Public health officials from the Dominican Republic said Wednesday that the numerous reports of American tourist deaths at Dominican resorts are “fake news.”
Nine American tourists have recently died of mysterious causes while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. While Dominican authorities claim natural causes caused all the deaths, many of the family members of the deceased feel differently and have launched investigations into the circumstances surrounding their loved one’s deaths.
Ministry of Public Health spokesman Carlos Suero assured Fox News that the nine tourists who have recently died at Dominican resorts died of natural causes, according to autopsy reports.
He added that test results of alcohol, food, air conditioning, and pool at the resorts came back normal, according to government health inspectors who were overseen by the U.S Embassy. (RELATED: 3 American Tourists Die In Dominican Resort)
“The testing results are all negative, everything – the food, the alcohol, the air – is normal, there is no alteration of the alcohol,” Suero assured Fox News.
“With all the tourists we get every year, we make sure we comply with international standards for everything, he continued.
Suero says that the numerous reports of American tourists deaths are “hysteria” aiming to hurt tourism to the Dominican Republic.
“It’s all a hysteria against the Dominican Republic, to hurt our tourism, this is a very competitive industry and we get millions of tourists, we are a popular destination,” Suero said.
“People are taking aim at us,” he continued.
Dominican Republic officials blast US tourist death reports as ‘fake news’ https://t.co/m1ohFhcZ02 pic.twitter.com/Odig3Bk99K
— New York Post (@nypost) June 20, 2019
The U.S State Department did not provide confirmation to Fox News of Suero’s statement that the test results were negative. They replied to the confirmation request saying, “We are closely monitoring ongoing investigations by Dominican authorities into several recent deaths of U.S. citizens in the Dominican Republic.”
“The FBI is providing technical assistance to Dominican authorities, … For all other questions regarding investigations into recent deaths (and attacks) of U.S. citizens, we refer you to local authorities in the Dominican Republic,” it continued.
Suero argued that the number of tourist deaths has not increased, but is merely being focused on for the first time by the news media.
“Unfortunately, very unfortunately for us, these tourists have died here. We had about 14 deaths last year here of U.S. tourists, and no one said a word. Now everyone is making a big deal of these,” he explained.
Dominican Public Health Minister Rafael Sanchez Cardenas echoed that the death reports were manufactured to hurt tourism, and called them “un montaje” or a setup, according to Fox News.
The FBI has taken a role in assisting Dominican authorities with the investigations, according to the BBC.
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