Carib Scope

标签： Dominican Republic

多米尼加共和国

  • They are asking for more resources for the treatment of people with addictions in the Dominican Republic.

    They are asking for more resources for the treatment of people with addictions in the Dominican Republic.

    On the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, stakeholders across the Dominican Republic have advanced complementary but distinct calls to action around national drug policy, highlighting growing momentum to reframe addiction as a public health issue rather than a criminal justice problem.

    Leading the advocacy push is Hogar Crea Dominicano, a leading non-profit dedicated to supporting people struggling with substance use disorders. The organization marked the international observance with two public commemorative events: a community awareness walk through the capital of Santo Domingo, and a solemn floral tribute laid at the iconic Altar of the Fatherland. Beyond these observances, Hogar Crea’s leadership has issued an urgent appeal to the Dominican national government for increased public funding to expand treatment access. The organization says additional financial resources are critical to building new care facilities that can accommodate the growing number of people seeking support for addiction recovery.

    In a repeated, clear message to policymakers and the public, Hogar Crea’s director emphasized that people who use substances should not be marginalized or penalized as criminals, but treated with compassion as patients managing a chronic health condition. This framing aligns with global guidance from the International Drug Policy Consortium, an independent global policy network that has long pushed for reformed drug laws. The consortium echoed the non-profit’s call, stressing that policy should center support for people who use drugs rather than punitive measures that push addiction underground and block access to life-saving care.

    While reform advocates push for a public health-centered approach to addiction, Dominican law enforcement agencies are reaffirming their commitment to cracking down on the supply side of the drug trade. The National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD), the country’s lead anti-drug agency, reiterated that it will sustain and intensify targeted operations to dismantle transnational and domestic drug trafficking networks that bring illicit substances into the country. Alongside its enforcement work, the DNCD also issued a public appeal to Dominican families, urging households to maintain open, active supervision of young people and provide consistent guidance to prevent youth substance use before it develops into addiction.

  • Seismic activity is being monitored in the Dominican Republic due to the historical frequency of large earthquakes.

    Seismic activity is being monitored in the Dominican Republic due to the historical frequency of large earthquakes.

    Located on the tectonic boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates, the Dominican Republic has long stood as one of the most seismically vulnerable nations in the Caribbean. Now, leading seismic engineering researchers are expanding targeted monitoring initiatives across the country’s two most dangerous active fault lines to better understand earthquake patterns and strengthen disaster risk preparedness.

    Claudia Germoso, a seismic engineer and research professor at the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC), explains that geological records show large earthquakes in the region tend to strike roughly every 50 years on average. This historical pattern has kept the country’s seismological community on high alert, even as specialists universally acknowledge that precise earthquake prediction remains beyond current scientific capabilities.

    The Dominican Republic’s history of catastrophic seismic events underscores the urgency of this work. In August 1946, the island of Hispaniola (which the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti) was hit by the largest earthquake recorded in its instrumental seismic history, an event documented by the National Center of Seismology of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (CNS-UASD) that set a benchmark for the nation’s disaster risk planning.

    Currently, the highest priority for monitoring efforts is the Septentrional fault, a major strike-slip geological fracture running through the Dominican Republic’s northern region. Stretching from the coastal town of Montecristi across the Cibao Valley, through Samaná Bay, and out into the Atlantic Ocean, this horizontal slip fault is classified as the country’s most seismically hazardous geological structure. As part of a new dedicated monitoring project, research teams have begun installing a network of specialized seismic sensors along the fault’s full length. These sensors will capture granular data on small-scale seismic activity, allowing scientists to build a far more detailed picture of how the fault behaves under tectonic pressure. Germoso notes that the deployed monitoring stations are already delivering more accurate recordings of seismic activity, significantly strengthening geological risk assessments for the northern region.

    Monitoring efforts are not limited to the north, however. Researchers are also keeping close watch on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, the country’s second major high-risk fault line located in southern Hispaniola. This strike-slip fault stretches from Jamaica across southern Haiti and into southwestern Dominican Republic, running along the edge of the Sierra de Bahoruco before extending into the Caribbean Sea. The fault gained global attention in 2010, when it generated a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people and left widespread destruction across Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, cementing its reputation as a major tectonic threat.

