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Semana Santa Begins!
More than 9.000 police from the
Fuerza Pública (police),
Tránsito (traffic police),
Vigilancia Aérea (air patrols)
and Guardacostas (coastguard)
will be out in full force during
this coming week. In addition,
the Cruz Roja (Red Cross),
Comisión Nacional de Emergencia
(CNE) will be in full force to
attend to emergencies. That was
the announcement yesterday by
the vice-ministro de Seguridad
Rafael Ángel Gutiérrez to ensure
safety for vacationers during
the week.
Come at the end of business
today, for most the week long
vacation of Samana Santa begins.
The rest, including central
government employees, the
vacation begins on Wednesday.
Gutiérrez said that the patrols
will not only be on the
highways, but also on the
beaches, resorts and urban
areas, to ensure that criminals
don't take advantage of
holidays, both national and
foreigners.
The vice-minister says the
country is on "green" alert
beginning today giving the CNE
the authority to quickly move
its resources to face any type
of emergency. "I don't want to
be a 'aguafiestas' (party
pooper) but we did get an
earthquake once during Semana
Santa and it is better to be
prepared", said Gutiérrez.
Tránsito officials will be out
with more than 800 or the 850
officials that make up the force
with spotchecks along the major
routes around the countries to
control drinking and driving and
radar teams to control speeding,
the two major causes of most of
the fatal accidents. Tránsito
will also be controlling unsafe
driving practices and vehicles.
The minister of Transportes,
Karen González, said that her
officials will be tough on drunk
drivers and will be confiscating
vehicles, including vehicles of
drivers with expired licenses
and do not count with the
marchamo and riteve
certificates.
The Cruz Roja will have some 100
permanent control posts with
more than 800 workers ready to
provide assistance. The control
posts will be along the highways
and beaches. The posts will be
permanently manned between
7:00am and 9:30pm.
Semana Santa officially ends on
April 9, when the country gets
back to normal.
If you are travelling away from
home this week, here a few
recommendations:
- Bring along your
identification (passport, cedula,
etc)
- Carry litte cash, better to
use debit and credit cards
- Do not drive at night if at
all possible
- Drive carefully and respect
all traffic laws
- Look for safe beaches and do
not sleep on the beach, better a
hotel
- Do not leave you house
unattended, have someone you can
trust stay over. If not
possible, cancel newspaper
subscriptions and have a
neighbour pick up the flyers
that can accumulate during your
vacation
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