According to an official investigation, six Dominican soldiers and one sergeant received gifts for allowing the truck carrying the illegal Haitian migrants who died of asphyxia to pass through the border. A report by El Caribe indicates that the investigating commission recommended that they should be fired. Also recommended is the creation of a specialized frontier security force. The report, which was presented to President Leonel Fernandez yesterday, states that 10 people have been detained, three are in preventive custody, and the seven army personnel were indicted in connection to the case. The truck’s driver, Elvis Rafael Rosario, and his assistant Esteban Rosario, as well as German Antonio Tatis, the owner of a house where the illegal migrants were hidden, are in prison in Dajabon. The Justice Department has filed charges against sergeant Santos Pena and soldiers Octavio Amador, Luis Manuel Abreu, Keilin Minier Santos, Victor Jimenez Nunez, Jose David Reyes Ozuna, and Wilkins Bergavide Lopez Reynoso. Seven suspects are at large. Pipe Jimenez, John Jaquez Moncion, Jose Ramon Blanco Tejada, Jose Pena and Lucio Fernandez, as well as two Haitians know as Yiu and Elioner, are wanted in connection with this case. The investigating commission was composed of AG Francisco Dominguez Brito, Armed Forces Minister Sigfrido Pared Perez, Police Chief Bernardo Santana Paez, and Migration Director Carlos Amarante Baret.
El Caribe newspaper in an editorial questions the inquiry’s results. “Nobody can doubt the seriousness with which this initial investigation was carried out. But it is hard to believe that the responsibility of this negligence resides solely with the soldiers,” writes the editorialist. “The investigations need to be more in depth and they need to reach the organizers that earn good money with their connections here to those who benefit from low cost Haitian labor,” recommends the newspaper.