Villa Codepo is a small sector within the province of Dajabón that is located right on the edge of the Masacre River, which marks the geographical border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
It was that community, that between the earth, the dust, the wires laid and its deteriorated streets, rreceived the main government authorities, headed by President Luis Abinader, and representatives of the major media, who gathered there for the act of the first pierce of the “smart” border wall.
However, while the eyes of the country were on the prick of the fence that will reinforce the security of the border, the signs of non-payment, the complaints of lack of employment, made the inhabitants of the area feel like residents of a community “orphan”.
“You only focus on the good…, the street was in worse conditions there, that was that yesterday (Saturday) as it was known that the president was coming, they passed him something and cornered the stones that were in the middle; We have also been without electricity since 1:00 in the followingnoon yesterday, the wires are laid there…, the water is coming now, but we have been able to spend up to a week without seeing drinking water,” says Ive Medina, 27 year old.
The mother of four children expresses that despite seeing signs of protests and requests, she understands that she should not ask the president for anything and that she has never had the need to do so “because they have never resolved anything.”
“I am not one of those people who asks for something because as the leaders never focus on the conditions and in reality everything is bulky and one sees on the networks that they make so many loans and of so many amounts, and those that we really need, we do not see no help from that…, actually I have never been hopeful (with the authorities) because I have never seen anything What they have done is in my favor,” said Medina, who has lived “all his life” in the sector.
Unemployment is a problem that affects a large part of the young population and not even professionals escape, such is the case of Isaura Familia, who only graduated last December in Education with a mention in Social Sciences.
“Right now we young people spend a lot of work (to get a job) here in Dajabón, right now I’m not working and we support ourselves (his partner and his two children) with what he does as Motoconcho,” said Familia.
The teacher affirmed that the times she has gone to look for a job, many times she has even been asked regarding her political sympathy, although she did not dare to assure that for that reason she has not found a job.
Not so acidic were the statements of Mrs. Idalina Rodríguez who says that only “authorities who remember that people live in Villa Codepo” are needed so that basic needs are met.
“That’s what we want them to remember us, that there are people in Villa Codepo and we rejoice when we see that the president is coming here because it means that we are on the map,” exclaims Idalia, who supports herself with the little that her children give her and a pension of only RD$2,000 that she receives from the city council, since her deceased husband worked there for more than 20 years.
While in the surroundings, other neighbors leaned out between the perimeter made by the military and the presidential security to try to witness what was happening on the banks of the river; but knowing that Abinader would immediately leave there, they would once once more be “that forgotten community” within the border province.
