Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: National Security
waters, port areas, dams, rivers, and lakes. The air force is
responsible for the operation and security of international airports,
local airports, and landing strips.
The Secretariat of State for the Armed Forces operates several
schools, including the three military academies. It also
runs the General Juan Pablo Duarte Military Institute of
Advanced Studies located in Santo Domingo, which operates a
one-year command and staff program for senior officers and a
six-month course of advanced strategic studies. The institute
also offers fourteen specialized courses, including military
intelligence, foreign languages, and military law. Another
school at the same location, the General Directorate for Military
Training, gives a specialized course for captains and first
lieutenants, with a branch for noncommissioned officers. It has
introduced courses on human rights, environmental protection,
and forestry.
The secretariat also administers the Vocational School of the
Armed Forces and Police, which is headquartered in Santo
Domingo and has twenty-three branches throughout the country.
With a student body primarily composed of civilians, its
offerings include courses in carpentry, electricity, auto
mechanics, industrial mechanics, plumbing, and leather and
metal working. Some courses are also taught in prisons. The
school operates a job placement program for its graduates.
The armed forces maintain an integrated judicial system for
courts-martial for officers, and each branch conducts courts for
minor offenses. All persons subject to military jurisdiction who
commit a crime or misdemeanor while on military duty are
accountable to military authorities. Those not on military duty
are liable to prosecution by civilian authorities.
Army
As of 1999, the Dominican army had a strength of approximately
15,000, about twice the size of the navy and air force
combined. The army is organized into seven brigades composed
of battalions that fall into one of two categories—administrative,
which perform constabulary functions, and tactical,
which are organized as combat units. Purely tactical brigades
are generally composed of three battalions, while administrative
brigades have no fixed number of battalions and may have
as many as five or six.
The first brigade, headquartered in the capital, is a combat
brigade with two battalions in the capital and one at San
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