Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic — A Dominican diplomat appears to have been kidnapped in nearby Haiti and urged Dominican authorities to seek his safe release.
The local newspaper El Dia reported on Tuesday that the government had also strengthened its military presence at the border, but authorities did not immediately comment on it.
The Dominica government said in a weekend statement that Carlos Gillen Tatis, an agricultural counselor at the Port-au-Prince embassy, appeared to have been kidnapped while traveling to a border crossing.
Ambassador Fernando Miguel Castillo said Gillen Tatis appeared to have been kidnapped in the Croix de Bouquet district, the capital of Haiti. The area is home to 400 Mawozo gangs who kidnapped 17 people from a group of US missionaries in October and detained most of them until December.
Dominican officials said he had given evidence to Haitian police from a diplomat’s cell phone indicating that he had been kidnapped.
Although it may have been an unrelated development, Haiti’s national police announced that Germine Joly, one of the top leaders of the 400 Mawozo gang, was handed over to the United States on an FBI plane on Tuesday.
He said he was facing US accusations, including smuggling, imports of war weapons, and kidnapping.
Jolly, known as “Yonyon,” was in Haiti’s prison for several years.
A police statement said his gang was involved in a bloody gang clash in the Croix-des-Bouquet area at the end of last month. At least 20 people were killed and thousands were displaced.
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