The 164-kilometer fence the Ministry of Defense reports it is building along the Dominican-Haitian border is destined to change the situation of border security according to Dominican military. Border physical barriers are being built in sections of the five border provinces – Pedernales, Independencia, Elías Piña, Dajabón and Montecristi.
The military authorities say that 883 military, 28 pick-ups, 20 buggies and 48 motorcycles are allocated for the patrol of the fence. These will be reinforced in August by 500 additional military, and another contingent of 1,300 in November, announced Dominican Army deputy commander, General Angel Camacho Ubiera, deputy commander of the Dominican Army, in a report in Diario Libre.
Camacho Ubiera spoke during the wrap-up of a recent symposium on “Security and frontier defense.” The authorities analyzed the major challenges to national security in the current geo-political scenario. Issues such as drug and human trafficking, illegal arms trafficking were among those discussed.
The fence stretches in sections from the Atlantic coast of the island to the Caribbean coast. Camacho Ubiera called the construction historic. Previously, there was no physical borders, except on the main road checkpoints.
General Camacho Ubiera says with the fence in place, criminal groups will have a more difficult time carrying out their operations.
He said the Army is remodeling all of its installations along the border with Haiti and the government is making available funds for equipping the troops.
The announcements come at a time with muckraking online news portal Somos Pueblo has alerted of irregularities in the contracting of border technology for the fence with Canadian-Haitians.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Somos Pueblo
31 July 2023