Curaçao gets Dutch military assistance

Dutch soldiers provided armed assistance to the Curaçao police corps on New Year's eve. This was decided during a meeting between Prime Minister Ivar Asjes, Governor George Lucille Wout, and Brigade General Dick Swijgman.A spokesman for the Coast Guard confirmed that soldiers from the 17th Infantry Battalion from Oirschot installed roadblocks with barbed wire on the approach roads to Barber, a town west of Willemstad. Local media reported the barrier was intended to protect the police station in Barber. The station is currently being guarded by a SWAT-team. One of the suspects in the murder of politician Helmin Wiels, Dangelo D., is being detained there. The Ministry of Defense can not yet release any background information about the nature of the assistance to the police of Curaçao. The police and the Minister of Justice of Curaçao won't release any information either. During the first court hearing in December, the Prosecution made ​​it clear they feared for the life of Dangelo D. if he would be transferred. In September Luigano Florentina, aka Pretu, hanged himself in a police cell in Barber. He was also a suspect in the murder case of Wiels and had just been transferred from the heavily guarded naval barracks in Suffisant.