    For planning and construction purposes, the Dominican Republic’s current national seismic code divides the country into two zones: high seismic hazard and moderate seismic hazard, a classification that guides building safety standards across all regions. Germoso emphasizes that continuous investment in scientific monitoring of both major active faults is critical to improving the nation’s understanding of regional seismic activity, and ultimately to more effective disaster risk management that saves lives and protects infrastructure.

    For context, seismic faults are fractures in the Earth’s crust where blocks of crustal rock have shifted relative to one another, driven by constant tectonic plate movement. When stress along these fractures builds up over decades and is suddenly released, the energy release generates the shaking associated with earthquakes and tremors. Both the Septentrional and Enriquillo faults form part of the larger boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates, whose ongoing horizontal movement generates nearly all of the Dominican Republic’s seismic activity.

  • Aid: Supérate delivers Emergency Bonus to 1,766 families

    Aid: Supérate delivers Emergency Bonus to 1,766 families

    In the wake of devastating April rains and floods that left thousands of households across Greater Santo Domingo displaced and financially strained, the Dominican Republic’s Supérate Social Development Directorate has kicked off the distribution of targeted emergency cash assistance, rolling out the Emergency Bonus as a core component of the country’s national Adaptive Social Protection (PSA) strategy.

    The program is designed to deliver much-needed relief to 1,766 hard-hit families across three municipalities: Los Alcarrizos, Santo Domingo Oeste, and Pedro Brand. Each qualifying household will receive a one-time payment of RD$7,000, bringing the total value of this round of aid to RD$12,362,000. The funds are earmarked to help families repair flood-damaged homes and cover urgent basic needs after the disaster.

    Speaking at the launch of the distribution held Friday, May 26 at Los Alcarrizos’ Multipurpose Center, Supérate Director General Mayra Jiménez emphasized that the initiative aligns with the current government’s commitment to centering vulnerable communities in public policy. “We have strengthened our national social protection framework to ensure that no family facing an emergency is left without support from their government, working hand-in-hand with all state institutions and local authorities,” Jiménez said. “This bonus fills critical gaps for those who lost everything, were out of work for weeks, went into debt to make ends meet, or need to purchase essential medication.”

    Local leaders echoed that commitment, highlighting the broader scope of the government’s post-flood response. Los Alcarrizos Mayor Junior Santos noted that alongside direct cash assistance, the national government has advanced critical infrastructure upgrades, including new drainage and sanitation projects designed to reduce future flood risk for at-risk communities. Santos added that new mitigation interventions will launch across other high-risk sectors of the municipality in the coming days, and recapped the wide-ranging aid already deployed after the April floods: more than 7,000 household appliances, thousands of essential home goods, over 20,000 food rations, and other critical supplies have already been delivered to affected families.

    Santos also confirmed that 69,000 additional families across the country were added to the national Bonoluz utility assistance program in May, 3,500 of which are Los Alcarrizos residents.

    The distribution schedule has been structured to ensure safe, efficient access for all recipients. After the first day of distribution in Los Alcarrizos, the program will move Saturday, May 27 to Professor Germán Martínez High School in the National District’s Los Ríos sector, where mobile units from Banco de Reservas have been deployed to process payments on-site. Distribution to eligible families in Santo Domingo Norte is scheduled to begin next week.

    To guarantee that aid reaches the most vulnerable households, all beneficiaries were selected through rigorous surveys and validation checks managed by the Single Beneficiary System (Siuben), which uses the Basic Emergency Form (FIBE) to assess damage severity and need. This vetting process ensures that support goes to households that suffered the worst flood impacts.

