dominican republic tourist deaths alcohol

FBI testing shows no tainted alcohol in Dominican Republic tourist deaths

The FBI has released toxicology test results related to the deaths of three U.S. tourists in the Dominican Republic, according to the U.S. Department of State.

The results of the toxicology testing to date have been "consistent with the findings of local authorities ," who have said there was no indication of foul play or physical violence in either case, a spokesperson for the State Department told USA TODAY.

The toxicology reports were for cases involving  Miranda Schaup-Werner , who died May 25 in her hotel room, and  Cynthia Day and Nathaniel Holmes , who died on May 30 at a sister resort.

Early reports indicated Schaup-Werner, 41, of Pennsylvania, collapsed after consuming a drink from the minibar at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville. Dominican authorities later said she died of a heart attack.

Holmes, 63, and Day, 49, a couple from Maryland, were found dead in their hotel room at the Playa Nueva Romana resort. Preliminary autopsy results released by Dominican authorities indicated the couple died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, a condition caused by excess fluid in the lungs, according to CNN and CBS News .

The test results have been provided to the Dominican government and to the families of the deceased.

The tests conducted ruled out several potential causes of death for Day and Holmes, including methanol poisoning from tainted alcohol, the spokesperson said.

At least 10 U.S. tourists have died  in the Dominican Republic since March. CNN  reported in June the FBI was assisting with toxicology analysis in three of the deaths. 

USA TODAY has asked the State Department about additional cases. 

After some of the deaths led to questions about hotel room minibars, the Hard Rock Casino took the precaution of  removing liquor dispensers from guest rooms there as well as at its Mexican properties. 

In August, a  resort temporarily closed  after thousands of visitors canceled following a woman's report she had been beaten at the property.

In the wake of the reported deaths, the country began elevating safety regulations and enforcing food and drink inspections. 

In September , the Dominican Republic Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier García held a briefing to discuss the ministry's commitment to tourist safety, announcing a National Committee of Tourism Security.

"Dominican Republic is a country that tries to safeguard the lives of tourists," said García.

Contributing: Julia Thompson

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Dominican tourist deaths were from natural causes, not tainted alcohol, FBI says

• Josh Fiallo Former Times Reporter

News of American tourists dying in the Dominican Republic swept the United States earlier this year, with family members of victims alleging that foul play was potentially a factor.

News of the deaths went viral, along with the sense that “poisoned” or “counterfeit” alcohol served at resort bars was to blame. That belief is not true in three cases, however, according to the FBI, which determined Monday that three of the investigated deaths were simply from natural causes.

“Methanol poisoning from tainted alcohol was ruled out by the FBI in these cases during the toxicology screening, and it was not the finding in any other cases of U.S. citizen deaths investigated by Dominican authorities," a State Department spokesperson told The Hill in a statement.

The Dominican Republic’s tourism minister said in June that the deaths were a statistically normal phenomenon that was being lumped together by the U.S. media. The numbers back up his statement.

According to the State Department’s website, 17 Americans died while traveling to the Dominican Republic in 2017. In 2018, there were 13 deaths reported. Between January and June of this year, 10 people died.

While the FBI’s report backs up local authorities’ original findings that there was no foul play involved, the damage inflicted by reports surrounding the deaths on the island republic’s tourism industry has already taken its toll.

ForwardKeys, which analyzes more than 17 million flight bookings a day, released a report in June that showed summer bookings to the Dominican from the United States fell by 74.3 percent compared to the same period in 2018.

“My deepest sympathies go out to the families of the American tourists who have passed away," Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights at ForwardKeys, said in a statement. "Their recent and tragic deaths appear to have had a dramatic impact on travel to the Dominican Republic. Our analysis of leisure travel shows a striking correlation.”

The deaths also prompted Delta Airlines in June to allow travelers to reschedule their flights to Punta Cana “due to recent events.” The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana also announced it would be removing the liquor dispensers from all rooms because of “guest feedback.”

Former Times Reporter

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Is Counterfeit Alcohol Behind the Dominican Republic Deaths?

By Ej Dickson

Over the past few months, a string of mysterious U.S. tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic has caught the attention of tourists all over the world. To date, there have been at least 10 tourist deaths connected to the Dominican Republic in the last year alone, with the latest  tourist, L ouisiana woman Susan Simoneaux , dying a week after returning from her honeymoon in Punta Cana. Although an autopsy report is currently pending, like many of the other tourists who died after visiting the island, Simoneaux was reported to have had fluid in her lungs at the time of her death — and while Dominican Republic officials are insisting that the deaths are unrelated and that the island is still safe to visit, many are wondering just what the hell is going on.

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To date, the most widely reported theory regarding the U.S. tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic is that they may have been linked to counterfeit alcohol , or bootleg liquor. This theory primarily stems from the fact that several of the deceased tourists, such as Pennsylvania women Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, who died of a heart attack on May 25th; Yvette Monique Short, 51, who died in June 2018; and Robert Bell Wallace, 67, who died in April, all had drinks from the minibar prior to falling ill, albeit at two different resorts and on three separate occasions. (Schaup-Werner was staying at the Grand Bahia Principe Bouganville Hotel, while Wallace was staying at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana; Sport was staying at the Bahia Principe in Punta Cana.)

On May 30th, a Maryland couple, Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Day, 49, was also found dead in their rooms at the Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana. Although it is unclear whether Holmes and Day also drank from the minibar prior to their deaths, Holmes, Day, and Schaup-Werner were all found to have fluid in their lungs at the time of their deaths, a condition known as pulmonary edema.

According to the New York Post , FBI investigators are looking into the counterfeit alcohol theory by comparing alcohol samples from at least one of the resorts, the Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana, to blood samples from the victims. The FBI is reportedly trying to determine what type of liquor the tourists drank before their deaths, as well as whether the liquor was counterfeit or tainted with any dangerous chemicals.

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But how, exactly, does counterfeit liquor end up in hotels, resorts, or restaurants — and what kinds of chemicals could be linked to such mysterious deaths? Here’s what we know about the counterfeit alcohol theory, and what we don’t.

What is counterfeit alcohol, and why is it dangerous? Counterfeit alcohol is essentially bootleg liquor, produced outside the context of regulated alcohol production. “It is often cheaply produced and always unregulated but can appear to look and smell like alcohol produced by a licensed supplier,” Michael Bilello, the senior vice president of communications and marketing for the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), tells Rolling Stone . The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD) differentiates counterfeit alcohol from other forms of bootleg alcohol, in that it is defined as a “fraudulent imitations of legitimate branded products.”

Counterfeit alcohol can sometimes be made or laced with substances such as embalming fluid, battery acid, or methanol, a synthetic chemical that is used in antifreeze and windshield wiper fluid. Even small amounts of methanol can be toxic, if not lethal, to humans, says Bilello. “It can cause a variety of symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, blindness, and even death,” he said. Sometimes, this can happen after just one drink.

Where have there been reports of counterfeit alcohol being sold? There have been reports of deaths related to toxic bootleg alcohol all over the world, from Iran to Indonesia to Mexico. Earlier this year, there were at least 150 deaths linked to methyl alcohol poisoning in the state of Assam in India, which officials attributed to the sale of bootleg “country-made liquor” containing methanol. While not unheard of, there are relatively few counterfeit alcohol-related deaths in the United States, in large part due to a more rigorously regulated alcohol sales and distribution system than in other countries.

In the Dominican Republic specifically, “we’re unaware of regulators monitoring counterfeit alcohol,” Bilello says. But according to a 2018 IARD report , nearly 29% of total alcohol sales on the island are from illegal alcohol sales, according to a 2018 IARD report ; though that number encompasses all unregulated alcohol sales and does not refer to counterfeit alcohol sales alone.

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What is the evidence that counterfeit alcohol is linked to the deaths in the Dominican Republic? As of now, there is none: it’s just a working theory, and Dominican Republic officials and resort owners have continued to maintain that the recent spate of tourist deaths is little more than a coincidence. The Bahia Principe has issued a statement on social media reassuring guests of the safety of the island and disputing the veracity of many of the media reports on the tourist deaths; one of the hotel chains linked to the recent tourist deaths, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, reassured guests that it is in the process of removing liquor dispensers from all guests’ rooms and is contracting a U.S.-based third party testing lab “to provide inspections and laboratory testing of all food and beverage products and public spaces,”  according to a statement sent to  Rolling Stone .  

In an interview with the Cut , however, Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensic science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, did note that the effects of methanol poisoning are consistent with what was reported from some of the publicly released details from the tourists’ autopsies, such as fluid in the lungs and heart and respiratory failure.

“The heart will pump faster, blood pressure will increase, and the victim will breathe more rapidly, trying to acquire more oxygen into their lungs,” he told the Cut. “There are neurological effects as well, and the toxicity will also affect contractility of the heart muscle, causing heart failure. This can result in pulmonary edema and acute respiratory distress.”

How can you avoid drinking counterfeit alcohol? While traveling, Bilello says, it’s best to look for the “four Ps”: place, product, price, and packaging. You should only purchase alcohol from licensed bars, restaurants, and retailers, rather than buying booze from a remote location or drinking anything offered to you by a stranger. It’s also a good idea to stick to drinking only brands you recognize. Even so, it’s important to check the label on the bottle for “misspelled words,” says Bilello; it’s also crucial to check the glue on the label to make sure it is firmly secured, as well as the seal on the bottle to ensure it hasn’t been tampered with.

To ensure you’re not ingesting any liquid that has been packaged under poor or unhygienic conditions, turn the bottle upside down and see how the bubbles rise. You should never drink any beverage that contains unidentified particles or sediment.

