforce a Presidential decree until they received cash and coke. And broad daylight crack cooking on a street corner in a north coast town (not a barrio). If I hadn't worked with addicts in the past I would have thought it was Rice Krispies being heated up ;) People do not seem to be bothering to hide this stuff. Which I guess tells you something about acceptance levels, or resignation levels. And people who value their skin are being very careful if they decide to report any of this activity - you have to know who you're reporting to and who they pass it on to. In many cases it is safer 'not to have seen' or if you do see, not to let on that you know what it is you've seen. Unfortunately.
 
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zak023

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cobraboy said:
I remember Miami when it was taken over by druglords, thugs and corrupt cops. One of my ex-college teammates was gunned down in a bar by an off-duty cop in a typical-for the era-assasination. Back then bullets flew and bodies laid in the streets from competing drug gangs and bad cops.

The recent news about the fiscal in Sosua is disturbing to me. Not because of ther location or event, but what it may project about the future.

Do the locals see the DR becoming like Columbia or Miami with drugs and drug gangs pretty much controlling or directly affecting nearly every aspect of life? Is my apprehension exagerated?

Prosecutors gunned down by cops (or whomever). Really scary stuff, IMO.

What do y'all think?
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Sounds like an old Miami Vice episode..And BTW Colombia is not spelled that way..No Pun intended...It's just I have mant trips to Colombia under my belt and notice that alot of Americans always spell it the wrong way..There is no U .......
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

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zak023 said:
Sounds like an old Miami Vice episode...
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Except it wasn't a TV show for folks who lived there.

Sorry about no spelling ColOmbia incorrectly...I hear it's a beautiful place, especially if you don't get kidnapped, or somehow become persona non grata by the drug cartels...
 
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zak023

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cobraboy said:
Except it wasn't a TV show for folks who lived there.

Sorry about no spelling ColOmbia incorrectly...I hear it's a beautiful place, especially if you don't get kidnapped, or somehow become persona non grata by the drug cartels...
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Yes I realize this...As far as Colombia I'm married to a Colombiana for 4+ years now and go to Cali every year to visit with the family..Never had a Problem..Then again I was not alone...Having a car full of Colombians pick you up at the airport at night really helps....The Cali cartel has never targeted tourist..Only stupid Gringo buyers and buisnessmen...It is a very beautiful country indeed..Too bad there are groups like ELN and FARC that own half the country.....And ruin tourism completely...............
 
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canadian bob

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Good news, re drugs in the DR, today there was news of a massive police sweep of Mafia in eastern Canada, arresting 17, with 90 more being sought. It is claimed they are behind huge cocaine smuggling schemes and also behind an illegal sports betting operation which netted them $25million. The Caribbean & Dominican Republic were mentioned. Canadian Bob.
 
Squat

Squat

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cobraboy said:
Do the locals see the DR becoming like Columbia or Miami with drugs and drug gangs pretty much controlling or directly affecting nearly every aspect of life? Is my apprehension exagerated?
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I don't know Colombia. But I lived and worked in Venezuela & Miami in the 1990's...

As of the 2006 DR, my impression is that indeed, the drug-lords are "owning" the country. They have everybody on their pay-roll : politicians from all parties, judges, military, police, DNCD...

Drugs is where the money is, and human beings are eager to make more money, even if it means taking higher risks, or having dirty hands... It seems to be especially true down here...

I see crack-heads everyday on the street, you can spot them easily as their body experiment changes : they are really skinnier than before, with a skinnier face, and exorbitated eyes... they always wear trash-clothes, and never change them... Whenever they have some money, it goes all to buy "piedra", they are called "piperos" here... Those guys are the ones who will blindly rob, hurt or kill for almost nothing... just enough to buy some crack...

Crackheads are the easy victims of the very wealthy drug system... And those easy vicitms are transforming us (regular folks) into other vicitms of their robbery & assaults... All that while people in power are driving their expensive SUV's, and keep getting their pay-checks from drug-lords...

The drug economy is getting bigger than tourism & zona franca... Or at least, so it seems...
 
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Mirador

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Lambada said:
There will probably be an 'explanation' offered for this killing. Whether any of us will believe it is another matter. I can't compare with Columbia (never been there) and have only visited Miami - never lived there. So I can't really comment on that part of your question. But I can offer my observations about what is going on here and what amazes me is the blatancy. Middle class Dominican business people having parties where the coke lines are already on the table for guests and it all being regarded as so normal. Members of the authorities not being prepared to enforce a Presidential decree until they received cash and coke. And broad daylight crack cooking on a street corner in a north coast town (not a barrio). If I hadn't worked with addicts in the past I would have thought it was Rice Krispies being heated up ;) People do not seem to be bothering to hide this stuff. Which I guess tells you something about acceptance levels, or resignation levels. And people who value their skin are being very careful if they decide to report any of this activity - you have to know who you're reporting to and who they pass it on to. In many cases it is safer 'not to have seen' or if you do see, not to let on that you know what it is you've seen. Unfortunately.
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Blatancy

Had to look that one up.

blatan?cy n.
blatant?ly adv.
"Usage Note: It is not surprising that blatant and flagrant are often confused, since the words have overlapping meanings. Both attribute conspicuousness and offensiveness to certain acts. Blatant emphasizes the failure to conceal the act. Flagrant, on the other hand, emphasizes the serious wrongdoing inherent in the offense. Certain contexts may admit either word depending on what is meant: a violation of human rights might be either blatant or flagrant. If it was committed with contempt for public scrutiny, it is blatant. If its barbarity was monstrous, it is flagrant.?Blatant is sometimes used to mean simply "obvious," as in the blatant danger of such an approach, but this use has not been established and is widely considered an error."

blatancy - definition of blatancy by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.
 
