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WORLD NEWSTuesday 5 January 2016

Dominican migrant law helps some, strands others Governor says
Mexico mayor’s
EZEQUIEL LOPEZ ribbean just north of Haiti’s A much larger group, es- Quezada couldn’t get the killing a warning
Associated Press capital. timated at more than papers she needed for her-
SANTO DOMINGO, Domini- All this is possible because 300,000, faces a more un- self from the Haitian gov- by drug gang
can Republic (AP) — Cres- Ceus is one of about certain future. These are ernment or the Dominican
nel Ceus no longer lives in 184,000 people, mostly of people who either didn’t documents that the gov-
the shadows. For the first Haitian descent, who were meet criteria to gain formal ernment required for four of MARK STEVENSON
time in 15 years, the Haitian able to secure legal Do- residency or couldn’t get her five children. Only one Associated Press Writer
migrant can move about minican residency papers the necessary paperwork child, who was enrolled by MEXICO CITY (AP) — The
this country without fear this year under an initia- such as a Haitian birth cer- a Dominican father, is a governor of the southern
of being detained at any tive that has been fraught tificate or documents prov- citizen in the country where Mexican state of Morelos
all were born. said Monday that a drug
A deported Haitian man holds up his document that confirms he turned in paperwork to apply The sharply uneven situa- gang killed a newly inau-
for legal residency in the Dominican Republic during a march to the prime minister’s office to tion for non-citizens stems gurated mayor to con-
protest the DR’s deportation of Haitians in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The sharply uneven situation for from a 2013 ruling by the vince other officials to re-
non-citizens stems from a 2013 ruling by the Dominican Constitutional Court in a decades-long Dominican Constitutional ject state police control of
dispute over who is entitled to citizenship. Court in a decades-long local cops and allow car-
dispute over who is entitled tels to co-opt low-paid lo-
(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) to citizenship. The court cal police.
said people born to non- Governor Graco Ramirez
moment. He can get a for- with controversy and heart- ing they had been in the citizens were not automati- sent a post on his Twitter
mal job and perform such ache. Dominican Republic since cally entitled to citizenship. account blaming the mur-
routine acts as opening his For the lucky ones who before October 2011. The decision was extended der of Temixco Mayor Gise-
own bank account and managed to meet the cri- Chiara Ligouri, a researcher back to 1929, retroactively la Mota on the Rojos gang,
getting his own phone. teria for residency, and to with Amnesty International, stripping people of the right which has been fighting a
Perhaps most important to prove it in a place where said the organization is they believed they had bloody turf battle with the
Ceus, he can pack up his documentation is a chal- concerned about the fate since birth. Guerreros Unidos gang
fruit stall and take his two lenge, life has become of those born in this nation The ruling prompted inter- across the neighboring
children across the border easier. of about 10 million people national outrage. Human state of Guerrero.
to his native Haiti for the Ceus, whose stall is on a but lack residency. rights advocates said the Their rivalry may have
first time in their lives with- corner near the home of “These people are still in an decision left hundreds of played a role in the worst
out the fear that he won’t Dominican President Dani- undocumented situation; thousands of people ef- mass disappearance in
be allowed to return to the lo Medina, there is no more they do not have any type fectively stateless since recent memory, that of
Dominican Republic. fear that he could be taken of nationality,” Ligouri said. many had never been to 43 students in Guerrero in
“My kids are going to get into custody and deported Among those now in dan- their supposed homeland 2014. Some suspects told
to know Haiti,” the broad- at any moment or that he ger of deportation is Marti- across the border in Haiti. investigators that the Guer-
shouldered 37-year-old will suddenly lose his job as na Quezada. She was born As a compromise, the Do- reros Unidos mistook the
said as he looked forward he has before. in Haiti in 1975 but has lived minican government of- students for members of
to a Christmas holidays “Everything is good now,” in the Dominican Republic fered to recognize the the Rojos and used local
journey to his hometown of he said, brandishing his with her family since she nationality of those who police under their control
St. Marc, a town on the Ca- new migrant card. was a child. already had a Domini- to capture them.
can birth certificate. It also Ramirez said at a news
launched a program to conference Sunday that
provide legal residency to the killing was a warning
foreigners who could prove to local officials not to ac-
they had been living in the cept unified state control
country since before Octo- of police forces, a new sys-
ber 2011. tem aimed at combatting
The government said about corruption in local police
288,000 people applied for forces. “This is a message
residency, waiting in long and clear threat to the
lines at offices across the mayors who have recently
country. Of those, 239,000 taken office not to accept
submitted sufficient docu- the coordination plan and
ments. police framework that we
The government issued re- have been promoting,”
newable permits to 184,000 Ramirez said. Ramirez said
people such as Ceus and the state police plan has
says an additional 55,000 led to a decrease in the
will receive them in the wave of kidnappings, ex-
coming weeks. q tortions and drug gang kill-
ings that swept the state in
Haiti probe finds problems, but says vote can go ahead recent years. Many critics
have questioned whether
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) contest between 54 can- It also urges measures to the danger of sinking the the unified command will
— A commission probing didates was “stained by ir- improve the transparency country into a still-more- be cleaner or more effi-
Haiti’s disputed presidential regularities,” in which poll of the election, saying the serious crisis.” But it did not cient than the local forces
election reported this wek watchers intervened to dispute over the October indicate that the problems and the state government
that a first-round vote was help several candidates, vote shows “clearly that were serious enough to af- has struggled to convince
plagued by irregularities, whom it doesn’t name. It the electoral institution no fect the outcome of the mayors to give up con-
but indicated a final run-off recommends possible legal longer enjoys the credibility October vote or force fur- trol of officers who are a
can take place as sched- action against poll workers that permits it to continue ther delay of the planned source of influence, pro-
uled in two weeks. and others involved. with the process without Jan. 17 run-off.q tection and often income
from bribes. q
The report says the Oct. 25