Dominican govt in crime crackdown

Thousands of police and soldiers were deployed across the Dominican Republic yesterday to crack down on crimes ranging from drunk driving to gun violence.

The bulk of the estimated 6,000 security forces patrolled the streets of the capital, Santo Domingo, in response to public complaints about a rise in crime, though the nation’s police chief said there has been no such increase.

Soldiers and police were also deployed in 16 other cities across the Caribbean nation, said Corporal Carlos Tejada Rodriguez, an army spokesman. Tejada said officials had not decided how long the deployment would last.

President Leonel Fernandez announced the joint patrols on Monday after hours of meetings with the country’s security officials. He also announced plans to temporarily halt the importation of firearms and to ban alcohol sales after midnight from Sunday to Thursday and after 2am at weekends.

Soldiers and police set up checkpoints and patrolled the capital’s streets yesterday, leaving many areas seemingly abandoned.

Shortly after midnight, a seven-member SWAT team wearing helmets and carrying automatic rifles descended on a neighbourhood store still serving beer near the capital’s Caribbean waterfront.

The store’s employees scurried to bring down the metal doors and rush their disgruntled patrons away for the night.

“We are not all delinquents. It is not fair,” Nancy Pena, 28, said as she and her friends walked away.

Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, head of the Roman Catholic church in the predominantly Catholic nation, called on Dominicans to accept the government’s measures and wait for the mission to be completed.

“It is necessary that we sacrifice a little of our personal appetites in the interest of the country,” he said, referring to the alcohol policy.

Reports of muggings, burglaries and shootings have filled Dominican newspapers and put residents of Santo Domingo on edge.

National Police Chief General Bernardo Santana Paez said murders were down from last year and dismissed media accounts of a “so-called increase in crime and supposed wave of violence”.

“If you look at the cold statistics, you see that crime has come down,” he said before the deployments, citing a falling murder rate.

In the last year, cases of violent crime have increased by an average of two per day to five per day, according to police reports.

Also yesterday, some 500 Dominicans, including merengue legend Johnny Ventura, marched through central Santo Domingo to call for an end to violent crime, according to official crowd estimates.

As marchers carried signs emblazoned with photographs of murder victims, onlookers cheered from the footpaths.