(MENAFN- The Rio Times) Dominican Republic will allow the United States to use restricted areas of San Isidro Air Base and Las Américas International Airport to step up the fight against drug trafficking across the Caribbean.

President Luis Abinader announced the move after meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, presenting it as a temporary extension of long-standing cooperation rather than a new foreign base on Dominican soil.

The arrangement is rooted in a 1995 maritime and air interdiction agreement and a 2003 amendment that already frame joint operations.

Every mission must receive prior authorization from Dominican authorities, who say their officers will be physically present whenever U.S. crews use the facilities. The government is keen to underline that the country remains in command of its airspace and territory.

Washington will deploy KC-135 tanker aircraft and C-130 Hercules transports. The tankers allow patrol planes and other aircraft to stay longer over drug routes that crisscross the Caribbean.



The C-130s will carry equipment and personnel and can also be used for medical evacuations, firefighting support, weather reconnaissance, and disaster relief in a hurricane-prone region.

The decision follows a series of joint operations off the southern coast. Recent missions near Pedernales seized hundreds of packages of cocaine on fast boats heading north.
Dominican Republic a drug-control hub
Dominican officials say the country intercepted more than 46 tons of drugs last year, including a record cocaine haul hidden in a banana shipment at the Caucedo port.

The island has become a key stepping stone for traffickers moving cocaine from South America to North America and Europe. Human-rights groups and some politicians in the United States are uneasy.

They point to U.S. naval and air strikes that destroyed suspected traffickers' boats and left dozens of people dead. Supporters of the campaign reply that traffickers are heavily armed and that failing to act simply leaves communities exposed to cartels and their money.

There is also a wider strategic angle. The new access comes as the United States concentrates warships, bombers, and special-forces units around the Caribbean.

Analysts note that tanker aircraft based in the Dominican Republic would also extend the reach of any future operations near Venezuela, a government long accused in Washington of sheltering figures linked to the drug trade.

For Dominicans and their neighbors, the choice is stark: accept deeper cooperation to hit criminal networks harder, or risk watching the Caribbean turn again into a corridor where traffickers move faster than the state.

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