Police Watching Out for the President

>Yesterday when I left the office I walked to the little Colmado near to Parque Duarte in Colonial Zone for my Presidente beer. As I made the turn from Calle el Conde onto Duarte there was 4 of those scary looking police all in black with their bulletproof vests, skull caps and big guns standing near their motorcycles. I smiled and said hi as I was looking around making sure I wasn’t walking into some big drug bust or some serious problem. There was nothing I could see so I proceeded on to have my bien fria.

When I got near to the park there was 2 large police buses and police everywhere. There were guys in really nice suits with walki talkies (they are the official president protectors). There were more of those scary looking dressed in black police. Lots of National Police (Policia Nacional), Tourist Police, and others I don’t know who they were. I smiled and said hi to the group in front of the Colmado, went inside, got my beer and went back outside to see what was happening like any normal Dominican would do.

I asked the group of men what was happening. Some of them had very nice suits on, others had the normal uniform, some had their florescent vests on and others were in normal street clothes. They said President Leonel Fernández was in the church attending a wedding.

What amazed me is how many police and undercover people were there to watch over the President. There had to be at least 60 different people there. They were everywhere. The suit guy was trying to fix me up with all the police standing around talking. He was telling me to pick the one I wanted. I just laughed at him. We were all talking and all of a sudden they said they had to go. They all went to the area of the church.

I didn’t see the president leave but within minutes people were getting on their motorcycles and boarding the police buses. The suit guys got in black SUV’s, which they call Jepetas here in Dominican Republic. Within minutes they were all gone, leaving behind the normal police watch. I was just amazed at how many police were there to guard the President.