On the night of October 17, a Dominican 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 in the area indicate that the police gang took advantage of the racist persecution unleashed by President Abinader and Minister Faride Raful, and engaged in extortion, making arbitrary arrests to demand payment for releases, and threatening to turn the victims over to the General Directorate of Immigration (DGM). These extortion operations have intensified, taking advantage of the de facto state of exception, as well as the establishment of a quota of 10,000 people to be expelled weekly, announced by the government on October 2. Facing the third extortion operation in barely a week, some workers tried to defend themselves, and it was in this context that the police agents proceeded to shoot Joacin in the chest. He was making a purchase in a convenience store, totally unarmed and unaware of the clash.
According to local media, the police gang was headed by second lieutenant Berto Marcelo Louis. Pro-government media have described the execution as the result of a “confrontation”, however, it is obvious that the action of the workers – defending themselves with stones from the aggression of the extortion agents – could not authorize the henchmen to execute an unarmed man with live bullets. Even if the henchmen had fired 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 would be the case of the execution of worker Yoel Charles on October 22 in the Enriquillo municipality, in Barahona. He was fatally shot by police henchmen when he was allegedly carrying a machete.
These executions not only occur 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 aimed at achieving the expulsion of more than 500,000 members of the Haitian immigrant community in the coming year. According to the most recent official estimates published by the Dominican National Migration Institute, the Haitian immigrant community is made up of 553 thousand people. Even though the deportations will not achieve their purpose of expelling the totality of this community, since many of those expelled return, the mere fact that the stated goal for the expulsions coincides with the officially estimated size of the persecuted community is an indicator of the intention to perpetrate an ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity. The fact that parties and social organizations that call themselves democratic do not condemn this official policy, or mobilize to defeat it, is very concerning.
The list of crimes is endless. On October 9, Dominican 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 military were not acting in a formal DGM operation. However, the current persecution campaign is characterized by the uncoordinated deployment of police and military hordes throughout the national territory. They hunt Black people, and even carry out raids without warrants. When the detained persons present their documents, they are sent to police and military facilities, or to the shady “Haina Vacation Center” for the revision of their documents, a protocol which is openly unconstitutional and discriminatory.
The overcrowding, hunger and unhealthiness in this concentration camp, wrongly called “Vacation Center”, is such that on October 17, dozens of arbitrarily detained persons rioted, demanding water, food and a quick definition of their situation, since they suffer indefinite detentions without access to legal assistance. The authorities denied that any violence had occurred, despite reports of violent repression and images of soldiers apparently firing assault weapons inside the concentration camp. Other recent crimes which have shocked the Dominican people and the immigrant community have been the throwing of Haitian worker Mikelson Germain off a roof by an immigration agent on September 11 in Veron-Punta Cana, and the arbitrary detention and threats against Haitian-Dominican leader Franklin Dinol, of the Reconocido Movement, on October 12.
Neo-fascist mobilizations, encouraged by the government, have also increased. On September 27 and October 5, neo-Nazi groups mobilized in Santo Domingo demanding a speeding-up of deportations, while waving U.S. and Israeli flags. An extreme right-wing mob also besieged the headquarters of MOSCTHA on October 8, without the Dominican National Police intervening to guarantee its security. On September 10 a protest of retired sugar cane workers demanding payment of their pensions and an end to forced labor was harassed by the pro-business Central Romana union, affiliated with the pro-government CNUS union confederation.
We demand justice for Jems Joacin and Yoel Charles. We call on all organizations that claim to be democratic or leftist, as well as social and human rights organizations, to speak out against the policy of President Abinader and Minister Faride Raful which seeks to sow terror among workers of Haitian origin in order to achieve their forced displacement. No more impunity from the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) to repressive agents and neo-fascist paramilitaries. No more apartheid. It is urgent to advance towards the organization of a great national mobilization against the racist violence of the government and the ultra-right.
The Socialist Workers’ Movement of the Dominican Republic is a section of the International Workers’ Unity-Fourth International