Grieving families at the Cristo Salvador cemetery in Santo Domingo Este are being forced to smash coffins with hammers and stones during burials to stop grave robbers from exhuming corpses and reselling caskets.
Dominican journalist Ángel García reported the practice after attending a funeral for a loved one at the site earlier this week, describing widespread lawlessness and mismanagement at the cemetery.
People familiar with the graveyard said thieves routinely unearth freshly buried bodies to steal coffins and burial shrouds. The stolen items are then sold back into the market for profit.
Niche construction workers, who are mostly foreign laborers, also advise mourners to destroy flower arrangements down to the last petal. The recommendation aims to prevent local drug addicts, known in the area as piperos, from stealing and reselling the floral displays.
Syndicate control and plot maintenance
Overgrowth covers large portions of Cristo Salvador, which ranks as the largest public cemetery in Santo Domingo Este. Relatives who purchased burial plots with hard-earned money are unable to clear weeds from their family gravesites.
Plot maintenance is strictly controlled by a local syndicate union. Relatives who attempt to weed their own plots without paying syndicate workers face immediate threats of physical attack from organized mobs affiliated with the group.
City hall administration under fire
García highlighted a sharp contrast between municipal tax collection and public service delivery in the city. Mayor Dío Astacio has shown efficiency in collecting local taxes, but city hall has failed to provide basic security, sanitation, administration, or organization at Cristo Salvador.
Santo Domingo Este is a major municipality in the Dominican Republic. García, an investigative journalist who graduated from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo with expertise in political and cultural reporting, said conditions at the graveyard resemble a 19th century society rather than a modern city.
He added that the ongoing lack of municipal management has left grieving families unable to bury their dead in peace, as criminal activity continues unabated across the cemetery grounds.
