The Ministry of Defense has opened the Estero Hondo border post near the border with Haiti. Estero Hondo is defined as sensitive to the security of the northern coast. The Ministry of Defense has been expanding checkpoints and surveillance of the border with Haiti as economic, political and social chaos has escalated in the western country.
The Ministry of Defense says the new base inaugurated by the Dominican government is part of the strategy outlined by the Armed Forces to fulfill their mission of preserving the integrity of the land border. “The objective of this and the other security posts is to implement a continuous program of joint inter-agency operations of security, intelligence, surveillance and border control,” said the Dominican Ministry of Defense in a statement issued on 15 December 2019.
The Ministry assures that the interagency posts have achieved institutional integration and have become model units aimed at preventing, combating and prosecuting illegal actions that occur in their areas of responsibility. The Ministry says the posts have contributed to a significant reduction in smuggling of goods, greater control of migration and trafficking in controlled substances, trafficking in weapons and vehicles and effective prevention measures against transnational crime, in addition to the possibility of prosecuting border crimes.
This is the sixth base that the Ministry has put into operation, joining those operating in Jicomé, Los Pilones, Copey, Enriquillo and the integrated border management base in El Carrizal de Elías Piña. The seventh such structure is under construction in Malpasse, near Jimaní. This would be the largest as it is the border post that is closest to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
The Ministry of Defense reports that these bases have high-end technologies installed (X-rays, optical readers, hand detectors, scanners, canine unit for drug detection, video surveillance system, use of drones and off-road vehicles (buggies, vans and motorcycles).
The border control strategy includes 32 state-of-the-art drones with vertical elevation, high resolution, night vision and geographic information system mobile surveillance stations.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Ministry of Defense
17 December 2019