And as tempting as it may be to purchase a bottle of whiskey from a local store at an extremely low price, Bilello advises against it.

“If the price seems too cheap to be true, it probably is,” he says. “Be mindful of cheap, discount products.”

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FBI Probing Why Some U.S. Tourists Have Died Mysteriously In The Dominican Republic

Bobby Allyn

Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic is a popular vacation spot among American tourists. Federal investigators are now probing why a spate of people have died suddenly over the past year while visiting the island country. ullstein bild via Getty Images hide caption

Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic is a popular vacation spot among American tourists. Federal investigators are now probing why a spate of people have died suddenly over the past year while visiting the island country.

Updated at 10:10 p.m. ET

The FBI is now helping local authorities in the Dominican Republic examine the mysterious deaths of three Americans who were staying at resorts in the island country in recent weeks, an FBI official has confirmed to NPR.

Since news of the deaths has spread, relatives of four additional Americans who died there over the past year have raised concerns.

Although there are similarities in the seven deaths — most are described as happening suddenly, and several after an alcoholic drink — federal officials have not determined whether there is any connection between any of the deaths.

Relatives of those who have died are demanding answers, just as tourism officials in the country are calling the incidents unrelated and isolated.

Robin Bernstein, the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, said the FBI is conducting toxicology analyses, a process that could take up to a month to complete.

"The safety and security of U.S. citizens that live in, work in, and visit the Dominican Republic remains our highest priority," Bernstein said. "These incidents are tragic and we offer our deepest condolences to those personally impacted."

Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, of Pennsylvania died suddenly on May 25 after checking in to a resort with her husband to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her lungs became filled with fluid, which led to respiratory failure, not long after consuming a drink from a minibar in the couple's hotel room, according to authorities in the Dominican Republic.

Just five days later at a resort owned by the same company, a Maryland couple, Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, were discovered dead in their resort hotel room of the same cause, investigators said.

Both establishments are owned by Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts, which issued a statement saying that its employees followed all of its security protocols.

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"To date, there are no indications of any correlation between these two unfortunate incidents," according to the hotel's statement .

Since then, family members of other Americans who have died under similar circumstances over the past year have gone public.

Yvette Monique Sport, 51, of Pennsylvania died last June at a Bahia Principe hotel after she drank a beverage from the hotel's minibar, her family told NBC10.

David Harrison, 45, of Maryland, died last July at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino while visiting the Caribbean country, and The Washington Post reported that autopsy results show that Harrison's cause of death was a heart attack.

Another American died after drinking at the same Hard Rock Resort, his family told CBS. He was in the Dominican Republic vacationing, according to his obituary , which said he died "unexpectedly."

On Wednesday, Barbara Corcoran, real estate investor and judge on the TV show Shark Tank, said her brother John was also found dead in his hotel room of an apparent heart attack while vacationing in the Dominican Republic. According to public records, Corcoran was 65 years old. A Facebook post from a community group in Edgewater, N.J., where Corcoran lived, confirmed he died on April 21.

Bernstein, the U.S. ambassador, said federal officials are aware of the other families who have voiced concern about loved ones abruptly dying while on vacation in the Dominican Republic.

"At this time, we have no indication of any connection between those tragic losses and the cases currently under investigation," Bernstein said.

More than 6 million people visit the Dominican Republic every year, according to the country's tourism officials . Nearly half of the millions who visit come from the United States.

The Dominican Republic's minister of tourism, Francisco Javier García, cautioned against speculating over the cause of deaths for the Americans who have recently died.

"We are confident that we can provide a definitive answer as soon as possible," said García. "You can also be sure that the necessary measures will be taken to make the country even safer for all visitors."

The mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic reportedly may be linked to illicit alcohol, and it wouldn’t be the first time

• The Dominican Republic has experienced a widely publicized spate of unexplained tourist deaths, and authorities are reportedly looking at bootleg alcohol as a potential culprit.
• A number of citizens of the Dominican Republic and Haiti reportedly died after drinking a local bootleg alcohol called cléren in 2017.
• But the problem isn't local to the Dominican Republic. Mass poisonings due to unregulated alcohol are unfortunately a deadly global phenomenon.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Illicit alcohol can be deadly.

Unregulated booze may be the culprit behind a recent slew of unexplained deaths in the Dominican Republic. The New York Post first reported that Dominican Republic police are investigating the possibility that counterfeit alcohol has poisoned at least seven US tourists in the country over the past year.

If these suspicions around bootleg booze are indeed correct, then these deaths are just the latest example of the fatal impact of illicit alcohol in the Dominican Republic.

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In 2017, nine people in the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti died after drinking local alcohol known as "clerén" or "triculi," a beverage distilled from sugar cane. The alcohol was reportedly traced back to a local business in the Haitian village of Los Cacaos, according to Dominican Today .

The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking released a report estimating that illicit alcohol made up for 29% of total alcohol in the Dominican Republic. But "illicit alcohol" doesn't simply mean illegally distilled liquor; it can be broken down into several distinct categories.

Read more : Dominican Republic officials are reportedly investigating whether recent tourist deaths were caused by counterfeit alcohol

Informal alcohol, or drinks produced "outside of a regulatory framework and whose production and consumption tend to follow cultural and artisanal practices" could include legal or illegal home brewing operations, according to the IARD.

Contraband alcohol is any beverage that's illegally smuggled into a country. Counterfeit alcohol is defined as "fraudulent imitations of legitimate branded products," while non-conforming alcohol encompasses all "products that are not compliant with production processes, guidelines, or labeling legislation."

In the Dominican Republic, the IARD estimated that illicit alcohol cost the country a total of $262 million. The Caribbean nation's black market of alcohol was reported to break down into 69% distilled drinks, 0.1% fermented beverages, and 30% "other" forms of alcohol.

Roughly one third of the country's illicit alcohol came about due to "tax leakage," which refers to the practice of skipping out on the excise tax in the jurisdiction of legally produced alcohol beverages. And half of the illicit alcohol referred to contraband drinks.

In April, the Dominican Rum Producers Association advocated to curtail the alcohol in the country's black market . 

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American deaths in the Dominican Republic: What we know

At least eight Americans have died in their rooms at resorts in the Dominican Republic under somewhat mysterious circumstances since the start of the year, according to news reports. Some of the victims are said to have consumed alcohol before falling ill.

Besides the deaths, dozens of people have reported getting sick while at island resorts, including 47 Jimmy Buffet fans who, People magazine reported, became violently ill during a tour to the Dominican Republic in April.

Here’s what we know and don’t know about the mystery.

Who are the Americans who died?

Joseph Allen, 55, of Avenel, N.J., was found dead June 13 in a hotel room at the Terra Linda in Sousa after complaining to friends he did not feel well, WABC-TV reported.

Leyla Cox, 53, of Staten Island, N.Y., died June 11 while on a return visit to the Excellence resort in Punta Cana to celebrate her birthday, her son told NBC News. Will Cox said his family was trying to find out the circumstances surrounding his mother’s death.

Cynthia Ann Day, 49, and Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63, of Maryland, were found dead in their room May 30 at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana after they did not check out as planned.

Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, of Allentown, Pa., fell ill and died May 25 after checking into the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville and taking a drink from the minibar.

John Corcoran, a retired roofing and siding executive in his 60s from Edgewater, N.J., and brother of “Shark Tank” star Barbara Corcoran, was found dead at the end of April in his room at an unidentified hotel in the Dominican Republic, Fox News reported.

Robert Bell Wallace, 67, of California, died April 14 after drinking a scotch from the minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana and getting sick, his family told Fox News.

Jerry Curran, 78, a retiree living in Florida, died in January after falling ill following dinner and drinks the night of his arrival at Dreams Resort in Punta Cana, family members told WKYC-TV in Cleveland.

What were the causes of death?

No causes have been reported yet in the deaths of Allen, Cox and Wallace, but Dominican Republic officials and the resorts have said the others died of natural causes.

The deaths of Day, Holmes and Schaup-Werner were attributed to enlarged hearts, internal bleeding and pulmonary edema or fluid in the lungs.

Curran’s daughter, Kellie Brown, told WKYC that pulmonary edema was among the causes listed in his death.

Corcoran’s family said his cause of death was listed as a heart attack. Both Corcoran and Schaup-Werner had previous heart conditions, their families said.

Toxicology tests either are still pending or have not been officially reported in any of the cases.

Suspicions surrounding bootleg liquor, toxins

Investigators are looking into bootleg liquor as a possible cause in the tourist deaths, the New York Post reported.

In 2017, Dominican National Police dismantled five labs used for the manufacture of alcohol not safe for human consumption after five residents died from drinking tainted booze, according to the Post and NBC News.

Experts say another possibility is exposure to toxic chemicals like the pesticide that poisoned a Delaware family on a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2015. In that case, a man and his two sons experienced paralysis and were hospitalized for an extended period after they were sickened by methyl bromide, which was banned for indoor residential use in 1984 but had been used to treat the condo where they were staying.

What is the United States doing?

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI are assisting in the investigations, officials said.

“The U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo is actively working with the government of the Dominican Republic and the private sector at the highest levels to ensure that U.S. citizens are safe and feel safe while in the Dominican Republic,” the embassy said in a statement.

The State Department has not issued an advisory against traveling to the Dominican Republic but already warns tourist to use caution on the island because of the level of violent crime, The Washington Post reports. It also warns travelers not to drink alcohol alone or with new acquaintances, or to leave drinks unattended. U.S. citizens have been the targets of “date rape drugs” at parties and resorts, according to the warning.

