Haitian and Dominican Technicians Discuss Plan To Rebuild Haiti

During the visit with the president, Rene Préval and Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive, they reviewed aid from the Dominican Republic given to Haitians following the earthquake that affected their country last Jan. 12.

Montás was part of the delegation headed by Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque that visited the Haitian capital with Latin American General Secretary Enrique Iglesias and high officials of the Dominican government, the President’s Office of Information, Press and Publicity announced.

Haitian and Dominican technicians are working on a Plan to Rebuild Haiti, which will be presented to the international community during the summit of countries to be celebrated in Santo Domingo on April 14. It will also be presented at a later date before the United Nation in New York, Montás said.

During the visit with the president, Rene Préval and Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive, they reviewed aid from the Dominican Republic given to Haitians following the earthquake that affected their country last Jan. 12.

The Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque said told Préval that the humanitarian and technical assistance to Haiti will continue and expressed the disposition of the Dominican government to maintain their support of the neighboring country for as long as they consider it needed. The Haitian President thanked him for the support and solidarity of the Dominican President Leonel Fernández, and the Dominican people in general, in favor of the earthquake victims.

The delegation also visited the headquarters of the UN Mission for Haiti (MINUSTAH) near the airport Toussaint Louvertoure where they met with the head of the organization, Emond Mulet from Guatemala.

Others attending this meeting included Dominican Ambassador in Port au Prince, Rubén Silié; Consul General Carlos Castillo; Health Minister Bautista Rojas; director of the Center of Exports and Investment Eddy Martínez; the general administrator of the Economic Dining Halls of the State Nicolás Calderón, as well as the technical staff of the Ministry of Economy, which included director of Bilateral Cooperation Inocencio García, Ramón Pérez Minaya, Ramón Flores, Rosa Jilda Vélez and Manuel Jiménez, in charge of the Communications Unit.

During the meeting, President Préval said that the tragedy provoked by the earthquake “will bring a new era into the bilateral relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic,” after expressing in various ways the importance of the support and cooperation given by President Fernandez, the first head of state to visit his country following the earthquake.

Préval said 170,000 bodies have been recovered, but they fear the death count will reach 250,000 people. Confirming the Haitian situation continues to be catastrophic, Préval noted that “There are a million people in the street, homeless, and without food,” and that it is urgent to get shelter to them because the rainy season is approaching and that “could produce a situation much more difficult to handle.”

The president announced government plans to put into effect a plan to create 100,000 jobs immediately.

The First Lady of Haiti, Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour de Préval, expressed her satisfaction with the immediate help given by the Dominican Republic to the people of Haiti a few hours after the 7.0 earthquake devastated their country on Jan. 12. “The aid of the Dominican Republic has been very visible, it is noted in the streets. It has been massive,” said Delatour, who thanked President Leonel Fernández and First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández for their swiftness in coming to the aid of their Haitian brothers.

She said she will coordinate a program of psychological aid with the Dominican First Lady for children who will be put into small villas to be used as temporary schools, because 60 percent of Haiti’s school buildings collapsed.

Delatour explained that 200 trucks have been located that will be converted into schools in the areas worst hit by the earthquake.