SANTO DOMINGO: The Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader said Sunday he was deploying more troops to the country’s border with Haiti, which is suffering a grave security crisis.
Abinader added that he had approved construction of a new section of a wall between the two countries, which share the second-largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba.
Abinader, who was first elected in 2020 and secured a second term last year, has made battling immigration a top issue for his administration, conducting mass expulsions of undocumented Haitians.
Around 86,400 were expelled between January and March, after 276,000 were expelled in 2024, according to official data.
“We will step up surveillance of the borders with 1,500 additional troops, on top of 9,500 already deployed,” the president said in a speech on migration.
The Haiti-Dominican Republic border stretches for more than 300 kilometers roughly north to south across the island of Hispaniola.
Abinader said his government would “speed up construction of the border wall,” adding a further 13 kilometers to the 54 already installed.
Around 500,000 Haitian immigrants live in the Dominican Republic, out of a total 10.5 million inhabitants, according to official data.
Dominican Republic steps up forces on Haiti border
https://arab.news/g9xdw
Dominican Republic steps up forces on Haiti border
- President Luis Abinader also approved construction of a new section of a wall between the two countries
- The Haiti-Dominican Republic border stretches for more than 300 kilometers roughly north to south
Trump invites Colombia’s Petro to White House after earlier threat of military action
- Relations between Trump and Petro have been frosty since the Republican returned to the White House in January 2025
WASHINGTON/BOGOTA: Days after threatening Colombia with military action, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said arrangements were being made for the country’s President Gustavo Petro to visit the White House, following a call between the two leaders. Trump and Petro said they discussed relations between the two countries in their first call since the US president on Sunday said that a US military operation focused on Colombia’s government “sounds good” to him. That threat followed Trump ordering the US capture of the president of neighboring Venezuela, who was flown to the US to face drug and weapons charges.
“It was a great honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had. I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future,” Trump wrote on social media.
Trump added “arrangements are being made” for a meeting in Washington between himself and Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, but gave no specific date for a meeting.
“We have spoken by phone for the first time since he became president,” Petro told supporters gathered at a rally in Bogota meant to celebrate Colombia’s sovereignty, adding he had requested a restart of dialogue between the two countries.
A source in Petro’s office told Reuters the call was “cordial” and “respectful.”
Relations between Trump and Petro have been frosty since the Republican returned to the White House in January 2025.
Trump has repeatedly accused the administration of Petro, without evidence, of enabling a steady flow of cocaine into the US, imposing sanctions on the Colombian leader in October.
On Sunday Trump referred to Petro as “a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
The US in September had revoked Petro’s visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York following a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly and called on US soldiers to “disobey the orders of Trump.”
Petro, who has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, had accused Trump of being “complicit in genocide” in Gaza and called for “criminal proceedings” over US missile attacks on suspected drug-running boats in Caribbean waters.
The Trump administration has carried out more than 30 strikes against suspected drug boats since September, in a campaign that has killed at least 110 people.
