DR: Who's importing ammunition in Santo Domingo?

Ana Mitila Lora writes today in her Listin Diario column on the significant imports of ammunition into the Dominican Republic, tracing them back to announcements made by American Ammunition Inc. She points to a December 2003 report from the company that stated it had exported a shipment of 225,000 rounds to its distributor in the DR after receiving authorization from the US Department of State. The report indicates that this was part of an export order of 500,000 rounds, from which she quotes, "In the past 30 days AAI has exported more than 3 million rounds:" Lora wonders about the destiny of such an arsenal.

A 3 March Internet press release from AAI indicates that the manufacturer has received two additional export orders from its DR and Curacao distributors, totaling an additional 300,000 rounds. This figure is in addition to the 500,000-round export order placed by its Dominican distributor in March 2003, according to the AAI web site.

To whom are these sales of ammunition being made? Why is the U.S. State Department authorizing ammunitions sales of this magnitude if there is an increased demand for ammunition for warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq, for training, and the military is forced to look overseas to purchase more? Where are these arms going? What do the DR and Curacao purchasers of this amount of ammunition intend to do with it?