Thirteen-year-od Javier Rodriguez Liriano was rescued in a joint effort by Dominican authorities and the United Nations military forces in Haiti after being kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity. The military delivered the boy to the Dominican consulate in Ouanaminthe, where Dominican Consul Andres Bocio Fortuna and Dajabon’s Governor Sonia Mateo received him. Following the abduction last week, the border at Dajabon and its market was closed. News reports indicate that the UN military conducted a door-to-door search in the town of Ouanaminthe, Haiti in their efforts to locate the boy, who says he was taken at gunpoint on Tuesday, after which he was constantly moved from one place to another in a SUV. He said he was fed rice and water during the six days of his captivity. His kidnappers were seeking RD$600,000 in ransom plus the liberation of Haitians from the Dominican jail in Mao. The boy was kidnapped over a missing 1 kilo of cocaine that they had reportedly delivered to a motoconcho driver in Dajabon identified as Tony Rodriguez, who was detained by authorities and later released. As reported in the Listin Diario, the child was first rescued from the drug traffickers by Haitian rebels loyal to former President Aristide and the Haitian police, who wanted to exchange him for Haitians detained in Mao. Once the boy was about to be returned to the DR, a Haitian judge requested that the child be returned to Haiti, which led Consul Bocio Fortuna, General Pedro Antonio Caceres, Dajabon’s National Investigation Department chief Carlos Boique and other Dominican military members to cross the border, despite the Haitian resistance, in order to bring the child home.
Dajabon Governor Sonia Mateo accused the Haitian police of Haiti of colluding with criminals in that country and asked that Dominicans living on the border be especially careful in their day-to-day activity. She said that in Haiti there are no reliable authorities with which to discuss any matter.
The father of the child, Americo Rodriguez, thanked the group for their efforts and said that all he has is the grace of God as it would have been impossible to raise the money the kidnappers were asking for.