Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader warned on Saturday that Haitian criminal gangs will be treated as terrorists if they approach his country's border — and that they will regret it if they try.
"My responsibility, as a border country, is to secure the border, and if those terrorists come close, they are going to have a very, very, very bad time," Abinader told reporters in Santo Domingo.
The warning comes as the Dominican Republic reinforces its 395-kilometre frontier with Haiti with more troops, armored vehicles, surveillance aircraft and drones, with the buildup concentrated on the southern stretch of the border, where the authorities see the greatest risk from gang activity across the line.
Armored vehicles, aircraft and drones on the southern border
Abinader said the Armed Forces have increased their presence along the frontier and now keep aircraft flying over it around the clock.
"We are prepared. We have aircraft flying over the border, we have armored vehicles nearby, and we also have drones," the president said.
Around 11,000 soldiers now guard the border, supported by drones, aircraft and other surveillance equipment. By the end of the year the country will have 75 kilometres of border fence, mostly in the areas with the largest population concentrations on the Haitian side — an infrastructure Abinader credits with cutting cattle, vehicle and motorcycle theft by 85 percent in the fenced zones.
The president stressed that, so far, the authorities have detected no signs of a mass arrival of Haitian citizens at the border as a result of the crisis next door, and said the government is monitoring events in Haiti permanently.
The first country to call the gangs terrorists
Abinader reiterated that the Dominican Republic was the first country to declare Haiti's armed gangs terrorist organizations — and that they will be confronted as such if they come near Dominican territory.
"If they approach the border, which so far has not happened and we do not see as the trend given the current situation, we will treat them as what they are: terrorists," he said.
The warning follows the deployment of a Dominican Army convoy to Jimaní, in the border province of Independencia, on the night of Friday, October 23.
Abinader calls Nayib Bukele and offers logistics and intelligence
The Dominican president also revealed that he spoke by telephone with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele and offered logistical and intelligence support for the Salvadoran troops operating in Haiti.
Abinader said the Dominican government remains in contact both with the Gang Suppression Force fighting the gangs in Haiti and with Bukele himself, to coordinate logistics and intelligence for the operations under way.
The tension follows the disappearance of four Salvadoran soldiers after a gang ambush outside Port-au-Prince on Sunday, October 18. Bukele ordered special forces into Haiti, and the Salvadoran contingent arrived on Thursday, October 22, to join the search.
"The only thing I can guarantee is peace in the Dominican Republic"
In an interview with journalist Ghida Fakhry during his recent visit to Rome, released this week, Abinader said the Dominican Republic will maintain peace and security on its own territory no matter what happens in Haiti — and warned that the solution to the crisis cannot fall on the Dominican state.
"The only thing I can guarantee is peace in the Dominican Republic, with our Armed Forces, our military and our Police," he said.
Abinader argued that the country's public services, hospitals in particular, must serve Dominicans first, while acknowledging that stabilizing Haiti would benefit the whole region by easing migratory pressure and security risks. He also noted the huge economic gap between the two nations sharing the island of Hispaniola, and said the main victims of the violence are poor Haitians who lack the means to leave.
The Dominican Republic has deported large numbers of undocumented Haitians in recent years under its immigration laws — a policy Abinader has defended as the enforcement of the law, even as international critics question the pace and conditions of the deportations. The president insists the border, not the reception of Haiti's population, is where his responsibility begins and ends.