    The Emergency Bonus is a core pillar of the Dominican government’s Adaptive Social Protection policy, which was created to deliver fast, targeted support to vulnerable households during emergencies, natural disasters, and other unforeseen crises. Beyond the current emergency assistance, Supérate already maintains broad ongoing social protection coverage across the three affected municipalities. In total, more than 93,000 local families receive regular support through government programs including Aliméntate, Bonogás, and Bonoluz: 43,039 in Los Alcarrizos, 36,213 in Santo Domingo Oeste, and 13,813 in Pedro Brand.

  • Director of the Institute of Cardiology highlights that AI is transforming cardiovascular medicine

    Director of the Institute of Cardiology highlights that AI is transforming cardiovascular medicine

    SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC — At the 51st annual graduation ceremony of the Dominican Institute of Cardiology Association (AIDC), 12 early-career cardiac specialists marked the completion of their rigorous training on Wednesday, as the institution’s leadership highlighted how artificial intelligence and emerging digital tools are rapidly reshaping the future of cardiovascular medicine.

    Josué Pichardo, AIDC’s medical director, opened the ceremony held in the Don Amadeo Barletta auditorium by recognizing the extraordinary commitment required of practitioners in one of medicine’s most challenging subspecialties. “Medicine, as we all know, is a demanding profession, but cardiology is something more,” Pichardo told the gathered graduates, their families, and AIDC faculty. He went on to celebrate the years of sacrifice and long-term dedication that brought each trainee to the milestone, noting that their professional journey began years before they started their specialized cardiology training.

    Twelve specialists officially received their caps and gowns during the event: echocardiographers and cardiac surgery interns Genesis Masiel Espinal, Jenifer Lugo, Johanny De Los Santos, Jose Daniel Acevedo Sosa, Jonathan Jose Rodriguez Fernandez, Jose Luis Guerrero Gomez, Jose Ramon Acosta, Samuel Ivan Bencosme Hernandez, Javier De Leon, Maria Linares, Nelson Osiris Acosta, and Jose Armando Gomez. The ceremony’s head table was led by Pichardo alongside senior AIDC experts Natividad Días and Santiago José, with department heads Lismary Pineda, Edgar Cadena, Cleisy Galvá, Carlos Vivera, and José Rolando Encarnación also leading proceedings.

    In his keynote address, Pichardo emphasized that today’s generation of cardiologists is entering a field undergoing unprecedented transformation, driven by cutting-edge scientific and technological innovation. “We live in an era of extraordinary scientific and technological advances: artificial intelligence, precision medicine, telemedicine, and new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques that are transforming the way we understand and treat cardiovascular diseases,” he said. The integration of AI into cardiovascular care has unlocked major improvements in everything from early disease detection to personalized treatment planning, opening new doors for improved patient outcomes across the country.

    The event also paid tribute to AIDC’s 60-year legacy of expanding access to cardiac care across the Dominican Republic, rooted in its founding motto “Cardiology for all”. The institution traces its origins back to February 4, 1964, when Dr. Héctor Mateo Martínez carried out the first dedicated cardiovascular operations at Doctor Francisco Moscoso Puebla Hospital, working out of just four beds reserved for cardiac patients. As demand for specialized cardiac care grew steadily across the nation, the small program was relocated and formally reorganized into the national Institute of Cardiology that stands today, training generations of specialists to serve communities across the country.

  • What would happen in the Dominican Republic if a double earthquake like the one in Venezuela occurred? Osiris de León explains.

    What would happen in the Dominican Republic if a double earthquake like the one in Venezuela occurred? Osiris de León explains.

    As Venezuela remains under a state of emergency four days after a destructive double earthquake killed more than 900 people, a leading Dominican geologist has issued a stark analysis of what a similar seismic event could mean for his Caribbean nation. In a recent interview on the radio program *La Universidad de la Calle (LA UCA)* hosted by Brea Frank, geologist Osiris de León outlined that the scale of damage from any major earthquake depends on two core factors: the proximity of active geological faults to populated areas, and the composition of local soil.

