Dominican Republic: Human rights group says 260 have been shot to death by police so far this year
[Translation of an article from Listín Diario of Santo Doming for April 14. See original article here and related article here. The population of the Dominican Republic is approximately ten million, about the same as Los Angeles or New York.]
by Juan Eduardo Thomas
According to a report issued by the Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDH – National Human Rights Commission), at least 260 people have died so far this year at the hands of the National Police in so-called “exchanges of gunfire.”
The figure includes recent deaths in Boca Chica, where two youths lost their lives, as well as the youth who was shot to death by a police officer in Villa Faro on Monday, during the labor stoppage called by a group of social organizations.
According to Manuel María Mercedes, president of CNDH, some 429 people had been killed through August 16 of last year, during the tenure of former National Police chief Rafael Guillermo Guzmán Fermín. That same year some 2,155 people died in acts of violence.
Mercedes stated that there is a tendency in the country that should be corrected immediately, in which there are more and more incidents of several people being killed in what could be considered executions.
He cited the cases of Boca Chica, which took place last Sunday, and the supposed attack on a bar in the country in which four individuals lost their lives.
Mercedes reported also that of every five such instances in which a person is killed, a police agent is involved in four of them.
Tags: Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Dominican Republic, executions, National Police, police shootings