Luis Abinader was firm during his weekly press conference on Monday, 1 April 2025, when he stated that while the government allows peaceful protest marches, it will not allow chaos or violence. The government recently had cleared a peaceful march for the Hoyo de Friusa area in Punta Cana, but towards the end, persons described as march infiltrators sought to take the protestors off the agreed-upon route. This led to confrontations with the Police that urged water trucks and tear gas to disperse the masked participants. The Police subsequently arrested 32 persons as reported.
Speaking during the weekly Monday press conference, President Abinader was emphatic: “Peaceful protests yes, but the government will not allow disorder.”
President Abinader said that his government has funded the construction of a border fence, has increased deportations, is constantly detaining people smugglers and is training migration agents, among other investments in local security.
Senator for La Altagracia province, Rafael (Cholitin) Baron Duluc (PRM-La Altagracia) said that those who protest Haitian migration should march on the Av. 27 de Febrero in Santo Domingo, or in Higuey, the capital of the province, where he said the Haiti Chiquito is a larger Haitian slum than those in Punta Cana. Punta Cana has a large population as thousands of Haitians have migrated there to work in the hotel construction projects and in the hotels themselves.
The La Altagracia senator says that the groups seek to provoke incidents and reminded these that Punta Cana is the most important tourist enclave and the confrontations with Haitian residents could result in violence and international headlines impacting the livelihoods of the more than 70,000 Dominicans who make a living in Punta Cana hotel industry. He recalled the impact of when the Covid-19 pandemic sent 45,000 Dominicans home without jobs.
During the press conference, Baron Duluc explained that the slum area of MataMosquito in central Punta Cana, to where the infiltrators attempted to lead the marchers, was created when persons invaded private property, with complicity of the military officials, during the past PLD administrations. He said the Abinader administration has been the one to take on the most measures to deal with sustained Haitian migration, with the deporting of an unprecedented number of undocumented Haitians. He spoke of how he feels the difference in the deporting because he is constantly being called to help the situation of one or another affected employee, a situation that didn’t happen in the previous administrations. Baron Duluc is a former mayor in the area.
Baron Duluc said: “To protest is legal and constitutional, but imprudent when this takes place in tourism zones that are vulnerable. Let them protest on the Av. 27 de Febrero,” he said, referring to the capital city avenue.
The senator also spoke against bringing to the Dominican Republic the hate discourse. For years efforts have been underway to dispute campaigns that seek to brand the DR as a xenophobic nation and tell the truth on how the Dominican Republic has been known as a nation of high tolerance to migration. Baron Duluc was frank in saying that the worsening of the government crisis in Haiti has resulted in a tripling of the Haitian pressures to migrate. The Dominican Republic is the first choice for Haitian migration. The Dominican Republic has closed the issuing of legal migration or visas to Haitians, with the exceptions being for several humanitarian or state issues. The intense migration pressure comes at a high social and security cost for the Dominican Republic.
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El Nacional
CDN
N Digital
Noticias SIN
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
La Semanal 31 March 2025
DR1 News
1 April 2025