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HAVANA (AP) — As gangs in Haiti block and loot key fuel supplies, the fuel crisis is now affecting neighboring Dominican Republic.
An illicit oil smuggling industry on the countries’ 240-mile shared border has flourished as a result of Haiti’s skyrocketing gas supply.
Dominicans and Haitians buy subsidized fuel at $5 a gallon at the Dominican Republic border and smuggle it into Haiti, where it costs up to $50 a gallon.
That has fuel shortages, long lines at fuel stations and at least double fuel sales in the border city of Dajabón, said Santiago Riveron, the city’s mayor.
“It’s a scenario of concern because it’s not just Haitians who cross to buy gasoline,” Riveron said. “Now many Dominicans are trafficking gasoline, and that poses a danger. “
Because the industry of goods such as flour, meat and eggs between the two countries has shrunk due to the crisis in Haiti, many other people have turned to smuggling.
The situation in Haiti deteriorated dramatically last year following the assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. The situation worsened in September when Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced that fuel subsidies would be eliminated, doubling prices.
Protests erupted and Haiti’s toughest gang blocked the country’s main fuel source in Port-au-Prince. This, in turn, has led to shortages of other essentials such as clean water at a time when Haiti is facing its worst cholera outbreak in years, and has left hospitals and universities without electricity.
“The shortages and emerging costs of black market fuel that we were already seeing have increased,” said Diego Da Rin, an analyst at International Crisis Group.
Jhonny, a resident of the Dominican Republic’s southern border with the city of Pedernales, said the other poorer people have benefited from the high prices, spending their days crossing the border on motorcycles.
“Many fill the bikes at the gas station, then come home, take them out and buy gallons,” said Jhonny, who asked that his last call be taken advantage of.
Just two weeks ago, Dominican border security forces said they had seized about 2,700 gallons of fuel smuggled into Haiti in one fell swoop. Ramon Perez Fermin, deputy minister of domestic trade, said such meetings have intensified over the past six weeks.
This is a primary economic loss for his country, Perez Fermin noted, as the Dominican Republic has paid hefty sums of cash to subsidize fuel in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.
In the first few months of this year alone, the Caribbean government paid $574 million in fuel subsidies, more than double what it paid for all of 2021, he said.
“The government subsidizes fuel that doesn’t even pass into the Dominican Republic,” he said. “It doesn’t end up in the hands of the Dominican consumer. “
Dominican President Luis Abinader said last week he would ban two-wheelers from crossing the border in an attempt to spark the development of the smuggling network, and said he would close the border because of foreign intervention in Haiti, which the United Nations Security Council will discuss on Monday.
Last year, he began the structure of a border wall, a move his administration says will contribute to security.
But Dajabón Mayor Riveron and other officials have said the real solution to a scenario they view with growing fear is foreign intervention.
“It’s in the hands of foreign authorities,” Riveron said.
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Associated Press Martín José Adames Alcántara contributed to this report from Santo Domingo.