Antonio Marte of Conatra is well known for acting beyond the law at his helm of the powerful transport company. Now he has made known that he has prohibited his affiliated units to transport Haitian nationals, regardless of whether they are legal or illegally in the country.
Marte announced in his Twitter account that the measure is to “avoid inconveniences with Migraiton, the Armed Forces and the Attorney General Office. He said that over the past months, 10 of his buses have been seized by the authorities. He pointed out that his company’s bus drivers are not migration inspectors and should not be responsible to check the validity of the documents of passengers.
He wrote: “To avoid inconveniences with the soldiers, Migration and the whole world, it is forbidden to board Haitian foreigners. Excuse me, our Haitian foreigners. But we cannot continue paying the consequences. We have 10 busses held up. The buses have been kept for eight months. It would seems that the Attorney General is going to eat them up.”
Conatra is the largest beneficiary of transport routes in the country and has imposed their market share with vandalism and violations of the Constitution and Dominican laws throughout the years, with the lenience of Dominican governments.
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El Caribe
13 December 2018