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Mirador

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Squat said:
I don't know Colombia. But I lived and worked in Venezuela & Miami in the 1990's...

As of the 2006 DR, my impression is that indeed, the drug-lords are "owning" the country. They have everybody on their pay-roll : politicians from all parties, judges, military, police, DNCD...

Drugs is where the money is, and human beings are eager to make more money, even if it means taking higher risks, or having dirty hands... It seems to be especially true down here...

I see crack-heads everyday on the street, you can spot them easily as their body experiment changes : they are really skinnier than before, with a skinnier face, and exorbitated eyes... they always wear trash-clothes, and never change them... Whenever they have some money, it goes all to buy "piedra", they are called "piperos" here... Those guys are the ones who will blindly rob, hurt or kill for almost nothing... just enough to buy some crack...

Crackheads are the easy victims of the very wealthy drug system... And those easy vicitms are transforming us (regular folks) into other vicitms of their robbery & assaults... All that while people in power are driving their expensive SUV's, and keep getting their pay-checks from drug-lords...

The drug economy is getting bigger than tourism & zona franca... Or at least, so it seems...
Click to expand...

"exorbitated..."

Now that's a fancy word.

Ex`or´bi`tate
v. i. 1. To go out of the track; to deviate.

Exorbitate - definition of Exorbitate by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

The use of language, like life in general, sometimes is like walking through a minefield, ready to go out from one single misstep. Other times it's like mining a stream, for that chance gold nugget or gem...
 
Squat

Squat

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Mirador said:
The use of language, like life in general, sometimes is like walking through a minefield, ready to go out from one single misstep. Other times it's like mining a stream, for that chance gold nugget or gem...
Click to expand...

Writing in english is indeed a minefield for me as it is not my native language... I ask the readers to forgive my errors.

By exorbitate, I wanted to express this idea : on a very skinny face, the eyes seem bigger, the eyes seem ready to pop out.
 
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Mirador

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Squat said:
Writing in english is indeed a minefield for me as it is not my native language... I ask the readers to forgive my errors.

By exorbitate, I wanted to express this idea : on a very skinny face, the eyes seem bigger, the eyes seem ready to pop out.
Click to expand...

Mine isn't either. However, we both have the advantage of mining for words in other languages. So when I read "exorbitated" I knew exactly what you were talking about, since in Spanish there's a similar sounding term, desorbitar. So the image is excellent, "his eyes look like they're coming out of their orbits (sockets)"

desorbitar vtr (sacar o salir algo de su esfera habitual) to send out of orbit:

desorbitar - Diccionario Ingles-Espa?ol WordReference.com
 
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Lambada

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Yes, Mirador, I meant blatancy. As in 'no attempt to cover up'. English is my first language but of course that doesn't mean I always get it right. :classic: But the no attempt to cover up is really worrying (see the examples I gave earlier). The crack cooking was in broad daylight on a street corner not in a barrio. Because it was a corner I had to slow down. The 'lookout' mistook that for me being a customer so he came over to my vehicle. You would have been proud of the totally vacant stare I assumed (as in 'me see nada'), nodded a greeting and drove on, making a mental note to find a different route next time (it's near a place I regularly shop at). Interestingly the lookout was very tall, well built and with a military haircut.

My experience of working with addicts was in the '60's in UK when I was for 3 years a probation officer. Then if you caught the kids when they weren't expecting to see you, they attempted to hide stuff and certainly looked guilty. Here, now, I don't see that. It is all so open. These guys looked no more furtive than if they were cooking platanos. Only they weren't.

And I think Squat's word was really expressive, it got over well that gaunt, haunted look.
 
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Mirador

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monster said:
How did we get from crime to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary.:surprised
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...because anywhere in the world you can get killed by a wrong choice of words, even a mispronounciation, or the wrong accent, even "blatantly". Now, do you want me to read you your rights? ;-)
 
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MrMike

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monster said:
How did we get from crime to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary.:surprised
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Anything would be more pleasant to discuss than the current situation.

I have been living here for nearly 8 years and this even has really got me thinking, I mean I am in a deep depression right now and have been looking at rental properties in Texas all morning online.

It just seems to be the straw that broke the camel's @ss for me.

Not so much the crime itself but the way the press is responding (and not responding) to this and other events has me pretty freaked out.

I have a friend coming over later today to discuss the possibility of partnering so he can keep tabs on my business while I am gone.
 
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AZB

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cobraboy said:
Except it wasn't a TV show for folks who lived there.

Sorry about no spelling ColOmbia incorrectly...I hear it's a beautiful place, especially if you don't get kidnapped, or somehow become persona non grata by the drug cartels...
Click to expand...

What the hell are you talking about? I have been to colombia and i can tell you if you mind your own business, no one gets kidnapped or killed. Maybe you should lock yourself in your apartment in the good ol USA and leave the DR to us.
AZB
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

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AZB said:
What the hell are you talking about? I have been to colombia and i can tell you if you mind your own business, no one gets kidnapped or killed. Maybe you should lock yourself in your apartment in the good ol USA and leave the DR to us.
AZB
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Won't be happening. Been coming to the DR since the mid-80's. Pondering The Big Move there now.

Perhaps Colombia should invest in a PR firm to counter hundreds of articles like this: Kidnapping in Colombia, Big Business. They're getting some bad press.
 
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