Migrant boat capsizes off DomRep coast, killing 4

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP):

A boat carrying migrants capsized off the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic killing at least four people, authorities in the Caribbean nation said Saturday, as emergency personnel and the military searched for survivors.

Seventeen people who were rescued, including a girl, received medical attention and were in good health, Juan Salas, director of the country’s Civil Defense, said. A survivor reported that about 40 people were on the boat before it capsized.

“That happened close to the coast; it’s possible some people swam out,” said Salas, who estimated the boat sank at a depth of 500 meters (1,640 feet) to 600 metres (1,970 feet). He added that the search was being hampered by strong waves and seabed conditions.

The boat included migrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The number of illegal journeys to Puerto Rico by sea in Dominican Republic waters has increased significantly in the last few years. The International Organization for Migration documented at least 321 deaths and disappearances of migrants in the Caribbean in 2022, the highest number since 2014.

... Gangs burn beloved Gothic gingerbread hotel

Haiti’s once-illustrious Grand Hôtel Oloffson, a beloved Gothic gingerbread home that inspired books, hosted parties until dawn and attracted visitors from Mick Jagger to Haitian presidents, was burned down by gangs last weekend.

Hundreds of Haitians and foreigners mourned the news as it spread across social media, with the hotel manager on Monday confirming the fire on X. Even though gang violence had forced the hotel in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, to close in recent years, many had hoped it would reopen.

“It birthed so much culture and expression,” said Riva Précil, a Haitian-American singer who lived in the hotel from age five to 15. In a tearful phone interview, Précil recalled how she learned to swim, dance and sing at the Oloffson.

Longtime hotel manager Richard Morse, who had been overseeing the property remotely from the United States since the hotel’s closure in 2022, told The Associated Press last Monday that for several months, there were persistent rumors that the hotel had burned.

“So when I heard Sunday morning that it burned, I did what I usually do, which is call someone who has drones and have them go take a look,” he said. “This time, when they called back, they said something like, ‘take a seat.’ I knew then that this wasn’t like the other times.”

The attack on the community where the hotel was located began late Saturday, according to James Jean-Louis, who lives in the hills above the Oloffson. He told The Associated Press over the phone on Sunday that he observed the flames as he and other residents were chased out while police and gangs exchanged heavy gunfire.

Journalists are currently unable to visit the site and verify the damage at the hotel because gangs control the area, which remains inaccessible. Patrick Durandis, director of the Institute for Safeguarding National Heritage, also confirmed the fire in a message to the AP.

Among those lamenting the fire was Michael Deibert, author of Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti and Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.

He landed in Miami on Sunday only to open his phone and see a flurry of messages from friends in Haiti.

“When you went to the Oloffson, you really felt you were being connected with Haiti’s political and cultural history,” he said. “You went to Haiti and were never the same. And the Oloffson really captured that.”

The hotel attracted artists, intellectuals and politicians from Haiti and beyond, including Jacqueline Onassis and Tennessee Williams. It also survived coups, dictatorships and the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Isabelle Morse, daughter of Richard Morse, said he loved having writers, photographers and other artists at the Oloffson.

“His sense of community was very important to him,” she said in a phone interview Monday, describing the hotel as “his whole life.”

“For him, it represented freedom, where people from all walks of life could come in and share that space,” she said.