Nicolas de Jesus Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez had harsh words for the National Police yesterday during the services to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Sacred Heart Missionaries in the Dominican Republic. Speaking at La Altagracia Church in Santiago de los Caballeros, the cardinal said that, regarding the current spate of violent crimes, some members of the police force might well be tied to criminal elements and that the rank and file in the organization should be “cleansed.” The cardinal said that he did not feel it correct to say the police were not doing their jobs, but did comment that “within the police force there are people who should be investigated…” The prelate insisted that a depuration of the National Police would be most appropriate, since he felt that the institution had employed many people who “do not merit being there.” The archbishop of Santo Domingo said that it was reasonable “to suspect that many of them (the police) are involved with what we are experiencing today.” Lopez Rodriguez then called upon the government to assume the responsibility of guaranteeing the security of its citizens. Archbishop Ramon Benito de la Rosa y Carpio of the Archdiocese of Santiago joined Lopez Rodriguez, and added: “We cannot bow in the face of this violence.”
In an interview with Hoy newspaper on the same subject, Armed Forces Minister Admiral Sigfrido Pared Perez said that the incidence of drug trafficking and the recent outbreak of violence in Santiago “must include military, police and politicians.” Speaking on the state-owned Channel 4, Pared Perez told interviewer Julio Martinez Pozo that any military personnel found to have ties to known drug traffickers would be charged. Pared Perez said that during the Christmas season, he would be reinforcing the various police stations with more men in “order to be able to do a better job.”