“We have no control at the border, the border is still no man’s land,” senator Dionis Sanchez, tells Noticias SIN. Sánchez represents the province of Pedernales, on the border with Haiti. The Abinader administration has contemplated building the country’s next beach destination in Pedernales.
Senator Sánchez says he perceives the lack of control and insecurity at the border from his own travels there. He said this is the reality despite the announcements made by the government that it is safeguarding national security, in the face of the social, political and economic crisis that the neighboring nation is going through.
Sanchez says that the government should be sending more than 70% of the Dominican Army soldiers to the border.
“I believe that it is time for us to define our policy in relation to this brother country, because it is evident that the international community is not interested in resolving this situation,” said Sanchez.
The United States warned on Tuesday, 9 November 2021 that that country will not go to the rescue of Haiti to solve the serious security crisis in the Caribbean country, caused by the rise of armed gangs.
In a separate statement, international news analyst Ivan Gatón says that the international community’s refusal to help Haiti with its insecurity problem is despite that nation’s present predicament that directly impacts its neighbor, the Dominican Republic.
“It is evident that Haiti alone does not have the resources that, so urgently, it needs to get out of the state of anomalies in which it finds itself. This statement [that of Todd Robinson] calls for reflection if the Haitian Police is to be the one to solve the security problem in Haiti by itself,” he stated. Gatón questions whether the Haitian security issue is the only one. “Does Haiti have governance; does Haiti have right now all the resources to call for elections; does Haiti have the necessary infrastructure so that its population can have a decent life?,” he asks pondering the investments needed in education and in health. “Where are the resources; can Haitians produce them?,” he remarks.
Gaton stresses that the Haitian issue is not only about security, but that the situation is composed of a series of much more complex things. “We are talking about a country where less than 2% of its surface is farmable, where is the food that Haiti needs going to be produced?”, he points out. “Will they (Haitians) be condemned to continue receiving international aid? An even more serious problem: iI there an articulated state that can distribute international aid,” he argues.
Gatón made the remarks as a follow up to statements by US Assistant Secretary of State Todd D. Robinson who visited Haiti and said that the US would back the Haitian police as it addresses the security issues in Haiti.
Gatón says the Dominican Republic should continue the agenda of raising awareness of the seriousness of the Haitian issue and its implications.
Read more in Spanish:
Noticias SIN
El Caribe
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
11 November 2021