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Is Tainted Alcohol to Blame for Deaths and Sickness in the Dominican Republic? A Doctor Weighs In

Three of the victims drank from their hotel minibars before falling ill

In the past year, according to the U.S. State Department, at least eight American tourists have died after falling ill at Dominican Republic resorts — and dozens more have gotten sick .

The FBI and CDC have confirmed it is investigating the deaths of at least six of the tourists who have died since the summer of 2018. Some of them passed away in what appear to be bizarre — and similar — circumstances. The agencies are not yet releasing further details about the investigations.

“It’s definitely very strange,” Reynold A. Panettieri Jr., a physician at Rutgers University who specializes in toxicology, tells PEOPLE. “Healthy people don’t just die. And the couple dying at the same time certainly tips us off that something is very wrong.”

Three of the victims — Robert Wallace, Miranda Schaup-Werner and Monique Sport — had a drink from their hotel minibar before falling ill, leading many people to believe that tainted alcohol could be the culprit. Panettieri says that’s a plausible theory.

“It is possible for drinks from the minibar to contain a toxin,” he tells PEOPLE, “so if that’s the common denominator, that’s always a possibility.”

• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

The New York Post reports investigators in the Dominican Republic are investigating whether counterfeit alcohol has played a role in some deaths.

• For more on the mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic, subscribe now to PEOPLE or pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.

The report says authorities are investigating who supplied the alcohol the victims drank before they died, and if the drinks had any toxic chemicals in them. A source told the Post the FBI is assisting and will take blood samples from the victims back to its research center in Quantico, Virginia.

Currently, the CDC and the FBI are investigating four deaths at various Grand Bahia Principe properties: Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, were found dead in their hotel room May 30 at the Bahia Principle La Romana. Five days earlier, Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, collapsed shortly after mixing a drink from the minibar in the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville in La Romana. Last year, Pennsylvania native Yvette Monique Sport , 51, collapsed at the Bahia Príncipe resort in Punta Cana.

Additionally, authorities are investigating the deaths of two Americans at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana. David Harrison, 45, died in July 2018. Robert Bell Wallace, 67, died last April.

“This will be a long investigation,” Panettieri tells PEOPLE. “But they’ll figure it out.”

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Tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic are sparking concern among travelers

It’s not yet clear whether the deaths of 10 Americans over the past year are connected.

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Ten known US tourists have died at Dominican Republic resorts, or at the hospital immediately following resort stays — including three within five days, and two within three days — in just over a year.

Now over a dozen more visitors who fell dangerously ill on vacation in the Dominican Republic are coming forward. Sicknesses reportedly set in quickly, marked by frequently cited symptoms of abdominal pain, nausea, and sweating; guests’ descriptions of a “chemical smell” in hotel rooms; and a pattern of minibar liquor consumption before indicators of illness set in.

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Tourism attributes these deaths to natural causes; local and US federal authorities, however, are investigating the incidents that have left some Americans travelers uneasy , and the future of the Dominican Republic’s robust tourism industry uncertain.

What we know about the deaths so far

The incidents occurred at a collection of resorts on the island: the Terra Linda Resort in Sousa, the Excellence Resorts in Punta Cana, the Grand Bahia Principe in Punta Cana, the Grand Bahia Principe in La Romana, and the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana.

At least three of the people who died reportedly began experiencing symptoms after having a drink from the minibar in their rooms. The US Embassy in Santo Domingo confirmed earlier this month that the FBI were dispatched to the island to conduct toxicology reports , and the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Health announced that samples from the minibar in the guest room of Cynthia Day and Nathaniel Holmes of Maryland, who were both found dead on May 30 in their room at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana, were undergoing testing. On Monday, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino announced that it’d be removing liquor from minibars in its guest rooms.

As forensic scientist Lawrence Kobilinsky told the Cut , many of the victims’ symptoms might suggest methanol poisoning. Methanol is a toxic, synthetic chemical normally used in antifreeze that’s also used, illegally, to create counterfeit alcohol . Consuming even a small amount of pure methanol can lead to pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs, and respiratory distress — two of the official causes of death listed for Day and Holmes. They’re also two of the official causes of death listed for Miranda Schaup-Werner of Pennsylvania, who also died at Grand Bahia Principe La Romana, after reportedly having a drink from her hotel room minibar, just five days before Day and Holmes’s deaths.

The toxicology reports for Day, Holmes, and Schaup-Werner have not yet been released; the FBI said in mid-June that answers could be another 30 days coming.

Some recent travelers, however, suspect that they were exposed to fumes emitted from the air conditioners in their rooms. CNN reports that one Denver couple, Kaylynn Knull and Tom Schwander sued the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana — the same resort where Day and Holmes stayed — earlier this year for illnesses that occurred during a trip last July. Knull and Schwander described a “chemical smell” overtaking their room, an odor similar to paint or industrial cleaner.

Soon after, they said they experienced excruciating stomach cramps, diarrhea, bloody stool, incessant sweats and drool, watery eyes, and dizziness. Back home in Denver, their doctors wondered whether they’d been exposed to organophosphates — chemicals most often used in pesticides.

Knull said she thought back on what she had seen days earlier: A maintenance person spraying palm plants that covered air conditioning units just outside their room. ”I wondered if someone sprayed our unit. [...] They are always constantly out there taking care of the plants. We saw them out there with bug sprayers.”

Other tourists told CNN that they too became sick after they inhaled what they described as a chemical, paint-like smell, at the Majestic Elegance Resort in Punta Cana in 2017, and at the Grand Bahia Principe Punta Cana going back to 2016.

As the New York Times reports , poisoning or pesticide exposure is even more likely when more than one person experiences the same outcome on the same timeline, as was the case with Day and Holmes. Chemicals like organophosphates, adds the Times, can “seep into a vent that is not adequately sealed, or be sucked inside by a hotel air conditioner.” Current scientific literature indicates that organophosphate poisoning can lead to respiratory failure in some cases.

Tourism drives much of the Dominican Republic’s’s economy, employing more than 300,000 people and drawing a reported 6.6 million international travelers in 2018. A report on the Dominican Republic’s economy from the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service says that the Dominican government aims to draw 10 million tourists — roughly the size of its current population — by 2020, “generating estimated revenues of US $7.2 billion.”

It’s not yet clear if this is all a coincidence

Preliminary autopsies conducted by Dominican authorities have been released by the resorts for several of the 10 Americans known to have died in the past year. In addition to pulmonary edema and respiratory failure, the causes of death for the tourists have included pneumonia, multiple organ failure, and an exceptionally common one: heart attack. According to Tourism Minister Javier Garcia , five of the deaths can be categorized as “natural causes.”

The Excellence Resorts in Punta Cana told the family of Leyla Cox of New York City that she died in her room on June 10 of a heart attack. Her son Brian Cox remains skeptical, telling WCBS, “I do not believe it was of natural causes.”

It’s not yet clear what caused this spate of heart attacks, respiratory failures, and food poisoning-like illnesses. And it’s also not clear if these catastrophic events, similar as they are in geographic location, presenting symptoms, and outcome, are connected. Neither the US Embassy nor the Dominican Ministry of Public Health has acknowledged the possibility of a connection — in fact, Garcia has said , “These cases are very regrettable, but isolated.”

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Tourism asks that the public look at these recent deaths in context: Many millions of people travel to the Dominican Republic each year and don’t fall seriously ill or die. A statement released by the ministry earlier this month references statistics and polls conducted by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic. The “rate of tourist incidents” in 2018, the ministry says, fell to 1.4 per 100,000 tourists from 1.6 the previous year. It also highlights that 99 percent of American tourists told their survey that they’d return to the Dominican Republic for future vacations.

Nevertheless, US travelers are concerned by recent news, to say the least. CNBC cites a survey from the American Society of Travel Advisors revealing that two-thirds of its members have canceled trips to the Dominican Republic for clients within one week. CBS News adds that flights to the Dominican Republic from the US are down 74.3 percent from this time last year, with canceled flights up by 51.2 percent in recent weeks, according to data from flight analysis agency ForwardKeys. The State Department’s most recent Travel Advisory on the Dominican Republic — from April — places the country as a Level 2, with the directive, “Exercise Increased Caution.” The rationale: crime.

“Here we are talking about nine people, but there are countries in the area where 10 times the number of Americans have died there,” the Dominican Republic’s tourism board reportedly said at a press conference on June 21, as covered by NBC News . (Details on the tenth death, of New York native Vittorio Caruso on June 17, hadn’t yet been released.) “But all eyes are on us.”

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Tourist deaths in Dominican Republic were due to natural causes: FBI

The FBI's findings were consistent with what local authorities said.

Toxicology tests done by the FBI have confirmed that three American tourists found dead this spring in the Dominican Republic died of natural causes, the U.S. State Department said.

The results were consistent with the findings of local authorities, according to a statement from the State Department on Friday.

Miranda Schaupp-Werner, 41, from Pennsylvania, was found dead at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville hotel on May 25.

(MORE: FBI involved in probe of deaths of US citizens at Dominican Republic luxury resorts)

Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, a couple from Maryland, were found dead in their hotel room at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana Resort in San Pedro de Macoris on May 30.

Steven Bullock, a family spokesperson for the Day and Holmes families, said the families have yet to hear any updates from authorities regarding their loved one's deaths.

"The Day and Holmes families have not been provided with any information from the FBI or the Dominican Republic Authorities regarding the deaths," Bullock said in a statement to ABC News. "The only information that has been received by the families is what is being reported in the media. Our investigation is continuing, and we will not have any further comment until we receive the results of our investigation. Thank you."

The FBI was assisting in the probe at the neighboring resorts in the Caribbean nation.

