Statement on Death of U.S. Citizens in the Dominican Republic – June 6, 2019

As Ambassador Robin S. Bernstein stated, “The premier function of our Embassy is to take care of the safety and security of all Americans who live here, visit here, and work here.”

The U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens who visit or reside in the Dominican Republic.  We offer our sincerest condolences to the families of the three U.S. citizens who recently passed away in La Romana.

At this point, ongoing investigations by local authorities have not established a connection between these incidents.

The U.S. Embassy is engaged with Dominican authorities and actively monitoring the investigations.  Further, at the request of Dominican officials our Legal Attaché (FBI) is providing technical assistance to produce full toxicology reports.  We do not yet have results of the toxicology studies.

We are also aware of concerns raised by the family members of other U.S. citizens who previously died while in the Dominican Republic.

At this time we have no indication of any connection between those tragic losses and the cases currently under investigation.

Should we learn of any safety risks to the public through the investigation, we will share that information.

The current travel advisory for the Dominican Republic may be found at Travel.State.Gov.