an observation

Why does the D.R. need an airforce,navy, and army ? If these are needed than why not use them to help clean up the D.R. They could take the non-violent prisoners and offer them one day of work one day off your sentence. Supervise them with the military and free up the prisons for the more violent offenders and meanwhile returning the D.R. to the beautiful country it is.

An excellent suggestion Rob, but will your advice be taken. Not likely. We should set up a landfill business but who would pay us?

land fill NO burn the garbage and make electricity with it.

The Dominican Republic needs the military to protect it's borders from military invasion. The military provides jobs and gives meaning and purpose to many Dominican men and women. The military do not have the right to vote. The military maintain the political leaders in power and safe from overthrow (as long as things are going well). The cleanest places in the Dominican Republic are the military bases and forts. The military is used to clean and plant trees along the Autopista Duarte.
Sorry guys, read it in DR1 that they have already given the rights to build your waste material powered electrical generating plant in Santo Domingo to some other enterprising fellows. Maybe someday the folks will begin to view garbage as something that can be eliminated and controlled. Until then I will try to be positive about the little spots of clean/green I encounter around the military base where I walk in the mornings.

Who would want to invade the D.R. Red China?, Russia? Cuba? or maybe even the U.S. hey how about Puerto Rico. Get Real the military is used soley for the rich to get richer. Great your bases are pretty hardly the first thing a tourist with spending cash sees and oh! by the way this is your country's main source of income. Because you can't even keep the gold mine running. Face it for all of us to come out winners and not whiners we need to help. I think my suggestion was right on you did not even comment on putting prisoners to work. Stay on your base and the real world will just pass you by.

Wouldn't the same be true for US, now that SU is dead? Or sweden,
my birth-country, or ...

Still I haven't noticed any political force that actually
suggest a major dismantling of these countries military
"services". DR has had, in the past, both internal and
external enemies, where the military have been of use.
If beneficial or not is matter of point of view.

I do agree that parts of the organization could be put to good
and beneficial use in peace-time, not the least in times of
natural disasters. I believe that has also been the norm.

But quite many employees of the miltitary forces have an
education and training with little or no civil use. How
would you motivate someone to undergo a tough training program
if street-cleaning was at the end?

That's right, there is basically no threat. Today. Who knows
what tomorrow brings? US and SU were allies in 1943. I
seem to recall that changed just a tiny weeny little bit
shortly after that...

A final point: who would you rather meet at night, a jobless
"tigre" hunting easy money, or a steadily employed (even if
underpayed) military employee? The two could be brothers, but
with differrent values. I met them both. The "tigre" pulled a
knife. The military checked that I locked my door properly.