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Their deaths were among the first of at least 11 Americans to die in the country in recent months, setting off a flurry of panic as to whether it was safe to visit the Dominican Republic.

(MORE: 11th American to die in Dominican Republic died of 'natural causes,' government says)

The U.S. State Department said back in June that, despite the deaths, it had not seen an "uptick" in fatal incidents.

The spokesperson said that more than 2.7 million U.S. citizens visit the Dominican Republic each year and, as in most countries, "the overwhelming majority travel without incident."

Schaup-Werner died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, according to the hotel. An autopsy performed on Holmes and Day determined that they died of the same causes, according to the Dominican Republic National Police.

The families of the three Americans have been informed of the FBI toxicology reports.

ABC News' Stephanie Wash contributed to this report.

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Counterfeit alcohol, sometimes containing jet fuel or embalming fluid, is a growing concern for tourists abroad

Professor, Epidemiology and Public Health, Georgia State University

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The news about the tragic deaths of several American tourists in the Dominican Republic in May 2019 has created an outcry and a media frenzy. As of June 30, there were at least nine deaths with similar circumstances in the past few months. The FBI and Dominican authorities are investigating , and one theory is that alcohol was the cause of these deaths.

The FBI has reportedly taken samples of alcohol for testing , and the hotels where some tourists died have removed alcohol from the minibars in the hotel rooms. But the concerns are growing, and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on June 30, 2019 recommended that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should aid the ongoing investigation.

Many may find it puzzling that alcohol, particularly adulterated or counterfeit alcohol, could possibly have caused these deaths. But, some experts seem to agree that the symptoms and circumstances fit the indicators of deaths caused by adulterated alcohol .

As a professor of public health, I need to note that research now shows that no amount of alcohol is considered safe in terms of your health, and that alcohol is linked to many cancers and heart disease and is also a key contributor to traffic crashes, violence and suicide. Even so, counterfeit or illegally made alcohol brings a new level of risk, as it is not monitored for safety and may include added ingredients, such as methanol , known to be extremely harmful to health.

Fake, illegal and adulterated

Thanks to rigorous regulation of alcohol, Americans may not see or hear much about counterfeit alcohol in the U.S. , but in many other parts of the world counterfeit or “illegal” alcohol is more common and a growing public health concern .

Counterfeit or illegal alcohol is part of a larger category described as “unrecorded” alcohol because it is not recorded in official statistics and not monitored for quality or for taxation. The World Health Organization estimates that 25% of the alcohol consumed worldwide is unrecorded.

Counterfeit alcohol is typically meant to resemble legitimate alcohol, such as finer wines and expensive spirits, in terms of its look, taste and packaging. But there are also other types of alcohol that are typically considered illegal, such as “moonshine” or “bootleg” alcohol, or simply alcohol that is made under less rigorous processes and that have added ingredients to make the alcohol faster or cheaper.

One of the key aspects of counterfeit or illegal alcohol is that producers distill the alcohol more cheaply and quickly using dangerous shortcuts in the process, such as adding water and methanol , also known as methyl alcohol, which is highly toxic . Methanol is not intended for human consumption and can cause liver damage, blindness and death if consumed. Earlier this year, toxic alcohol killed at least 154 people in India because it was tainted with methanol.

Alcohol that has special ingredients added is usually described as adulterated alcohol. Sometimes, those who make counterfeit alcohol will add ingredients not only to make it cheaper but also to improve the taste or strengthen the high. The added ingredients may vary.

For example, in Kenya, one of the popular illegally brewed types of alcohol is called Chang-aa or “Kill me quick.” That is because it usually has a very high alcohol concentration and is often also adulterated with harmful ingredients such as pilfered jet fuel or spiked with embalming fluid from mortuaries. This type of alcohol is usually consumed in the urban slums among those vulnerable and poor who want the cheapest type of alcohol with the biggest “high.”

Siphoning sales from legit booze

INTERPOL , the International Criminal Police Organization, claims that counterfeit alcohol is a top concern globally. In 2018, during one operation, it reported that “16,000 tonnes and 33 million liters of potentially dangerous fake food and drink was seized worth an estimated $117 million .” In Europe , wine and spirits are in the top five sectors for lost sales.

Counterfeit wine is becoming more common and now represents a billion-dollar market . In China, for example, counterfeit wine is so common it has been referred to as an epidemic , especially in terms of finer wines.

According to Forbes, Asian buyers comprise the majority of buyers of fine wines (60%) sold at Sotheby auctions across the world. And, it turns out that a very expensive bottle of wine sold at Christie’s in London for US$157,000, which set a record at that time in 1985, was a fake .

But even more recently, in May 2019, an operation in Ukraine seized a large operation of counterfeit alcohol beverages.

More than money at stake

Even though lost revenue is a big concern for law enforcement and businesses, travel advisories for Americans traveling abroad are sometimes issued because of the risk posed by tainted alcohol. One was issued in 2017 to a resort in Mexico . Similarly, in June 2019, there was a notification that 23 people died and 10 patients were undergoing treatment for alcohol tainted with methanol in Nigeria .

The reality is that counterfeit or toxic alcohol is common in many places of the world, even in places you may not expect. So the next time you travel abroad and reach for an alcoholic beverage, particularly a finer wine or spirit, take a second look at that bottle.

The travel experts at the U.S. Overseas Security Advisory Council made a list of tips for alcohol consumption while abroad. In particular, they recommend to tourists traveling abroad:

Don’t drink homemade or counterfeit “booze.”

Don’t overdo it.

Don’t compete with locals and their brew.

Don’t let your drink out of sight.

Also, there are some tips for spotting fake alcohol by the Trading Standards Institute in the U.K. It is key to remember to pay attention to the place, price, packaging and product, the group says. Most importantly, if the alcohol tastes or smells bad, don’t drink it.

The medical and public health community is growing more concerned about the dangerous effects of alcohol, as new research show that there is no safe amount of alcohol . That said, if you choose to drink, especially while abroad, make sure the alcohol you drink is the real thing, and keep it shaken or stirred, but not poisoned.

[ You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter . ]

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Crisis Hits Dominican Republic Over Deaths of U.S. Tourists

By Simon Romero and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

• June 23, 2019

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The tourism minister grimaced as he read aloud the causes of death in autopsy reports of the growing number of Americans who have died recently while vacationing in the Dominican Republic: Heart attack. Septic shock. Pneumonia.

More accustomed to ribbon-cutting ceremonies than to grappling with the uproar over Americans turning up dead in their hotel rooms, the minister, Francisco Javier García, insisted that the authorities had nothing to hide.

“There is no mystery whatsoever regarding any of these deaths,” said Mr. García, even as he acknowledged that the F.B.I. was investigating what had happened to a Maryland couple found dead in their room at an all-inclusive resort in La Romana on May 30.

That puzzling episode helped ignite the crisis now encircling the Dominican Republic’s tourism industry, a pillar of the Caribbean country’s economy that employs more than 300,000 people. At least 10 American tourists have died in the country over the past year, and separate reports are emerging of Americans being assaulted at Dominican resorts. Together, the trends cast a harsh light on safety procedures and blundering responses to some incidents involving tourists, even in cases where the victims seem to have died from natural causes.

Hitting back at the alarms raised by relatives of the dead Americans, Dominican officials assert that the number of deaths in recent months is no greater than would be expected statistically in a country visited by more than 2 million Americans each year.

The United States government, which holds remarkable sway in the Dominican Republic compared with some other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America, appears to support the Dominican government’s contention that the alarm over the deaths may be exaggerated.

“We have not seen an uptick in the number of U.S. citizen deaths reported to the Department,” said an official with the State Department, who was not authorized to give their name.

Of the 10 Americans who have died in the Dominican Republic over the last year, six have reportedly died of heart-related conditions, including one whose family said they do not view the death as suspicious. (Cardiovascular problems account for nearly half of all American tourist deaths abroad, according to the Centers for Disease Control.)

Three others, including the Maryland couple, were reported to have had respiratory issues, and one man’s family said he fell ill and died after drinking whisky from a hotel minibar, although Dominican authorities say his death was caused by septic shock, multiple organ failure and pneumonia.

With the latest reports, the Dominican Republic’s tourism industry, and its wager on luring vacationers to colossal all-inclusive resorts, are coming under international glare. These palatial complexes often combine ostentation, minimal contact with local communities and abundant opportunities for overindulgence.

At one resort where two Americans have died, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, a suite for two goes for about $500 a night. For that price, guests eat all they want, drink all they want, gamble all they want, play golf or water polo or laser tag, even engage in the fantasy of being a guitar-shredding rock star — without ever leaving the resort’s confines.

Despite the concerns over the recent deaths, the Hard Rock was hardly depleted of guests last week. Families from Brazil chatted in Portuguese as they gorged on sirloin in the all-you-can-eat barbecue restaurant; Russian-speaking gamblers tested their luck at casino tables near a sequin-adorned stretch limousine that Madonna once used.

Dominicans working at the hotel greeted guests in English while Creole-speaking groundskeepers from Haiti cared for the manicured gardens outside. Several Americans and Canadians guzzled cups of Presidente beer around breakfast time at a beachfront cabana.

“If there’s one thing I know, it’s don’t be guided by fear,” said Marc Purcell, 46, a financial associate from Toronto who was at the Hard Rock with his wife to attend a wedding. They said it was their fourth trip to the Dominican Republic.

“We’re having an amazing time and plan to return,” he said.

Paola Rainieri, president of the Dominican Hotels Association, told reporters this month that the deaths are “isolated cases” and contended that the country is a “safe destination” for all visitors.

