The island of Hispaniola is a quandary. While the Dominican Republican is portrayed as a model of Latin American stability, across its border Haiti has descended into nightmares that make Sicario look like a puppet show. This leaves many people asking why Haiti is so dangerous and the Dominican Republic looks to be thriving?
But exploiting Dominican stability are drug cartels that have operated under our noses for far too long, kill thousands of Americans every year, and have allied the DR with our adversaries on the world stage.
In March, the US drafted and led a resolution at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs to address illicit drug abuse through prevention and treatment interventions. Because so many illicit drugs cross international borders, the UN’s support can make an enormous difference in saving lives – which is why China and Russia voted against the proposal.
Supporting the drug trade in America amounts to unconventional chemical warfare for Chinese and Russian 21st Century imperialism. It also wasn’t a surprise that the Islamic Republic of Iran abstained from supporting the measure … but so did the DR. (The abstention takes place at 4:19:55 in this clip.)
Again, while the world is distracted by Haitian horrors, Dominican drug activity has been ramping up, with murderous drug dealers exploiting the Biden Administration’s failed policies and our “third border“ with the Caribbean. Late last year, Customs and Border Protection seized huge amounts of pill presses, parts, fentanyl and xylazine from both Mexico and the DR.
The DR has been included on the “Majors List“ of drug-trafficking countries every year since 2000. In 2018, for example, Dominican drug dealers were caught smuggling $28 million worth of drugs into Boston. Those countries that meet the statutory criteria for the Majors List receive a variety of punitive measures, including ineligibility for foreign aid.
Indeed, though, the reasons why Haiti is so dangerous and the Dominican Republic is thriving explain in part why the latter has become such a drug hub. Its central geographic location facilitate shipment not just to the United States, but also to Europe, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies – and the DR’s relative stability make things that much easier for the narcotics trade to boom.
Drug dealers are criminals, but they need a certain amount of law and order to do business.
Doing nothing to stop this – or perhaps even benefiting from it? – is Dominican President Luis Abinader, whose Modern Revolutionary Party won the country’s May 2024 elections in a landslide. The triumphant Abinader was quick to absolve his party of any wrongdoing, even though his deputy Yamil Abreu Navarro was caught years ago directing a heroin-trafficking enterprise. Many believe there’s no way Abinader could have made his $76 million net worth through entirely lawful means, and the State Department says he’s done nothing to fight the drug trade or human rights abuses.
And Abinader’s presidency has the full support of the Biden Administration.
Abinader met with Joe Biden in November last year, who deployed senior staff like Chris Dodd and Tom Perez to the DR in the months after to show support for Abinader’s re-election campaign. Meanwhile former chief Abinader deputy Miguel Gutiérrez Díaz, is enjoying a reduced sentence of 65 months in prison after a plea deal for running a network of international cocaine trafficking from the DR to the US!
So as Biden is considering a new ambassador to the DR, don’t expect someone who will take a hard stance against Dominican drugs on behalf of American lives. Nominated Ambassador Juan Carlos Iturregui will come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday. This is the first in a lengthy nomination process, one that could be made moot by November’s elections, God willing.
Serving as a puppet for bad actors – even those on our own doorstep – has been the Biden Administration’s disastrous foreign policy for the last three years. There are no easy answers to the drug trade, but we certainly should not support it. Like Josh Brolin says in Sicario, “Until someone finds a way to stop 20 percent of America putting this s--- up their nose, order is the best we can hope for.”
Jared Whitley has worked in the US Senate, White House, and defense industry. He has an MBA from Hult business school in Dubai and was named best columnist in April by the Top of the Rockies journalism competition.
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