Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: National Security
teering. In 1999 the Dominican government had yet to act on a
number of other extradition requests from the United States.
Dominican gang members in the United States have been considered
notoriously violent, confident they could escape punishment
by fleeing to their homeland.
Since taking office in 1996, President Fernandez has made
strenuous efforts to reduce narcotics-related corruption
among the judiciary and the police, military, and customs services.
Nevertheless, his party is weak in Congress, and the political
opposition has become increasingly dependent on funds
from major drug dealers. Drug money infiltrates into legitimate
business enterprises, casinos, banking, and the media,
thereby turning illicit profits into legitimate assets. The influence
of the traffickers grows as more and more of the economy
becomes dependent on them.
Fernandez has made a promising beginning by introducing
partial reforms to the criminal justice system and attempting to
motivate the military and the police to join more wholeheartedly
in the struggle against narcotics. While improving cooperation
with the United States on this issue, his political priorities
oblige him to turn first to the reduction of social tensions
induced by poverty and breakdowns in public services, matters
of primary importance to the Dominican electorate.
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No recent studies that deal comprehensively with national
security in the Dominican Republic are available. Two works
published in 1983-84 survey the history and development of
the armed forces until that period. One is Adrian English's
Armed Forces ofLatin America, and the other is the section on the
Dominican Republic in John Keegan's World Armies (second
edition). A recent study of the institutional evolution of the
armed forces is Las fuerzas militares en la Republica Dominicana
desde la Primera Republica hasta los comienzos de la Cuarta Republica
by Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez.
Current order of battle data are available in The Military Balance
published by the International Institute of Strategic Studies
in London and in Jane's Fighting Ships. The conduct of the
internal security forces, the reform of the judicial system, and
problems of human rights and public order are reviewed in
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, a report submitted
annually by the United States Department of State to the
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