At the White House, in the US Congress, before the permanent session of the Organization of American States (OAS) and in a press conference for the Dominican people this Friday, President Luis Abinader addressed the Haitian issue and insisted that he would continue to do so. Because it reflects in terms of costs and threats to national security.
He noted that he had achieved a plan to build two maternity hospitals in Haitian territory.
In this regard, Abinador said that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will donate funds for hospital buildings with a budget of about $440 million in cities in the north and south of Haiti near the border.
According to the President, the IDB has committed to the construction of the facilities and the necessary resources for their maintenance for at least five years, in collaboration with a US NGO that handles donations and missions from Haiti.
Attention and response to crisis
Regarding the government’s reactivity and preventive measures in the face of instability in the neighboring country, Louis Abinader assured that “the army is ready for any situation that may arise on the Haitian side.”
He said that they have all kinds of alternative plans to maintain peace permanently.
However, the head of the executive authority again called on Dominicans to avoid traveling to Haiti, given the insecurity in the nearby territory.
“I don’t think any Dominican, unless it’s an emergency that he or she personally knows, is the government’s recommendation not to travel to that country, which is completely unsafe,” the president said.
Similarly, he revealed that the Dominican-Haitian border is peaceful and will continue to be so, as the Dominican army and armed forces continue to monitor to guarantee peace “at great cost to the country.”
“We have no alarming situation, the main thing is to be prepared,” Abinathar said.
International support
In relation to the international community, he promised that they would have an opening about the situation, which has been warning for a year, and would press the Dominican Republic for action.
During his recent visit, Abinador also expressed their desire to identify Haitians who are allegedly part of gangs and are banned from entering the Dominican Republic in order to take “coordinated and joint” actions.
On the other hand, he did not want to mention former Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who was banned from entering the country.
“I have no idea about that person (Claude Joseph), we have to ask him from afar via tweet,” Abinathar said.
Perimeter fence
Another point the president touched on was the fence, where he denounced politicians from other parties for interfering in negotiations with the owners of the land where the barrier will be built by the Dominican government.
“Many politicians stop playing politics with a job that is very important to this country; because politicians from other parties act as moneylenders and say they are going to collect money from them and at very high prices, we have to be Dominican and nationalistic here; they have a fence to protect their property. Brilliant,” said the head of the executive authority.
The President used the opportunity to announce that the first phase of the fence’s construction will be “delivered on time” and that the second phase, which “has more connections” with technical elements, is already in the bidding process.
