Thousands of religious fanatics joined Mildomio Adames, a self-named preacher who walked from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata carrying a 15 foot long cross. He arrived to Puerto Plata on Sunday, 26 April and was received by thousands in these times of coronavirus. At no point was the self-named “coronavirus pilgrim” stopped by the authorities, despite the activity being flagrantly in violation with social distancing rules that the government enforced otherwise.
On the contrary, Adames was escorted into the towns by a large vehicle of the 911 Emergency Service, motorized policemen and a vehicle of the National Police, as evidenced by a video on social media.
Adames entered the province of Puerto Plata on Friday, preceded by ample coverage in social media. He spent the night in Imbert in the province of Puerto Plata, hosted by the town’s municipal fire department.
On Saturday, the pilgrim resumed his trip to Maimón, to arrive on Sunday to the city of Puerto Plata. He had announced the stopover in Puerto Plata was part of his crusade to reach San Francisco de Macoris on foot. San Francisco de Macoris is the city with the most deaths (76) attributed to the Covid-19 epidemic.
The pilgrimage attracted thousands of religious fanatics on the way. Adames concluded his visit in Puerto Plata, with the stamping of the cross in a city beach off from the Malecon. Thousands of religious fanatics gathered at the beach.
At no time, did the Police, military or other authorities impede the pilgrimage from reaching Puerto Plata, nor stopped the religious fanatics on their way. The Medina administration recently inaugurated the Ministry of Defense’s Command, Control, Communications and Computers, Cybersecurity and Intelligene Center (C5i), an intelligence center, to monitor the spreading of the coronavirus disease in the Dominican Republic.
When Adames arrived to Puerto Plata on Sunday morning, he was greeted by a crowd of fanatics that welcomed his message that the population must repent and turn to God.
As reported in El Caribe, Adames forecast that after his arrival to Puerto Plata that city would be free of the Covid-19. The province of Puerto Plata has registered 13 deaths from the coronavirus.
Puerto Plata is already maxed in its medical center capacity to attend to coronavirus infected patients.
Morning talk show host Altagracia Salazar called the event “a concert for disaster”. She spoke of the backing the pilgrimage had received from the Roman Catholic Church priests, 911, transit agency (Digesett), National Police and the city government of Puerto Plata. She showed a video where the pilgrim arrives to Villa Altagracia and is welcomed and blessed by Padre Chelo, the local priest. She also shared a video of the support he received at the church in Imbert. She said there are videos of two priests blessing the pilgrim in the Puerto Plata Cathedral. Afterward, the Bishop of Puerto Plata Julio César Corniel Amaro would say that the crowds had forced the entrance to the cathedral.
In giving background on who this pilgrim is, Salazar said that this is the same person who in 2014 had carried out a 250 km walk from his hometown in Banica, Elías Piña to Santo Domingo to raise a national awareness of the importance of reelecting President Danilo Medina. At the time, the Constitution impeded his reelection.
Salazar says that the Adames pilgrimage also received the backing of the new mayor of Puerto Plata, Roquelito García. She showed on her YouTube channel a snapshot of the invitation she had received from the city government of Puerto Plata where the mayor invited people to participate in the welcoming of the “coronavirus pilgrim” as part of his swearing in ceremonies. García was sworn in on Friday, 24 April. The activity was set for 2pm on 26 April. García himself had tested positive for the disease and subsequently recovered. The mayor subsequently denied his support to the activity, outside of authorizing the use of one of his campaign vehicles.
On Sunday, after the widespread agglomerations of people, Presidency Minister Gustavo Montalvo blamed the local city authorities for encouraging the participation in the event that violated present social distancing rules. Montalvo said this had been a “very serious irresponsibility.” Montalvo is the top officer in the Medina government in charge of the 911 Emergency System that escorted the pilgrim as he toured the province of Puerto Plata. He is also the national coordinator for the High Commission for the Prevention of the Coronavirus.
The director-general of the Police ordered the suspension of the commander of the Police in Puerto Plata, Colonel Bell Fernández and ordered an investigation. Motorized police and vehicles escorted the pilgrim into Puerto Plata.
Interior and Police Minister Monchy Fadul denied that Ministry had issued a permit for the pilgrimage.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
El Caribe
Noticias SIN
Noticias SIN
N Digital
N Digital
N Digital
Hoy
27 April 2020