Still, the sense of public alarm persisting over the Americans being found dead by hotel employees at not just the Hard Rock, but at various resorts in different parts of the Dominican Republic, has grown to such levels that the F.B.I. has sent in a small team to the country to assist local investigators with toxicological tests.

The F.B.I. investigators are specifically examining the case of the Maryland couple, Nathaniel E. Holmes and Cynthia A. Day, who were found dead in their hotel room at the Grand Bahia Principe hotel in La Romana on May 30. Another American, Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, of Allentown, Pa., died at the same resort complex on May 25.

Autopsies showed that the deaths of the Maryland couple were a result of respiratory failure brought on by pulmonary edema — fluid in the lungs. But attempts to explain how that happened quickly became confusing. Several bottles of medication were found in their room. The spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, Carlos Suero, told Fox News that Mr. Holmes died first, and Ms. Day died afterward, “probably from the shock of seeing the person beside her dead.”

With questions continuing to swirl, Mr. García, the tourism minister, said in an interview that the authorities were carefully reviewing the deaths in La Romana and that it could take 30 to 40 days for comprehensive toxicology reviews to be completed.

In the meantime, researchers who study human exposure to pesticides and other chemicals said the circumstances of the Maryland couple’s death — in the same room on the same night — increase the likelihood that they died of poisoning or another environmental factor.

“Some of the earlier cases did seem to be consistent with organophosphate poisoning,” said Dana B. Barr, a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.

Dr. Barr pointed to a case in the United States Virgin Islands in 2015, when a Delaware family of four was seriously injured after being exposed to a pesticide when the apartment below them was fumigated.

In poisoning cases, Dr. Barr said, the problem often stems from the pesticide not being properly contained. The chemicals could seep into a vent that is not adequately sealed, or be sucked inside by a hotel air conditioner.

Before the Maryland couple’s death came to light, the Dominican tourism industry started drawing greater scrutiny in late May when a Delaware woman, Tammy Lawrence-Daley, said she had been attacked in January at the Majestic Elegance resort in Punta Cana by a man in a hotel uniform, who severely beat her and left her for dead.

Tensions ratcheted higher over security in the country when David Ortiz, the former Boston Red Sox slugger, was shot in the back this month in a popular bar in Santo Domingo.

Dominican investigators say that Mr. Ortiz was not the gunman’s intended target, and was mistakenly shot because he was dressed similarly and was seated next to the man the gunman was after.

Amid all the confusion about safety, people around the United States have begun canceling plans to vacation in the Dominican Republic. Lauren Duffy, a professor at Clemson University who has studied the country’s tourism industry, said that whether the recent deaths are connected may not even matter to people who are planning their summer breaks or family getaways.

“The perception of safety has already been attacked,” said Dr. Duffy. “You can see how vulnerable tourism-dependent countries are to a crisis like this, and I’m calling it a crisis because they’re starting to roll out the media campaign and the crisis response.”

Dominican leaders have also grown more defensive, asserting repeatedly that the country is safe while sometimes hinting at possible conspiracies aimed at the Dominican Republic’s lucrative hotel industry, including attempts to undermine the president’s ruling party. Mr. García, the tourism minister, declined to discount such theories.

“I don’t know who’s behind this campaign, but if there’s someone behind it, they’ll become known,” Mr. García said.

Some relatives of Americans who died in the country are relating harrowing tales of pleading with hotel employees for ambulances, long waits to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones and callous responses from Dominican officials.

Dawn McCoy, whose husband, David Harrison, died while on vacation in July 2018 at the Hard Rock Hotel, said that she wasn’t suspicious about his passing until she learned of the recent spate of deaths. The couple’s trip last year was their 19th visit to the Dominican Republic.

“I like to say, we were lucky 18 times,” she said.

Feeling ill with what he initially thought was food poisoning, Mr. Harrison had left his wife and son at the pool and returned to their room, where he slept for more than six hours, she said. The couple then went to the casino until about 2:30 a.m., and returned to the room after Mr. Harrison again felt ill.

“If we were at home, I would tell you to take me to the hospital,” Ms. McCoy recalled him saying.

Just after 5 a.m., Ms. McCoy woke up to find her husband soaked in sweat and grunting. Her son, just 12 at the time, pressed on Mr. Harrison’s chest, trying to perform CPR. “He was just doing what he had seen on TV,” Ms. McCoy said.

She scrambled to the phone and called the front desk. She asked an employee to call an ambulance, but was apologetically told that the policy was to send a hotel doctor first.

“They’re being so pleasant, but they’re saying, ‘I’m sorry, that’s the policy,’” Ms. McCoy recalled. She said she called the front desk twice more, begging for an ambulance, until the hotel doctor arrived exactly 22 minutes after her first call. The ambulance came another half-hour after that. Mr. Harrison died later that day — July 14, 2018.

When she checked out with her son on July 15, a hotel employee asked her to step aside for a moment. Then, she said, they handed her a bill of more than $2,000 for the hotel doctor’s services, which she had not ever requested. That was on top of the ambulance and hospital bills.

An autopsy and toxicology report for Mr. Harrison, shared by Ms. McCoy, said his death was a result of clogged arteries. Tests for common recreational drugs were negative. Ms. McCoy said he took medicine for high blood pressure.

Gregory G. Davis, a professor of forensic pathology and the chief coroner and medical examiner in Jefferson County, Ala., reviewed the autopsy for The New York Times and said it appeared to be a thorough examination that did not raise any red flags.

“I have no doubt that his death came as a great surprise to his family, but it seems fairly straightforward,” Dr. Davis said. He said the report indicated that the man’s heart was heavy and showed signs of clogged arteries.

But Bruce Goldberger, a professor of forensic toxicology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, said he thought Mr. Harrison should have been tested for more than just cocaine, marijuana, opioids, and amphetamines, all of which were negative.

Given the attention around the tourist deaths, Dr. Goldberger said the authorities should also be conducting comprehensive tests for carbon monoxide, pesticides, and anything else that could have been present in the hotel room.

“It’s not a complete investigation,” he said of the toxicological report on Mr. Harrison.

Another American, Robert Wallace, 67, of California, also died after staying at the Hard Rock in April, where he reportedly drank whisky from the room’s minibar. (Unlike minibars in American hotels that generally feature miniature bottles of liquor, the minibars at the Hard Rock dispense drinks from large bottles of vodka, rum, tequila and whisky that hang upside down in a cabinet.)

The tourism minister, Mr. García, said that Mr. Wallace died of multiple organ failure and pneumonia that did not appear to be related to any toxic exposure. Even so, the Hard Rock hotel in Punta Cana announced changes on Friday in response to concerns over the deaths of its guests, saying it would remove the liquor dispensers from its rooms.

Representatives of the hotel did not respond to specific questions about the delay in calling an ambulance for Mr. Harrison or the policy of involving an in-house doctor and billing Ms. McCoy.

However, the hotel said in a statement that, “as an added measure, a U.S.-based health care facility will be contracted to ensure the on-site health clinic is complying with all international and U.S. standards of care.”

An earlier version of this article and an accompanying picture caption misstated the given name of the tourism minister of the Dominican Republic. It is Francisco Javier García, not Fernando.

How we handle corrections

Simon Romero reported from Santo Domingo and Punta Cana, and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs from New York. Hogla Enecia Pérez contributed reporting from Santo Domingo, and Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City.

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Breaking news, fbi rules out tainted alcohol in three dominican republic tourist deaths.

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An FBI investigation has ruled out tainted booze as the cause in three mysterious US tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic, according to a report.

Counterfeit alcohol had been eyed as a possible cause in a trio of fatalities on the island, including a Maryland couple who died in the same hotel room in May at the Grand Bahia Príncipe resort, The Hill reported .

Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63, and his fiancée, Cynthia Day, 49, were both found dead of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema the day they were supposed to check out in La Romana, local authorities said at the time.

But US officials said bad booze wasn’t to blame in the couple’s deaths or in the death of a third person, who wasn’t identified.

“The results of the additional, extensive toxicology testing completed to date have been consistent with the findings of local authorities,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hill. “Methanol poisoning from tainted alcohol was ruled out by the FBI in these cases during the toxicology screening, and it was not the finding in any other cases of U.S. citizen deaths investigated by Dominican authorities.”

The investigation was launched in the wake of a series of tourist deaths on the island, including some who drank from the hotel minibar before becoming fatally ill.

Law enforcement sources told The Post back in June that the agency was looking into who supplied the alcoholic beverages — and whether the booze had dangerous chemicals in it.

“Toxicology test results to date have been provided by the FBI to Dominican authorities, and family members of the deceased have been informed,” the State Department spokesperson told The Hill.

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Dominican Republic Announces New Safety Measures After Deaths of 11 American Tourists

O fficials from the Dominican Republic gathered in New York City, along with the U.S. Ambassador, on Thursday to announce new safety measures months after 11 American tourists died in several resorts there last spring.

Javier Garcia, the Dominican Republic’s Minister of Tourism, told reporters at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan that these new safety measures were put in place to specifically address safety at resorts that were at the center of the coverage.

The measures introduced include reinforcing mandates that require emergency information and the availability of 911 in every guest room, and a new emergency tourist center in Bávaro in Punta Cana, where multi-lingual specialists can communicate with tourists and their families.

The Ministry of Tourism also announced that it partnered with Ecolab, a United States-based water, hygiene and energy technology lab to provide training and certification to all Department of Tourism Services and Companies inspectors.

Garcia also announced that an additional 4,000 agents have been hired for both the tourist security agency and the national police, and that 3,000 more public security cameras have been installed.

