For the first time in over 20 years, a joint inspection tour of the Dominican High Command was conducted this week along the Dominican-Haitian border. The Minister of Defense, Lieutenant-General Paulino Sem was accompanied by Major General Braulio A. Alcántara López, Commander of the Army; General Luis Napoleón Payán Diaz, Commander of the Air Force; Vice-Admiral Miguel Enrique Peña Acosta, Commander of the Navy, as well as members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Heads of Military Units designated in the border area, mainly to verify the functioning of the checkpoints, the status of troops deployed in the region and compliance with protocols ensuring the control of illegal entries and repatriations.

"We traveled on the border with the heads of all the military branches of the institution. We checked each of the checkpoints, the military endowments, from the largest to the smallest and we made sure that the orders of President Danilo Medina to keep the border controlled are strictly enforced with respect for human rights and the dignity of the person," explainded Lieutenant-General Rubén Darío Paulino Sem.

The tour, which was conducted with the approval of President Medina, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces allowed military commanders to verify the status of troops and the status of their facilities and support brought to the immigration authorities in the exercise of their functions in the border area, in order to guarantee the entirety of the national territory and to highlight the unity of the criteria among the military leaders.

SL/ iciHaiti