    De León drew a direct comparison between the recent Venezuelan disaster and the Dominican Republic’s seismic risk profile, noting one critical difference: the fault that triggered the Venezuelan quake runs directly through the country’s most densely populated coastal corridor. “In Venezuela’s case, the fault responsible for the tremor cuts straight through Maiquetía airport, and runs straight through the populated communities of Macuto and La Guaira — that concentration of infrastructure and people directly above the fault is what drove such extreme destruction,” de León explained. “In the Dominican Republic, our most active faults are located much farther from major population centers.”

    The geologist highlighted that the closest active fault to the capital city of Santo Domingo sits 70 kilometers off the southern coast, while the fault nearest to the northern city of Puerto Plata is roughly 50 kilometers inland from the urban core. This greater distance, he noted, naturally weakens seismic waves as they travel, reducing the potential damage to populated areas compared to the Venezuelan event. But distance alone is not enough to eliminate catastrophic risk, de León warned.

    The second critical factor, he explained, is the type of soil where seismic waves make landfall. Soft, organic soils — common across the Dominican Republic’s fertile Cibao Valley — amplify seismic activity rather than absorbing it. Historical records bear this out: the massive 1562 earthquake on December 2 completely destroyed the Cibao Valley cities of Santiago and La Vega. This pattern could repeat if a major quake strikes near the northern coast today, de León said.

    “If an earthquake of the same magnitude as Venezuela’s recent double event hits off the coast near Puerto Plata, Luperón, or Sosúa, the Cibao region could see damage just as bad — or even worse — than what Venezuela is currently facing,” he cautioned. The warning extends to multiple major Cibao communities including Santiago, La Vega, Bonao, San Francisco de Macorís, Moca, Villa Tapia, and Tenares, all of which are built on rich black organic soils ideal for agriculture but extremely dangerous for construction during seismic events. “These soils amplify the entire seismic spectrum, turning a moderate tremor into a catastrophic event for infrastructure above,” de León added.

    Across the border in Venezuela, the aftermath of the mid-week double quake continues to unfold. Saturday marked the fourth consecutive day of the national state of emergency declared after the disaster. As of the latest official update, the death toll from the quake has reached 920, with more than 3,300 people injured. Rescue teams from nine countries have deployed to the impacted region to support search operations for survivors and recovery efforts for victims.

  • 88% of the sand on beaches attractive to tourism in the Dominican Republic comes from marine organisms

    88% of the sand on beaches attractive to tourism in the Dominican Republic comes from marine organisms

    A groundbreaking new study led by researchers from the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC) has upended long-held assumptions about the origin of sand on the Dominican Republic’s most popular tourist beaches, finding that nearly 90% of the sand is made up of fossilized remains of marine organisms rather than geologically derived sediment.

    Conducted by INTEC’s Nanotechnology Laboratory under the leadership of chemical physics professor Dr. Melvin Arias, the research analyzed sand samples from eight of the country’s top coastal tourist destinations: El Morro, Dorada, El Portillo, Bibijagua, Isla Saona, Guayacanes, Punta Salinas, and Bahía de las Águilas. The team’s structural analysis confirmed that 88% of sand across these sites is produced by what researchers call natural marine “carbonate factories” — formations built from the accumulated skeletons of dead corals, red algae, and mollusks.

    This discovery carries major implications for coastal conservation, as it confirms that the physical stability of the Dominican Republic’s coastlines and their ability to resist erosion depend entirely on the health of nearby coral reef ecosystems, not gradual geological processes. The study warns that any damage to these marine habitats, whether from pollution, excessive land runoff, or more frequent extreme weather events driven by climate change, would halt the natural production of new sand. Without this continuous natural replenishment, coastal erosion would accelerate dramatically, leading to permanent loss of coastal land that forms the foundation of the country’s $10 billion tourism industry.

    Beyond erosion risk, the study explains the unique visual appeal that draws millions of visitors to Dominican beaches each year: the high concentration of biological carbonate material is what gives the sand its signature pale color and fine, soft texture — the key aesthetic and commercial selling point for the country’s coastal hotel zones. Researchers also noted that poor coastal management practices, such as the common practice of burying sargassum seaweed directly on beaches, already threaten this ecosystem by altering sand’s natural chemical composition and pH balance.