U.S Ambassador to the Dominican Republican Robin Bernstein said that an “unfounded negative campaign” contributed to a “tourism crisis” on the island, and pointedly noted that the U.S. State Department has maintained a level-two advisory to the Dominican Republic — similar to that of countries including Spain, Denmark, and Belgium.

“American tourists should feel safe and secure,” she said. “I am totally comfortable with safety level, it is one of the safest tourist destinations I have ever visited. In fact, it has now become an even safer place to come because of the initiatives.”

Bernstein also specifically addressed reports that tainted alcohol led to the deaths, noting that if there were a problem with alcohol there would be far more reports of deaths.

“If it was alcohol people would be dropping like flies,” Bernstein said. “It is not alcohol.”

Earlier this year there were multiple high-profile cases involving American tourists who died while staying in the Dominican Republic. Seven deaths have been attributed to tourists becoming ill and dying of health-related issues. The FBI is still conducting toxicology tests in three specific cases and has not yet released the results.

According to the State Department, there has been no evidence of foul play and no sign that the deaths are connected.

Before the measures were announced, Garcia took the time to lambast the news media, saying the coverage of the deaths of the American tourists was overblown and aimed to damage the Dominican Republic’s stellar reputation as a “model” tourist country.

The State Dept. confirmed that in 2018, 13 U.S. citizens died while traveling to the Dominican Republic; the number was 17 in 2017. More than 2.7 million U.S. tourists visited the island in 2017, making the island the fourth-most popular travel destination for Americans.

Garcia later said “the damage is done” from the slew of reports that focused on the island, but that Dominican Republic officials are still committed to fixing their image, with their main focus now being on the truth.

According to InSight Crime’s 2018 Homicide Round-Up , statistics show that the Dominican Republic recorded 10.4 homicides per 100,000 people –– compared to 81.4 in Venezuela, 25 in Mexico and 11.7 in Costa Rica.

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What We Know About The Recent Deaths Of American Tourists In The Dominican Republic

Senior reporter, HuffPost

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

UPDATE (1:03 a.m. June 25): A New York man ― identified by local news reports as 56-year-old Vittorio Caruso ― died while vacationing in the Dominican Republic earlier this month, the State Department confirmed on Monday. His death brings the total number of American tourists who’ve died in the Caribbean country since June 2018 to at least 10.

This month alone, at least three Americans have suddenly died while holidaying in the Dominican Republic. Leyla Cox, a 53-year-old New York woman, died in her room at Excellence Resorts in Punta Cana on June 10. The resort said Cox had died of a heart attack but her son told WCBS-TV that he didn’t believe his mother had died of natural causes.

Three days after Cox’s death, Joseph Allen, a 55-year-old New Jersey native, was found dead in his room at Terra Linda Resort in Sosua. Allen was in good physical health, his family said. His cause of death has not been released .

Caruso, the most recently reported fatality, died on June 17, his family told News 12 Long Island . Family members said they were having difficulty “getting straight answers” from Dominican authorities but said Caruso was believed to have died after suffering respiratory distress and possibly a heart attack.

DR DEATH UPDATE - The Glen Cove man's death in the Dominican Republic was ruled a heart attack. Retired pizzaria owner Vittorio Caruso's death raised alarm as the @FBI investigates a string of deaths in the Carribean nation. #News12LI https://t.co/hy6EbhavM7 — Darius Radzius (@DariusRadzius) June 24, 2019

As the Dominican Republic faces heightened global scrutiny ― and an FBI investigation ― following the rash of tourist deaths, the nation’s officials have continued to insist that the deaths are nothing out of the ordinary.

“The Dominican Republic is a safe country,” Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia told reporters last week. “There is no such thing as mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic. There is not an avalanche of deaths.”

“Most of the autopsies show the tourists died of natural causes,” Garcia said, adding that the number of American tourist deaths over the past 12 months was actually lower than over the same period in 2011 and 2015 when the death toll of American tourists was 15.

Investigators are reportedly looking into whether alcohol ― specifically of the bootlegged and unregulated variety ― could be linked to any of the deaths.

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino said last week that it was removing liquor dispensers from guest room minibars at its resort in Punta Cana following the deaths of two Americans at the hotel. The general manager of the resort told CNN , however, that the decision to remove the dispensers had been made independently and wasn’t linked to the two deaths.

[THREAD] 👇 At least 10 US tourists have died in the Dominican Republic's resorts in the last year, and several other tourists say they have been poisoned or attacked. Here’s everything you need to know about the suspicious #DominicanRepublicDeaths . https://t.co/Pi2r7y2f7d pic.twitter.com/gIk9EcANgR — INSIDER News (@insidernews) June 24, 2019

Authorities in the Dominican Republic have tapped the FBI to help investigate a series of American tourist deaths in the Caribbean country in recent months.

At least six Americans have mysteriously died at resorts across the Dominican Republic since June 2018, and several others have reported falling violently ill while vacationing there.

Local authorities have not yet established a connection between the incidents, according to the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo. And though Dominican tourism officials say it’s safe for Americans to continue to visit, some family members of the deceased remain skeptical.

Here’s what we know ― and don’t know ― about the incidents so far:

Timeline Of Deaths

Yvette Monique Sport of Pennsylvania died in June 2018 during a trip with her fiancé to the Bahía Príncipe resort in Punta Cana on the eastern tip of the island.

The 51-year-old consumed a drink from her room’s minibar, took a shower, went to bed and never woke up, according to her sister Felecia Nieves.

The official cause of death listed on her death certificate is a heart attack. But Nieves told NBC10 that she became suspicious recently after hearing about other Americans who died under similar circumstances.

“There is something dirty at the bottom of this,” Nieves told Reuters.

David Harrison, 45, had been vacationing with his wife and 12-year-old son at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana when he suddenly fell ill and died.

The Maryland resident had visited the resort several times before and was “relatively healthy,” his wife Dawn McCoy told The Washington Post . But Harrison said he felt sick one afternoon and went to their room to take a nap.

Hours later, McCoy said she discovered her husband sweating profusely as he lay in bed, exuding a pungent odor. She called for help, but Harrison had reportedly died by the time the doctor arrived.

Harrison’s death certificate pointed to a heart attack, atherosclerosis and pulmonary edema, a condition caused by excess fluid in the lungs, as the causes of his death.

McCoy said she emailed the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic last week to see if a toxicology report had been done after hearing about the other tourists’ deaths, the Post reported.

Robert Wallace of California also died at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana. He was in the country to attend his stepson’s wedding but suddenly fell after drinking scotch from the minibar in his hotel room, his niece, Chloe Arnold, told Fox News .

The 67-year-old “started feeling very sick” after consuming the drink and developed “blood in his urine and stool right afterward,” Arnold said.

Wallace died three days later. Dominican authorities have yet to provide his family with a cause of death, according to Arnold.

Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, of Pennsylvania, died on May 25 hours after arriving at the Bahía Príncipe’s Bouganville resort, about 60 miles west of Punta Cana, to celebrate her wedding anniversary.

After enjoying a drink from the hotel room’s minibar, Schaup-Werner suddenly cried out in pain and collapsed, according to her husband, Dan Werner.

Werner, a doctor, tried to revive his wife by performing CPR but it was too late, family spokesman Jay McDonald told WPXI .

An autopsy report suggested Schaup-Werner died of internal hemorrhaging, pulmonary edema and an enlarged heart, Dominican officials said.

Five days after Schaup-Werner’s death, a Maryland couple died at Bahía Príncipe La Romana, located just a few hundred feet away from the company’s Bouganville resort.

Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, were recently engaged before their trip to the Dominican Republic. Hotel staffers found them unresponsive in their room on May 30 after they missed their scheduled checkout time.

Similar to Schaup-Werner, Holmes and Day each died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, Dominican police said. Hotel staffers reportedly did not find any signs of violence.

More Tourists Speak Out

After seeing news reports of the deaths, several other Americans have come forward to say they suffered similar symptoms during recent trips to the Dominican Republic.

Kaylynn Knull and Tom Schwander, a couple from Colorado, said they developed nausea, dizziness, diarrhea and headaches during their stay at Bahía Príncipe La Romana in June 2018.

They filed a lawsuit against the resort after U.S. doctors told them the illness was likely caused by chemicals typically found in pesticides, CBS News reported .

Awilda Montes of New York claimed she vomited blood after drinking a soda from her hotel room’s mini-bar at Bahía Príncipe’s Bouganville resort in October. She said she was immediately brought to a local clinic, where she was treated for pain and vomiting.

Are The Incidents Connected?

The U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo said last week that local authorities had not established a connection between the incidents. Dominican investigators have asked the FBI to assist with further toxicology analysis. The results of these tests may take up to 30 days, the State Department said in a statement Tuesday.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The New York Times that it’s “unconscionable” that toxicology reports haven’t yet been released or completed. He said the symptoms reportedly exhibited by the patients appear to be “consistent with poisoning.”

“It’s rare for travelers to die of unknown causes like this,” Inglesby told the Times. “It’s something that investigators should be able to get to the bottom of.”

The Bahía Príncipe hotel chain said in a statement last week that the company would cooperate “completely” with the ongoing investigations.

“We reiterate our firm commitment to collaborating completely with the authorities and hope for a prompt resolution of their inquiries and actions and will not be making any further statements that may interfere with them,” according to Bahía Príncipe’s statement.

Bahía Príncipe said its employees have received threats after the deaths and warned that it could take legal action against anyone who disseminates “false information” that “threatens the image and reputation of the company.”

Hard Rock officials said in a statement that they are “deeply saddened” by the deaths of Wallace and Harrison. “We are currently waiting for official reports regarding these deaths,” according to the statement.

Meanwhile, family members are left wondering if these incidents could have been prevented.

