US Embassy clarifies alert to its citizens about the Dominican Republic due to covid, not crime

US Embassy clarifies that the alert to its citizens concerning the DR is not for crime. The Embassy of the United States in the Dominican Republic clarified on Saturday that the recommendation of the State Department of that country to its citizens to refrain from traveling to this nation was not due to the levels of citizen security in Quisqueya. A delegation of embassy officers said the alert is exclusively for COVID infections and not based on increased crime.

The clarification of the US authorities was made to the director-general of the National Police, Eduardo Alberto Then, during a working meeting held at the headquarters of the institution of order.

Todd Christiansen, director of International Narcotics Affairs and Law Enforcement (INL), referred to the clarification, explaining that no alert had been issued to US citizens concerning citizen security situations in the Dominican Republic.

“This decision (the warning) was based on an increase in Covid cases, not based on an increase in the crime rate. That warning was not a comment on the crime rate, it was simply the knowledge that cases (Covid-19) here in the (Dominican) Republic are increasing,” Christiansen explained.

On Wednesday, October 27, the US Embassy in the country published on its website that “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Level 3 Travel Health Advisory due to COVID-19, indicating a high level of COVID-19 in the Dominican Republic.”

Christiansen, who visited the police director with USAID’s Jeffrey Levine; Skarly H. Peña Herrera, Assistant Legal Assistant at the Embassy; Lissette Dumit, USAID; Abelardo Arias, of INL, and Terrence Wallace, Department of State, stressed that the United States would maintain cooperation in the elaboration of the National Strategy for Citizen Security and transformation of the Police.