    Over the long term, researchers explain, gradual changes to sand composition paired with ongoing coral reef degradation will break the natural cycle of marine sediment replenishment, undermining the geomorphological stability of entire coastlines. One of the most valuable contributions of the new research is the creation of the first comprehensive mineralogical baseline for Dominican beaches. This dataset will now allow the Dominican National Geological Survey and environmental management agencies to track the rate of coastal erosion over time by comparing modern sand chemical composition against future measurements.

    The study also yielded reassuring findings for tourist and environmental health: rigorous physicochemical testing confirmed the complete absence of toxic heavy metals including lead, arsenic, chromium, nickel, and cobalt across all eight studied beach sites. At Bahía de las Águilas, where 87.8% of sand is made of coral-derived aragonite, researchers documented the presence of diatoms — a sensitive species of microalgae that acts as a natural bioindicator of water quality. Their presence confirms the beach remains entirely free of pollution, a major win for conservation efforts in the protected coastal area.

    The research also highlighted rare exceptions to the biological sand origin rule, driven by geological processes. Punta Salinas in the Peravia province breaks the national trend: its sand is formed from volcanic rock fragments (quartz and magnetite) carried downstream from inland mountains by the Ocoa, Baní, and Nizao rivers. Similarly, the distinct reddish hue of sand at El Morro in Monte Cristi can be traced directly to erosion of the area’s iron-rich coastal cliffs.

    The multi-institutional research project, which included contributions from researchers at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, the University of Calabria, and the University of Puerto Rico, has been published in the peer-reviewed *Journal of Coastal Research* to share its findings with coastal scientists and managers around the world.

  • The tourism boom is also driving up informal businesses in the Dominican Republic

    The tourism boom is also driving up informal businesses in the Dominican Republic

    The Dominican Republic’s booming tourism sector has emerged as a key catalyst for grassroots entrepreneurship, drawing thousands of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) eager to tap into the industry’s growing momentum and untapped economic potential. But a new national survey has uncovered a major structural barrier holding this vibrant ecosystem back: nearly half of all tourism-linked MSMEs operate outside formal regulatory frameworks, leaving them less competitive and disproportionately exposed to economic shocks.

    The 2025 Sectoral Survey of Tourism (Ensetur 2025), conducted by the Dominican Republic’s National Institute of Migration (INM RD), analyzed MSME operations across three of the country’s highest-profile tourist hubs: Punta Cana-Macao, Barahona-Pedernales, and Puerto Plata. Of the roughly 642 MSMEs included in the study, 42.2% are classified as informal, meaning they lack official registration and compliance with local business regulations.

    The data confirms a clear trend across the sector: informality is heavily concentrated among the smallest business operations. The survey finds that 71.6% of all informal tourism MSMEs are micro-enterprises employing five or fewer workers, a share that is 22.5 percentage points higher than the rate of micro-enterprises among formal, regulated businesses in the sector. This pattern aligns with a broader industry dynamic: larger tourism operations are far more likely to comply with national regulations, while smaller, newer ventures disproportionately remain in the informal economy.

    Most informal MSMEs in the sector operate in the food and beverage segment, accounting for 76.4% of all informal businesses. That is 17.6 percentage points higher than the share of formal, registered tourism MSMEs that work in food and beverage. Geographically, half of all surveyed informal MSMEs (52%) are located in the top tourist hub of Punta Cana-Macao, 41% are based in Puerto Plata, and just 7% operate across Barahona and Pedernales, according to reporting from local outlet Diario Libre.

    The INM RD study emphasizes that informal activity in tourism is not a new issue, but a deeply entrenched characteristic of the sector that is closely tied to migrant labor integration. Most informal tourism roles offer low social protection, high worker turnover, and little regulatory oversight, which amplifies the socioeconomic vulnerability of migrant workers who make up a large share of this labor force. At the same time, the research acknowledges that informal micro-enterprises fill a critical economic role for marginalized communities: they are a key source of household income for vulnerable groups and a primary pathway for migrant workers to enter the Dominican labor market, thanks to their small operating scale, flexible organizational structures, and reliance on labor-intensive work.

