Haitians facing deportation in a police van on a border bridge between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, September 14, 2023. RICARDO HERNANDEZ / AP
At 6 a.m. on Friday, September 15, the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic became watertight. The four official border crossings along this 376-kilometer line that winds from north to south around the island of Hispaniola are now impassable, as are the sea and air borders between these two Caribbean countries, each home to 11 million people.
The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, announced on Thursday that this drastic measure would soon come into force, after the expiration on Monday of a 48-hour ultimatum to the Haitian government in which it demanded a halt to construction work on a canal on a border waterway. At the end of an unsuccessful bilateral meeting in Santo Domingo, the head of state “confirmed that the border will remain closed for as long as necessary to put an end to this provocation,” the presidential office said in a statement. Nevertheless, the Dominican authorities add, “discussions with the Haitian government continue.”
“The Republic of Haiti will always favor dialogue,” replied the latter in a press release from the Ministry of Culture and Communications, in which the executive deplored a “unilateral announcement by the Dominican President” while negotiations were “in progress and on track.” .
The structure would “increase the risk of flooding”
The new bone of contention between the two neighboring states is a work of modest proportions: less than five kilometers of masonry connect the banks of the Massacre River with a distribution basin. This will make it possible to irrigate around 3,000 hectares of agricultural land in the Haitian Northeast Department. The construction of the canal on the left bank of this 55 kilometer long coastal river began in 2018, during the presidency of Jovenel Moïse, and triggered a first diplomatic crisis with the neighboring country from April 2021. Dominican authorities complained that they were not informed of this work, which they said violated the provisions of the Treaty of Peace, Perpetual Friendship and Arbitration, a 1929 document that prohibits the two countries from rerouting border waterways. In addition, the structure would “increase the risk of flooding” in the Massacre River valley, emphasized the Dominican Chancellery.
Haitians gathered at the construction site of a water canal for the Massacre River, shared between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, on September 14, 2023. OCTAVIO JONES / Portal
The assassination of the Haitian president in July of that year ended the project and the controversy. But the resumption of construction work on this canal in recent weeks has led to a further deterioration in bilateral relations. “It is the Dominican government that violated the peace treaty of February 20, 1929,” former Prime Minister Claude Joseph wrote on his X account (formerly Twitter) on September 3 in response to protests from Spanish-speaking neighbors. The former head of government of Jovenel Moïse bluntly condemned a “discourse fueled by Dominican ultranationalists and racists” and accused the neighboring country of making 11 captures along the small river.
You still have 58.42% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.