The new police authorities’ initiative to confront crime has added a new tragedy to the list of recent violent deaths in the DR. Yesterday police killed four members of the Blas and El Gringo gangs in Azua, 120kms west of Santo Domingo, and Listin Diario journalist Juan Andujar was murdered. In a rampage of surprising violence, the criminals also injured Radio Enriquillo reporter Luis Sencion of Barahona, a nurse named Fatima Mendez, and two unidentified police officers.
The bloodshed shocked the city of Azua, to the point that stores and schools were closed and traffic came to a stop. Police officers are patrolling the city in search of the remaining gang members, with the help of the Rapid Action Group (GAR) of the Special Operations department. The men being sought are reportedly Eddy Vladimir Pujols Pujos, Franklin (Frank) Lopez Gonzalez, Ismael (Quico) Berroa, Rafael Marcial (Mussa) Mendez Guerrero, all members of the Blas gang, and two other men known only as Gringo Tejada Filpo and El Cojo.
Police agents have been dispatched to radio and television stations to protect journalists in their work. Other members of Azua’s press have also sought protection at police headquarters, fearing they may be the targets of the gang members still at large.
Hoy newspaper says the delinquents attempted to kill Sencion for his denouncement of a wave of recent robberies in Azua, in which a first lieutenant of the National Police, last name Holguin, was supposedly involved. The police officer allegedly provided backup to a gang that assaulted a business in the area. Sencion said that after he reported the situation to El Nacional newspaper, the thugs kidnapped his two daughters and threatened to kill them if he did not retract his statements within 48 hours. Sencion was able to recover his daughters and has since sent them to live in another city.
The clash with the gang members occurred at 6:30am yesterday, when police unexpectedly appeared to make arrests in the La Cuchilla barrio of Azua. Although this community is a mere two blocks from Army headquarters, Hoy newspaper reports that, ironically, this area of the city is considered one of the places where drugs are most readily sold.
Police say that a shootout erupted during which six gang members escaped and set off to hunt down the journalists in order to avenge the action taken against them. The exchange of gunfire that broke out near the market took the life of Francisco Antonio (Jim) Mendez, according to the Listin Diario, who has been identified as a rival gang member, and injured the nurse, who was presumably an innocent bystander. Also wounded were Jose de los Santos, Miguel Jimenez and Luis Gilberto Silverio, of whom the two latter are being held in official custody.
Later, the gang murdered Andujar, who was a journalist and environmental activist, with a bullet to the head as he drove his motorcycle.
El Caribe reports that Eddy Vladimir Pujols Pujols, one of the Blas gang members, tracked Sencion down at his home, where he shot and injured him in the elbow. The injury was so severe that doctors have had to amputate his arm.
Police revealed that one of the gang members killed, Jairo Melquisedec Pujols Pujols, was one of those prison inmates pardoned and released by President Hipolito Mejia on 24 December, while Eddy Vladimir Pujols Pujols had served jail time for attempted homicide and illegal possession of a weapon. Police identified Eddy Vladimir as the man responsible for Andujar’s assasination.
Police Chief Major General Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez said that he himself had traveled to Azua to direct the operations and investigation. The helicopter in which he traveled to Azua was used to pursue the delinquents.
As reported in Diario Libre, witnesses say the thugs carried out their activities with the complicity or complacence of the local police authorities. Jocelyn Melo, the vice-president of the Human Rights Commission in Azua, directly accused the former commander of the Azua police force, Colonel Ignacio Espinal. Others mentioned were Lieutenant Holguin and a policeman known as “Chocolate.” Others told Diario Libre that the police had no choice but to reach an agreement with the gangs or look the other way, and that they acted out of fear.
Manuel Maria Mercedes, the president of the Human Rights Commission, told the Listin Diario that they felt that Andujar was murdered because of a mishandling of the situation by the authorities. He explained that the journalist was acting as a middleman and had established contacts with the criminals who were being asked to turn themselves in. The theory is that when the police arrived to round up the delinquents and take them in, Jairo and his gang felt they had been betrayed by Andujar and sought to take their revenge.
El Caribe’s editorial speculates that behind the deteriorating public security is the increase in drug trafficking, the inefficiency (and in some cases there has been talk of complicity) of the police officers, the proliferation of guns in the hands of the people, the shortcomings of the justice system in applying penalties, and the mounting social inequities. The editorialist urges the new government to act immediately and “cut the head from the serpent”.