“We have so many questions,” Arnold, Wallace’s niece, told Fox News . “We don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

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Watch CBS News

What we know about American tourists' deaths and illnesses in the Dominican Republic

By Brian Pascus

Updated on: July 15, 2019 / 8:57 AM EDT / CBS News

Reporting by Mola Lenghi, Jose Diaz Jr., Russell Midori, Alyssa Estrada 

Since the start of the year, at least 10 American tourists have died while vacationing in the Dominican Republic, and questions are also being raised about several more deaths in 2018. Some of the deaths reportedly occurred after the visitors complained of feeling ill after eating a meal or drinking out of the hotel minibar. The U.S. embassy in Santo Domingo  said there is no proof  at this point the deaths are linked.

CBS News spoke on June 18 with César Duvernay, a spokesperson for the Dominican Republic's foreign ministry, who said the cases are isolated out of more than 6 million tourists, and that this doesn't mean the country is unsafe. He noted that the government has a special body focused on tourism safety, with protocols in place that have not changed.

Several of the deaths were reported to be a heart attack, which health officials say is the most common cause of death for Americans on vacation. CBS News can confirm that attorneys for the families of Nathaniel Edward Holmes and Cynthia Ann Day, who died on May 30, have ordered independent autopsies "to get to the bottom of what's happening." The Washington Post reported last week that the family of Cynthia Schaup-Werner, who died on May 25, is awaiting an independent investigation in the U.S, as well. 

Here is what we know so far about the recent deaths of Americans vacationing in the Dominican Republic. 

Jerry Curran

Age 78. From Bedford, Ohio.

Died on Jan. 26, 2019 at the Dreams Resort in Punta Cana.

Curran died three days after arriving in the Dominican Republic with his wife. His daughter told WKYC-TV , "He went to the Dominican Republic healthy and he just never came back." His daughter said Curran fell ill after dinner and drinks the night of his arrival and that his cause of death includes pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs, which is listed the cause of death for at least three other Americans in the Dominican Republic this year.

Tracy Jerome Jester Jr. 

Age 31. From Forsyth, Georgia. 

Died on March 17, 2019 while visiting the Dominican Republic. 

Jester's death was reported by  Atlanta station WSB-TV  on July 12. His mother said her son drank a soda that he told her "didn't taste right." His sister, who was vacationing with Jester, called their mother on the night he died and said he was struggling to breathe. Jester's mother feels her son's death is connected to the other American tourist deaths this year, the station reported. Jester's sister said  her brother had lupus, but it is unclear if the illness is connected to his death. Jester's death certificate said he died from "respiratory issues." 

Robert Bell Wallace

Age 67. From California.

Died on April 14, 2019, at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana.

Wallace died  after drinking from the minibar in his hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, his family said. Wallace's cause of death has yet to be determined, but his niece told Fox News  her uncle had been in good health before his arrival and he became unwell shortly after drinking a glass of scotch from the minibar in his room and died in a hospital three days later.

Miranda Schaup-Werner 

Age 41. From Pennsylvania.

Died on May 25, 2019, at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville Hotel.

The U.S. State Department confirmed Miranda Schaup's death June 4; she died May 25. She was staying at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville Hotel to celebrate her ninth wedding anniversary with her husband. Her family said she collapsed and died after she had a drink at the hotel. Preliminary autopsy results released by Dominican authorities said she had fluid in her lungs and respiratory failure. The FBI is conducting toxicology tests. Less than a week later, two more Americans died at another hotel on the same Bahia Principe resort.

Nathaniel Edward Holmes and Cynthia Ann Day

Age 63 and 49. From Prince George's County, Maryland.

Died on May 30, 2019, at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana.

The couple were found dead in their hotel room on May 30. There were no visible signs of violence. However, several bottles of medicine were found, such as Galanpertin, Oxycodone, and Loxofen. Holmes and Day had been staying at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana since May 25. A statement from the Dominican Republic National Police said that an autopsy concluded that the couple had respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, a condition caused by excess fluid in the lungs.

Autopsy results showed some similarities between their cases and Schaup-Werner's. The resort insists the deaths of the three Americans were unrelated.

Leyla Cox 

Age 53. From Staten Island, New York.

Died on June 10, 2019, at Excellence Resorts in Punta Cana.

Cox died the day after celebrating 53rd birthday. U.S. Embassy officials told her son her death has been ruled a heart attack, but her son  said , "I do not believe it was natural causes."

Joseph Allen  

Age 55. From New Jersey.

Died on June 13, 2019, at Terra Linda Resort in Sousa.

Allen's family said he was on good health and traveled to the Dominican Republic frequently. His cause of death has not been released. Allen was there with friends who said he complained about being hot at the pool before going to shower and lie down; he was found dead the next day.

Vittorio Caruso 

Age 56. From Long Island, New York. 

Died on June 17, 2019, at Boca Chico Resort in Santo Domingo. 

Caruso's cause of death is not yet determined, but his sister-in-law told Fox News, "he was brought by ambulance to the hospital in respiratory distress after drinking something." Caruso's family  told  the New York Post that he was "very healthy" and that "he went to the doctor before he left, and he had no problems." 

Khalid Adkins

Age 46. From Denver, Colorado. 

Died on June 25, 2019 while visiting the country with his daughter. 

Adkins cause of death has not been disclosed. His sister-in-law, Marla Strick, told the Colorado station KDVR-TV that he vomited in his departure plane's bathroom and was hospitalized in Santo Domingo, where she was told "his kidneys were failing." His daughter Mia Adkins wrote on  her Facebook page  that her father "got super sick," during a visit to the country together. 

Tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic in 2018 

Mark Hurlbut Sr. 's son says he was told by a Dominican Republic coroner that his father died from heart and respiratory problems last year in Punta Cana. Mark Hurlbut Jr. said his father and his dad's wife felt sick the night before he died. "She woke up, and he didn't," Mark Jr. told CBS Phoenix affiliate KPHO-TV . "She told me that as she found him that he had something green coming from his mouth."

David Harrison died in July 2018 at the Hard Rock Hotel, the same hotel where Robert Bell Wallace died this year. According to the  New York Post , Harrison died of pulmonary edema and respiratory failure, but his wife said he felt sick with an upset stomach days before his death and woke up with a full-body sweat on July 14 and couldn't speak.

Yvette Monique Sport , 51, of Glenside, Pennsylvania, died at Bahia Principe Resort in Punta Cana of a heart attack in June 2018. According to the  New York Post , her sister said Sport had a drink at the minibar insider her room, went to bed, and never woke up.  

Reports of tourists sickened in the Dominican Republic

A New York woman said she became ill  and spewed blood, leaving her without any taste buds, after taking a sip of soda from the minibar at Grand Bahia Principe Resort in La Romana in October 2018. This is the same resort where three Americans died in May 2019.

A Colorado couple claims they were sickened at same hotel where three Americans died in May. They have since filed a lawsuit against the owners of the Grand Bahia Principe Hotel La Romana after a doctor determined they suffered insecticide poisoning while vacationing at the hotel in June 2018.

A group of Oklahoma teens from Deer Creek High School on a senior trip fell " violently ill " on June 8 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, the same hotel where Harrison and Wallace died.

A Florida man who went to the Caribe Club Princess Beach Resort and Spa at Punta Cana in May claims he became "severely sick with stomach pain while swimming in the pool."

More than 50 Jimmy Buffett fans from Oklahoma  became ill during an all-inclusive trip to Hotel Riu Palace Macao in April. Some people in the group tested positive for salmonella, while others did not. Symptoms included vomiting, diarrhea, chills and fever.

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The other side of Punta Cana: A crackdown on Haitians

A campaign of mass deportations, broadly supported by Dominicans, has left Haitians vulnerable to robbery, extortion, and physical and sexual assault.

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — In the shadow of this Caribbean resort, a magnet for American tourists, the raids come almost every day.

Immigration agents, accompanied by uniformed military troops, storm neighborhoods where Haitian workers live, families and advocates say, busting down doors and turning over mattresses in search of cash to swipe. They stop construction workers on their way to job sites to demand money. They take bribes to let deported Haitians back into the country.

“It’s a business,” said a former immigration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. “You pay on the border, you pay when they stop you on the street, you pay when they search for you in your home.”

A two-year crackdown on undocumented migrants here, broadly supported by Dominicans, has left Haitians vulnerable to the worst abuses, U.S. and U.N. officials say. Interviews with dozens of Haitians, their advocates and former immigration officials show that agents routinely extort suspected Haitians under threat of detention and deportation. Reports of physical and sexual assaults have become frequent, according to the U.S. State Department and the International Organization for Migration.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, uneasy neighbors with a long history of conflict. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians work here on farms and in construction, clean homes and do other jobs Dominicans are loath to take up. But Haitian families can live here for generations without gaining Dominican citizenship, and their undocumented status leaves them vulnerable to exploitation.

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Now, as Haiti melts down — its presidency vacant , its legislature gone home, its capital controlled by gangs — the government of Dominican President Luis Abinader has empowered immigration agents to ramp up deportations. Authorities removed at least 176,000 Haitians last year in what the State Department called a “ mass expulsion … regardless of their claims to legal status.” The United States, by comparison, deported 717 Haitians in the last fiscal year.

As part of the crackdown, the Dominican government imposed new requirements for renewing temporary residency permits — bureaucratic hurdles that have caused another 200,000 Haitians to fall out of legal status. And for eight months starting last year, authorities stopped granting appointments to Haitians trying to renew their visas, affecting thousands more.

For Abinader, the effort has been a political winner. On Sunday, he was reelected president with more than 59 percent of the votes, according to preliminary results.

