Luis Abinader, president of the Dominican Republic, announced the appointment of a drug czar after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Feb. 6, confirming a joint effort to fight drug trafficking.
“I thank the U.S. for its support in the fight against drug trafficking, organized crime, and irregular migration, which shows our shared commitment for a Caribbean that is safer and more prosperous,” Abinader said via a translator.
He appointed Vice Admiral Cabrera Ulloa, president of the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) for the Dominican Republic, as the drug czar in charge of leading efforts together with the United States to combat the flow of drugs in the Caribbean.
Rubio, speaking in both English and Spanish, praised the Dominican Republic for the large number of seizures of drugs that were bound for the United States, as well as its work on extraditing criminals.
“In the whole hemisphere, if someone is wanted for a dangerous crime, no nation in the hemisphere has been more cooperative than the Dominican Republic in extraditing dangerous criminals wanted for transnational crimes,” he said.
Rubio said he would sign waivers so frozen aid programs can continue, expand cooperation to stop drug trafficking, and implement new, more effective technologies to do so.
“This is an example of the kinds of programs that make America safer, even stronger, and so we issue those waivers today, and we look to expand upon those programs in the future,” he said.
Rubio also announced that both the U.S. and Dominican governments entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to formalize the presence of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to work with the national police and improve their ongoing efforts.
The two leaders discussed Haiti, emphasizing the need for continued action to stabilize the nation and its economic potential.
“I want to be clear: the future of Haiti belongs to the people of Haiti, and they and the elites in that society have to make up their minds and have to think through what they want their future to look like,” Rubio said. “Because that is their country, and their future belongs to them. But we are going to help.”
Rubio said he signed additional waivers to keep funding for the programs underway in Haiti active.
“We cannot and will not ask the Dominican Republic to accept ... an uncontrolled migratory wave. No country in the world should be asked to do that, and this country should not either,” Rubio said of Haiti’s neighbor.
Both officials said they looked forward to the Summit of the Americas that is scheduled to be held in the Dominican Republic in December.
Rubio’s stop in Santo Domingo caps off a five-nation trip that included Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala and focused primarily on immigration and deterrence of communist China.
Among the highlights were Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino announcing that his nation would withdraw from China’s belt-and-road initiative, Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo agreeing to accept U.S. deportees from other nations, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele agreeing to house criminal deportees as well as convicted U.S. citizens in his prison.
