Pedernales pickup truck warning. Photo elnuevodiario.com.do
Santo Domingo.- President Danilo Medina on Mon. ordered the the border town of Pedernales (southwest) reinforced with elite troops and additional police, amid tensions and threats from a group of Dominicans who have told the Haitians living there to leave the area, before 10 am Tuesday, according to Foreign minister, Miguel Vargas.
Dominicans and Haitians in the area have staged violent clashes in the heels of the death of the spouses Julio Reyes Pérez and Neiva Feliz Urbáez, whose murders are blamed on two brothers from Haiti.
“The President ordered major military controls against the situation prevailing in Pedernales, given the threatening situation of residents that this Tuesday will forcefully remove the Haitian nationals from that municipality,” Vargas told journalists upon his return from South America.
Some Dominicans, using loudspeakers mounted on a pickup truck, warned the Haitians residing in the town to leave peacefully by 10am Tuesday, or they’ll be forcibly removed and sent to their country.