But even he acknowledges abuses in the immigration system. Recent prosecutions and convictions show the government is addressing the problem, he said last week, but “we have to continue advancing in this matter.”

Given the “very special situation we have in Haiti,” he said, the “operations of the immigration department have increased tenfold. … The borders are very sensitive.”

His administration will continue to fight corruption, he said: “I have to recognize that it is ongoing.”

Abinader has expanded the role of the Interior Ministry and national police in preventing and prosecuting “irregular invasions and occupations” by foreigners. Over the past year, advocates say, police and military troops have taken an increasingly prominent role in the effort.

In a recent report, the State Department cited allegations that Dominican immigration, police and military officials entered homes without warrants, demanded bribes, destroyed identification documents and stole belongings. The department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor noted accusations of arbitrary detentions , unexplained deaths in migration detention, physical abuse of detainees, extortion and sexual violence.

The Dominican government, the bureau reported, “did not take credible steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses.”

Unsanctioned raids have become especially common in Punta Cana. It was in a Haitian neighborhood here, at 5 a.m. one day last month, that a uniformed Air Force member allegedly entered a small, white wooden house, authorities said in charging documents. Inside, a 14-year-old girl was watching over two younger brothers.

The 18-year-old airman had been tasked with helping execute an immigration raid. It was still dark. The children’s parents were out. As immigration agents and troops rounded up Haitians and filed them into a truck, the airman was alone with the girl, she told prosecutors, according to the documents. He wore a balaclava over his face, she said, but took it off.

“He told me to be quiet, and he asked me for a kiss. I said no,” the girl told prosecutors. “That was when he grabbed me by the neck and took me to my room.”

A neighbor heard the screams. She walked in to find the girl in tears, her dress ripped, the woman told prosecutors. The girl and her mother accused the airman of rape; he was arrested. The Washington Post is not identifying the girl or her mother because she is a minor and reported a crime of sexual abuse.

The airman has denied having any contact with the girl. He said he does not enter homes during raids. The Post could not reach the airman for comment because he is in custody.

The alleged assault has drawn international attention. But Haitians and their advocates here say it wasn’t particularly unusual. It’s emblematic, they say, of systematic abuse by Dominican authorities — abuse that typically goes unreported by families fearful of being deported.

As prosecutors interviewed witnesses of the alleged rape of the girl, one immigration agent spoke of his frustration with military officers “who get out of control.”

Juan Paniagua, disturbed by the case, resigned days later, he told The Post. He was fed up, he said, with masked men kicking down doors and abusing people.

“They’re the Rambos,” Paniagua said. “They wear masks to do harm. … It breaks my heart.”

‘A war trophy’

Thousands of tourists, drawn by the white sand beaches and turquoise waters of this oceanside resort, land at the Punta Cana airport each day. Nearly 120,000 Americans arrived in April alone.

The tourism boom here, hailed as a success story, can be seen in the new hotels and apartment buildings rising over the lush landscape. According to the local construction union, about 90 percent of the workers on these projects are Haitians.

Hundreds gather by a busy highway here each morning to wait for the pickup trucks that will take them to construction sites.

When word spread one morning this month that immigration agents were rounding people up, a large group of young men bolted across the highway, dodging cars to reach the thick brush on the other side.

Across town, men in balaclavas could be seen stopping drivers and demanding documents.

Junior Surin has a visa to work in the Dominican Republic. But after learning of the day’s operation on an “antenna” — the community’s name for a WhatsApp channel — he decided to stay home. “I’m scared to go out.” He was shot in the arm by authorities last year, he said, while agents rounded up construction workers returning from work in Cap Cana, the coastal resort just south of Punta Cana.

When authorities are cracking down, an engineer at one job site said, only a third of his workforce show up.

Reports of raids, theft and extortion are particularly common in Punta Cana, according to Josué Gastelbondo, who leads the International Organization for Migration in the Dominican Republic. Haitians working in construction or tourism here might make more than those working elsewhere in the country, he said, and, locked out of most banks, are likely to keep cash in their homes.

“It’s like a war trophy,” said Santiago Molina, a local activist. “Everything they find is theirs.”

Governments here have carried out mass deportations in the past. But advocates say this wave is the largest and most sustained. The U.N. high commissioner for human rights urged Abinader in 2022 to halt deportations. Instead, he announced an increase. Deportations that year doubled from the previous year, and have continued to spike.

The government reports deporting 174,602 Haitians in 2023. IOM puts the number at more than 224,000.

Many Dominicans support Abinader’s approach. Some say they fear potential spillover from the lawlessness in Haiti, where armed gangs have kidnapped, raped or killed thousands of people.

“For years, what we’ve been seeing is a silent invasion,” Lourdes Fernández, a 62-year-old teacher from Santiago. She said she fears that Haitians could someday try to claim the Dominican Republic as part of their country.

“There is a national consensus on this issue,” former president Leonel Fernández, who ran unsuccessfully against Abinader on Sunday, told The Post. He supports a strong approach to securing the border and deporting undocumented Haitians, he said, but the next president must confront the “mafias” — including those within the immigration system — who extort and take advantage of the vulnerable.

Altagracia Luis Jean had just been paid for her job as a housekeeper at a Punta Cana hotel, she said, when immigration agents stormed into her home in the Haitian neighborhood of Mata Mosquito. They broke the lock with a hammer and stole $100 from her purse.

Luis Jean, 41, is Dominican. The agents detained and deported her Haitian husband and her 21-year-old son, who was born here but has struggled to get the paperwork to prove he is a citizen.

It was his first time in Haiti.

“I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, worried they would kill him over there,” Luis Jean said.

She hired a “buscón,” or “seeker,” who bribed border agents to bring her husband, her son and his partner back home. It cost more than $800.

A divided family

Before dawn on April 5, six masked agents walked down the dark, narrow pathway to Jeanne Rimbel’s home. They entered the bedroom where she was sleeping with her 5-year-old son, she said, and took 30,000 pesos — more than $500 — from her bedside drawer.

Later that morning, she heard the screams. It was the mother of the girl who reported the rape.

The mother had left early that morning for her job as a cook. The girl’s stepfather, hearing that immigration agents were approaching, was hiding at a friend’s house.

“When you don’t have papers, you run away,” he told The Post.

Nine immigration agents were searching for undocumented migrants that morning, according to the charging documents. Three Air Force members were providing security.

Venancio Alcántara, the country’s immigration director, says military troops should not enter homes or act as immigration agents. They may remove migrants who are occupying private or public spaces illegally, he told The Post, and are permitted to knock down doors to do so.

One former immigration official questioned why Air Force members were involved in an immigration raid to begin with. “That’s not their role,” said the former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. “They should be at the border.”

A spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry declined to comment.

The 14-year-old girl has struggled to go back to school, her stepfather told The Post. She’s now at a safe house for women and children with her mother and her brothers.

The stepfather’s Haitian passport expired last month, and he doesn’t know how he’ll renew it. He has no Dominican documents allowing him to remain in the country legally.

“Haiti is in a bad place. That’s why I came here,” he said. “I’d like to stay here, with my family.”

Carolina Pichardo in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Widlore Mérancourt in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.

Dry law in Dominican Republic elections 2024: when does the prohibition of alcohol sales and consumption begin?

This Sunday, May 19, General Elections will be held in the Dominican Republic. This year, citizens have the task of electing the next president and vice president of the country, as well as representatives in Congress.

A total of nine candidates are competing in the presidential race, including Luis Abinader of the Modern Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Moderno - PRM), Abel Martínez, of the Party of the Dominican Liberation (Partido de la Liberación Dominicana - PLD), Leonel Fernández of People’s Force (Fuerza del Pueblo - FP), and Miguel Vargas of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Dominicano - PRD).

The rest of the candidates include María Teresa Cabrera of the Broad Front (Frente Amplio - FA), Virginia Antares Rodríguez, of the Democratic Option (Opción Democrática - OP), Fulgencio Severino of the Fatherland For All Movement (Movimiento Patria Para Todos - MPPT), Pastor Carlos Peña Generation of Servants (Generación de Servidores - GS) and Roque Espaillat, of the Democratic Hope Party (Partido Esperanza Democrática - PED).

According to the Central Electoral Board, this year, 8,145,548 people are eligible to vote, including 7,281,763 Dominicans within the country and 863,785 abroad, the majority residing in the United States.

You may be interested in: How to vote from the USA and abroad in the General Elections of the Dominican Republic 2024?

As established by the electoral law, before, during and after the elections, the sale of alcohol is prohibited. This is known as the “Dry Law.”

“From twenty-four (24) hours before the election, no alcoholic beverages may be sold or distributed for any purpose, until twelve hours after the voting ends,” article 232 of the Organic Law of the Electoral Regime states.

The only exceptions to the rule apply to those hotels that are located in tourist areas, which “must be duly identified by the Central Electoral Board, together with the organizations accredited by the official agencies that group these establishments.”

This year, Prohibition has started from 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 18 and will continue until 5:00 a.m. on Monday, May 20.

The JCE has a tool where you can verify the precinct where you should go to vote. The only thing you have to do is enter the identification and electoral card number and check the box, then just click on the “verify precinct” option and the corresponding polling station will appear.

Voting hours this May 19 are from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

Citizens who are registered on the electoral roll must go in person to cast their vote. In order to vote, they must present their current identity and electoral card. According to the Central Electoral Board, people with expired cards can participate in the elections.

Once you arrive at your voting center, the officials will confirm in the registry if you are authorized to vote and if so, they will give you three ballots with the letters “P”, “S” and “D” , which correspond to the Presidency, Senate and Provincial Representatives, respectively.