The mid-week meeting of the Economic and Social Council (CES) saw President Luis Abinader and the three living former Presidents, Leonel Fernandez (1996-2000, 2004-2008, 2008-2012), Hipolito Mejia (2000-2004) and Danilo Medina (2012-2016 and 2016-2020), reach agreements on actions to be taken with regards to Haiti.
According to the spokesperson at the Presidential Palace, the President and his predecessors agreed to send a formal request to the United Nations Security Council requesting their support to reshape the UN Multi-national Mission to Support Security in Haiti and move it towards a hybrid mission with UN leadership regarding logistics and operations. The letter emphasized the growing power of the organized gangs such as Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif and the potential for transnational criminal activities, drug trafficking, and terrorism.
The letter was sent to the chiefs of state of the 15 nations currently seated in the Security Council, especially the five permanent members: Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Former INTEC rector Rafael Toribio, who is the chairman of CES council, reported that the presence of the four political leaders that have guided the Dominican Republic for the past 30 years was a vital step in reaching a nationwide consensus on Haiti. He noted that the working groups would center on six issues: Immigration, bilateral commerce, development of the border communities, national security, international relations, and labor issues. The labor group is expected to be the most intense, given pressures on behalf of employers to regularize the status of their Haitian workers who have not met with legal requirements, mostly because the governments in Haiti have been negligent in documenting the people.
The CES itself is composed of a broad spectrum of Dominican society, including labor unions, management, professional groups, major business entities, as well as churches, universities, and NGOs. The findings and conclusions of the working groups will be presented in a final report to the President to serve as recommendations for actions to be taken.
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9 June 2025