On Wednesday, the Dominican Republic partially reopened its border with Haiti to limited advertising activity, nearly a month after closing the border, amid an ongoing dispute over the structure of a canal that points to water from a shared river.
Vendors at the Dominican border can sell essential goods such as food and medicine, but the export of electronics and structural materials, as well as cement and steel bars, is prohibited.
Wednesday was the first time since Sept. 15 that the border was partially reopened, even though Dominican President Luis Abinader maintained a ban on issuing visas to Haitian citizens that he implemented last month and will keep the border closed to all migrants, whether they are migrants or not. who seek access for work, tourism, health or school purposes.
While the gates on the Dominican Republic’s northern border with the city of Dajabón opened late Wednesday morning, those on the Haitian side remained closed, and it was not immediately known why. Meanwhile, dozens of trucks and boxes were clogged nearby, filled with goods.
The reopening of the Dominican border was delayed after a pre-dawn fire in Dajabón’s main market destroyed dozens of stalls. Authorities said they were investigating the cause of the fire.
The market remained largely empty and quiet as a handful of vendors reopened their stalls barely a month after being forced to close.
“There have been big losses here,” said Santo Rodríguez, who sells pasta, butter, mayonnaise, ketchup and other products at his stall and denounced the closure of the border. “How do you plan to survive?”
Rodriguez, who opened his business in 1995 and earns about $176 a week, said that despite Abinader’s promise to help Dominican entrepreneurs affected by the border closure, he hasn’t gotten any help.
The ultimate recent diplomatic crisis stems from the structure of a canal in the Haitian Caribbean meant to collect water from the Massacre River that runs along the border between the two countries on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The river owes its source to a bloody eighteenth century. War between French and Spanish colonizers.
The Haitian government said farmers were in urgent need of water after a prolonged drought withered crops in the nearby Maribaroux Plain.
Abinader said the structure of a canal violates a 1929 treaty and would divert needed water through Dominican farmers and wetlands in the area.
Shortly after the dispute began, Abinader ordered the government to restart the use of a nearby canal for irrigation before the river entered Haitian territory.
On Monday, the Haitian government issued a statement saying the attempt to divert water from the Massacre River to “deprive Haitians” is “unacceptable and hostile. “an equal distribution of water resources, the normalization of relations between the two countries and the return to the free movement of people and goods.
“This assignment has sparked a movement of national unity that is exceptional, which possibly would not have been what Abinader hoped for,” said Diego Da Rin of the Intercountryal Crisis Group. “The canal has become an almost historic point of honor. Haitians need to make it clear that they are a country that will not allow itself to be humiliated by its neighbor.
Da Rin said Haitians generally seem willing to cede some assets to the canal structure. The diplomatic crisis also appears to be a boon for Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is “extremely unpopular,” Da Rin said.
“He took the opportunity to elevate his symbol a little bit at a critical time,” he said.
Many Haitians supported the government’s position, including Marie-Enge Belizaire, 60, a merchant from the Tabarre community of the Haitian capital, who had been buying $20,000 worth of clothing in the Dominican Republic every month for more than 20 years.
She described Abinader’s resolution to close all land, sea and air borders last month as “savage,” and emphasized that businesses like hers are for the Dominican Republic.
“We generate for them,” she said as she sat in a warehouse surrounded by towering columns of boxes filled with clothes.
Belizaire said he supports the canal structure to ease Haiti’s agricultural crisis and said he plans to buy clothing from countries, including Panama.
Among the buyers at the warehouse where Bélizaire works is 40-year-old Orgline Pierre. He said that even if the Dominican Republic opens its borders, he expects the Haitian side to remain closed.
“Abinader thinks that the bellies of Haitians count on the Dominican Republic, which is true,” he said. “We have food. My son survives here on local food and will continue to survive. “
Pierre said he hoped the upcoming deployment of a Kenyan-led multinational armed force to quell gang violence would also ensure the protection of Haitians running across the canal along the border.
Prior to the diplomatic sprangulation, Abinader’s government had been pushing to limit the number of Haitians migrating to the Dominican Republic, deporting tens of thousands of them, as well as others of Haitian descent.
The directorate has begun construction of a 180-kilometer wall along the border.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic have long had questionable dating despite their strong economic ties.
Haiti is the Dominican Republic’s third-largest trading partner, with $1 billion in exports to Haiti last year and $11 million in imports to the Dominican Republic’s Export and Investment Center.
At the same time, the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic found that $430 million in casual border industry was made in 2017 between the two countries. Of this amount, more than $330 million represented exports to Haiti.
Adames Alcántara reported from Dajabón and Coto de San Juan, Puerto Rico. AP Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.
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