SANTO DOMINGO.- All commercial flights from the Dominican Republic to Haiti were canceled yesterday following the riots that have been occurring in that country and which on Friday spread to the area of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport, causing damage to aircraft and facilities.
The Director of Communications for Aeropuertos Dominicanos XXI (Aerodom), Luis López, announced that the Dominican airline HI Sunrise Airways announced the cancellation of three of its flights on the Port-au-Prince-Santo Domingo route.
López said the airline preferred to suspend its operations in view of the climate of violence and disorder that has been recorded in the vicinity of the Port-au-Prince airport.
Meanwhile, Air Century President Omar Chahín said that the airline's operations were also suspended due to the violence in Haiti.
Chahín indicated that Air Century flights were canceled this Friday and it is feared that tomorrow, if the tense situation in Haiti continues, they will also be suspended.
Both Sunrise Airways and Air Century operate regular weekly flights from El Higüero International Airport, “Doctor Joaquín Balaguer”, in Santo Domingo, to the Toussaint Louverture terminal in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
For his part, the president of the Civil Aviation Board, José Marte Piantini, assured yesterday, Friday, that the agency continues to monitor the disturbances and disorder occurring in Haiti.
He said that events are being monitored and that at the moment the closure of the airspace between the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti is not being considered.
He asserted that the acts of violence occurring in Haiti are a situation that the Dominican Republic had been denouncing to the international community.
“We have information that armed gangs have damaged aircraft that were parked at the airport,” noting that for now the Civil Aviation Board is not considering closing air traffic between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Marte Piantini clarified that the members of the armed gangs had not penetrated the airport perimeter, but remained in the vicinity of the airport terminal.
Strain
Yesterday, Friday, tensions ran high in Port-au-Prince with shootouts between police and armed gangs, after the Haitian capital awoke to apparent calm following the violent events of the previous day, which left at least five dead and around twenty wounded.
According to the latest tally from the Haitian Police Union, the number of officers who died on Thursday and whose bodies have not yet been recovered has risen to five.
Initially, it was reported that four police officers lost their lives when armed gangs attacked a police station in Bon Repos, in Canaan, north of the capital.
Faced with the extreme violence of these days, hundreds of people are fleeing the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince to provincial cities or other areas that until now have been less exposed to attacks by powerful armed gangs.
Some reports suggest that the gangs are planning to enter the capital's civilian prison, located in the city center, to free their colleagues who have been imprisoned there for years.
Source: Listín Diario.
