President Luis Abinader spoke last night of the complicated issue of a Haiti where the heavily armed gangs are in control.
“And who are we going to talk to?, asks Abinader. “Barbecue and the 400 Mawozo? With them are we going to talk? So our situation is a delicate situation,” said the Dominican head of state, as reported in Listin Diario.
He expressed that no other Dominican government, in recent years, has dedicated so much time as his government to care for the national sovereignty.
“The issue today is that those who control 75% of the Haitian territory are the gangs and a society that has to ask one of the chiefs of that gang to allow it to transport fuels, or for a breather of a week to commemorate a historic battle, tells us of the delicate situation and the dangers with which we have to deal with that issue,” he said.
President Abinader said he has advocated for collective international support. He said in the case of the United States, the position of that country is that Haitians get their act together.
Abinader said that to seek advances in a solution to that crisis, he has spoken in every global scenario he has been in with other governments, but said that it seems that everyone is tired of Haiti. “It is an issue that we have to take day by day and have a proactive position, as we held from the first moment we came to government,” he said.
President Abinader said that several countries have offered support regarding the migratory problem, as is the case of Panama, Costa Rica and Argentina, but he assured that if the United States does not act, no one is going to act. “Our security does not begin at the border, it must begin beyond the border for us to know what we are doing,” he said.
He pointed out that since he came to the government, he met with authorities in the region to whom he explained the need to help with the Haitian issue, but he is still waiting for them to act.
Luis Abinader said he has made his own the words of Dominican Ambassador Rubén Silié, who says: “All countries can get tired of Haiti, except the Dominican Republic.”
He said that the health situation of the Haitian people has been one of the main issues, for which he proposed the construction of two hospitals in the south and north, given that there are no maternity hospitals in the neighboring country, but only Mexico offered help. He added that the assassinated President Juvenel Moise had located the land for the construction of two border hospitals.
Abinader made the remarks when meeting with Dominican intellectuals, including writers, historians, journalists, professors and others on 17 November 2021 at the Salón Las Cariátides of the National Palace.
He told them that the country needs them to be spokespersons for the country in different cultural and intellectual circles, both in the country and abroad, on the efforts of the Dominican Republic in the face of Haiti.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Presidencia
18 November 2021