Attacks by the fascist government and its supporters against Haitian people and those of Haitian Heritage in the Dominican Republic have become more and more brutal, resulting in the outright execution of Haitian workers. It is time for all progressive forces to stand against this right wing violence and repression.
Originally published in MST.
On the night of October 17, a National Police patrol attacked the Mata Mosquito neighborhood, in the Verón-Punta Cana municipal district, brutally murdering Haitian worker Jems Joacin. Testimonies from workers living there indicate that the police gang, taking advantage of the racial persecution unleashed by President Abinader and Minister Faride Raful, was engaged in extortion, carrying out arbitrary arrests to demand payment for releases, threatening to hand over the victims to the DGM. These extortion operations have intensified, taking advantage of the de facto state of emergency, as well as the definition of a quota of 10,000 people expelled weekly, announced by the government on October 2. As this was the third extortion operation in just one week, some workers tried to defend themselves, and it was in this context that the police officers proceeded to execute Joacin with shots to the chest, who was completely unarmed and oblivious to the confrontation, making a purchase in a grocery store.
According to local media, the police gang was led by Second Lieutenant Berto Marcelo Louis. Government-friendly media have described the execution as the result of a “confrontation,” but it is obvious that the workers’ action of defending themselves with stones from the extortionist agents could not have allowed the henchmen to shoot an unarmed man to death. Even if the henchmen had shot at people defending themselves with stones, it could not be described as a “confrontation,” since it would be evidence of a disproportionate and illegal use of lethal force. Such was the case of the execution on October 22 in the Enriquillo municipality, in Barahona, of worker Yoel Charles, who was fatally shot by police henchmen while allegedly carrying a machete.
These executions occur not only in the context of the total failure of the so-called “ police reform,” which was supposed to put an end to this illegal but institutionalized practice, but also in the context of an official racist offensive with the aim of achieving the expulsion of more than 500,000 people from the Haitian immigrant community in the next year. According to the most recent official estimates published by the National Institute of Migration, the Haitian immigrant community is made up of 553,000 people. Although the deportations will not achieve their purpose of expelling the entire community, since many expelled people return, the mere fact that the goal of expulsions coincides with the officially estimated size of the persecuted community is an indicator of the intention to perpetrate ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity. It is very serious that parties and social organizations that call themselves democratic do not condemn this official policy or mobilize to defeat it.
The list of crimes is endless. On October 9, soldiers attacked a Haitian worker in the community of Las Palmas, in the municipality of Oviedo, shooting him in the back with a shotgun and brutally beating him. He was rescued by members of the community and taken to a clinic. The local director of the DGM, Nibelin Nova Cuevas , stated that the soldiers were not acting in a formal DGM operation. However, what is characteristic of the current campaign of persecution is the uncoordinated deployment of hordes of police and military throughout the national territory in pursuit of black people, even carrying out searches without a court order. When the detained persons present their documents in order, they are sent to barracks and detachments or to the shadowy “Centro Vacacional de Haina” for their documents to be reviewed, a protocol that is openly unconstitutional and discriminatory.
The overcrowding, hunger and unsanitary conditions in this concentration camp, wrongly named “Centro Vacacional” (Vacation Center), are such that on October 17, dozens of arbitrarily detained people rioted, demanding water, food and a quick definition of their situation, since they are being held indefinitely without access to legal assistance. The authorities denied that any act of violence had occurred, despite reports that it was violently repressed and images in which soldiers apparently fire weapons of war inside the concentration camp. Other recent crimes that have shocked the Dominican people and the immigrant community have been the throwing of Haitian worker Mikelson Germain from a roof on September 11 by an immigration agent in Verón-Punta Cana, and the arbitrary detention and threats against the Dominican-Haitian leader Franklin Dinol , of the Movimiento Reconocimiento (Recognized Movement), on October 12.
Neo-fascist mobilisations, encouraged by the government, have also increased. On 27 September and 5 October, neo-Nazi groups waving American and Israeli flags mobilised in Santo Domingo to demand an acceleration of deportations. A far-right mob also besieged the headquarters of MOSCTHA on 8 October , with the National Police failing to intervene to guarantee their safety. On 10 September, a protest by retired sugarcane workers demanding payment of their pensions and an end to forced labour was harassed by the pro-business Central Romana union , affiliated with the pro-government CNUS.
We demand justice for Jems Joacin and Yoel Charles. We call on all organizations that claim to be democratic or left-wing, social and human rights organizations, to speak out against the policy of President Abinader and Minister Faride Raful that seeks to sow terror among workers of Haitian origin in order to achieve their forced displacement. Enough of the impunity granted by the PGR to repressive agents and neo-fascist paramilitaries. Enough of apartheid. It is urgent to move towards the organization of a large national mobilization against the racist violence of the government and the extreme right.
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