    Despite these benefits, the concentration of unregulated micro-enterprises in major tourist centers creates significant policy challenges for national authorities. The informal sector’s high demand for flexible, seasonal, low-skilled labor is overwhelmingly filled by migrant workers, which complicates efforts to formalize employment, enforce consistent labor standards, and manage migration flows effectively.

    A breakdown of employment data underscores the gap between formal and informal operations. Among properly registered MSMEs, companies with 20 or more employees account for 61.5% of all jobs generated by the sector. By contrast, more than 85% of all informal tourism employment is concentrated in businesses with fewer than 10 workers. When sorted by occupation, informality rates exceed formal employment rates across multiple key tourism roles: 19.7% of all kitchen staff work in informal positions, followed by 15.6% of cleaning staff, 13% of general service workers, and 12.2% of management roles, per the survey.

    INM RD officials noted that the study’s scope was limited to MSMEs, as the research team was unable to access operational data from the country’s large, multinational hotel chains.

  • United will connect Houston with Santo Domingo during the winter season

    United will connect Houston with Santo Domingo during the winter season

    United Airlines has unveiled plans to expand its route footprint across Latin America and the Caribbean with the launch of a new seasonal air route linking Houston, Texas, to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The new service is scheduled to launch during the 2026/27 Northern Hemisphere winter season, a timeframe that consistently sees surges in travel demand driven by year-end holiday tourism, family visits and friend reunions.

    Operations will run from December 18, 2026, through January 3, 2027, with three weekly flights all operated using Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Under the published schedule, outbound flights will depart from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston during the afternoon, arriving at the Santo Domingo destination after nightfall. For return trips, flights will take off from the Dominican capital in the early morning, a timing arrangement crafted to give passengers convenient access to fast connections through United’s Houston hub to dozens of domestic and international destinations across the carrier’s global network.

    This carefully tailored schedule is designed to deliver maximum travel flexibility for passengers during one of the busiest annual travel windows on the global aviation calendar. As a temporary seasonal addition to United’s route portfolio, the new link directly addresses the steadily rising travel demand between the United States and the Caribbean, a region that has steadily strengthened its standing as one of the top tourist markets across the Americas.

    Industry analysts note that Santo Domingo holds unique strategic value for major air carriers, drawing consistent passenger volumes across leisure tourism, family travel and business segments. For its part, Houston remains one of United Airlines’ most critical connecting hubs, enabling seamless travel connectivity to and from hundreds of cities across North America, Europe and Asia. The expansion marks the latest step in United’s ongoing push to beef up its presence in high-demand Latin American and Caribbean markets, aligning with broader industry trends of growing air travel between the U.S. and popular Caribbean holiday destinations.

  • Public Prosecutor’s Office arrests leader of gang involved in contract killings, kidnapping, and arms trafficking

    Public Prosecutor’s Office arrests leader of gang involved in contract killings, kidnapping, and arms trafficking

    In a major law enforcement breakthrough in the Dominican Republic’s National District, authorities captured one of the most-wanted alleged criminal kingpins Friday afternoon following a months-long investigation into a sprawling ring linked to brutal offences ranging from contract killings to extortion.

    Twenty-seven-year-old Juan Francisco Quezada Tolentino, known by his alias “Pavel”, was taken into custody without incident by law enforcement teams as he was present at a local shopping plaza in the National District. The operation was led by Andry De Los Santos, prosecutor and director of the Public Prosecutor’s Office Fugitive, Rebel and Convict Capture Unit (Ucaprec), with additional support from specialized personnel of the Public Ministry.

    Two pre-issued arrest warrants, numbered 2026-AJ0020297 and 2026-AJ0038079, were executed during the operation. The warrants were approved by Magistrate Rigoberto Sena Ferreras, head judge of the Eighth Court of Instruction of the National District, following a formal request from the Public Ministry, clearing the way for Quezada Tolentino’s apprehension.

