El Caribe’s main editorial speaks about the despair of thousands of Dominicans who put their lives at risk to make illegal crossings to Puerto Rico. US Coast Guard statistics report that over 6,000 Dominicans attempted to traverse the hazardous Mona Passage between September 2002 and 2003. Just over one-third were successful and the rest were captured and repatriated by the US Coast Guard. The numbers of illegal would-be immigrants who choose this course of action have more than doubled since 1999, when fewer than 3,000 made the journey. “When the country is suffering an economic crisis and the authorities are incapable of explaining how to confront it, business is affected and investors speak of a lack of confidence. For the ordinary citizen what is lost is hope. The country is suffering from a crisis of hope. People have lost faith in that national problems will be solved and that’s why they want to emigrate – desperately – no matter how.” The writer concludes: “It is up to all leaders, within government and outside it, to work to restore hope. If people believe the economy will improve, there will be more opportunities and fewer will make the dangerous and uncertain maritime voyage.”
The Diario Libre reports on a case of Dominican stowaways discovered in the cargo hold of a Miami-bound airplane at Santo Domingo’s Las Americas International Airport. They claimed to have paid RD$50,000 to someone, most likely an airport employee, to be allowed access to the aircraft.