    Investigative records compiled by the Public Prosecutor’s Office detail a pattern of extreme violence perpetrated by Quezada Tolentino and his still-at-large co-conspirators against victims of their criminal enterprise. Two high-profile fatal attacks tied to the ring have been a core focus of the ongoing probe.

    The first of these documented attacks took place on May 10, 2026 at roughly 12:16 p.m. in the La Esperanza sector of the National District’s Los Ríos neighborhood. According to witness accounts, a group of mostly hooded attackers intercepted a group of civilians before opening fire without warning, acting with clear intent to kill. The second attack left one man dead on March 5, 2026 around 7:00 p.m. The victim, Luis Alberto Méndez de la Cruz, also known as “Nano”, was shot dead at point-blank range by armed members of the network while visiting a friend at a residence on República de Colombia Avenue, located in the same La Esperanza neighborhood. Autopsy reports confirmed Méndez de la Cruz died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest.

    All ongoing inquiries into the network are being overseen by the National District Public Prosecutor’s Office through its Department of Crimes and Offenses Against Persons. Quezada Tolentino and his co-defendants face a raft of criminal charges under Dominican law, including violations of articles 265, 266, 309, 295, 296, and 304 of the Dominican Penal Code, alongside breaches of articles 66, 67, and 70 of Law No. 631-16 regulating weapons, ammunition and related materials. The charges cover the full scope of the group’s alleged activity, from organized criminal conspiracy to illegal arms trafficking and murder.

    Following his arrest, Quezada Tolentino was transferred to the Ciudad Nueva Detention and Care Center (Caplip-2). In the coming hours, he is scheduled to appear before the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of the National District for a formal court hearing, where a judge will consider the imposition of a coercive pretrial measure.

  • Can the tectonic plate near Venezuela cause earthquakes in the Dominican Republic?

    Can the tectonic plate near Venezuela cause earthquakes in the Dominican Republic?

    On the evening of March 24, Venezuela was hit by two powerful earthquakes within a short window, registering magnitudes 7.5 and 7.2 respectively on the Richter scale. As of the latest updates, the catastrophic seismic event has claimed more than 900 lives, left over 3,000 people injured, and left more than 50,000 residents unaccounted for across the affected regions.

    The tremors, which struck just after 6:00 p.m. local time, were not limited to Venezuelan territory—shaking was clearly felt as far away as the Dominican Republic, prompting urgent questions about why the seismic activity extended across such a wide distance in the Caribbean. The epicenters of the two quakes were located near Morón, a city in Venezuela’s Carabobo state, roughly 160 to 200 kilometers from the capital Caracas. Minutes after the ground stopped shaking, local Venezuelan newspaper Hoy reached out to prominent geologist Osiris de León to break down the science behind the cross-border tremors.

    De León explained that the Caribbean tectonic plate, a mostly oceanic tectonic boundary, sits between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic and extends across multiple neighboring nations in the Caribbean region. This shared geological framework means it is entirely expected for seismic activity originating in Venezuela to be felt on Dominican soil. “In terms of seismic dynamics, the 900-kilometer gap between the two countries is not nearly large enough to block seismic waves,” de León noted. Compression waves, one of the primary forms of seismic energy generated by earthquakes, can travel at speeds up to 6,000 meters per second, allowing them to propagate across most of the Caribbean basin and trigger noticeable shaking far from the earthquake’s epicenter. While de León stressed that cross-border shaking of this magnitude is “not normal, not frequent, it’s not common,” he confirmed that it remains a geologically possible outcome of large seismic events in the region.

    The root cause of Venezuela’s latest major earthquakes lies in the long-standing tectonic activity along the boundary where the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate meet. Off the northern coast of Venezuela, these two massive tectonic structures constantly grind and slide past one another, building up and releasing stress that generates sustained seismic activity along a strip stretching from Venezuela’s border with Colombia all the way to its central Caribbean coastline.

    As rescue and response efforts get underway, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency, has released an early impact assessment. The IOM estimates that as many as 6.76 million people across Venezuela could be affected by the destruction caused by the two quakes, with roughly two million of those people residing in the capital city of Caracas.