The Dominican Republic announced Thursday, September 14, the closure of its border with Haiti in retaliation for the construction in the neighboring country of an irrigation canal fed by a common river.
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From 6 a.m. tomorrow Friday, the entire border of the Dominican Republic, by land, sea and air, will be closed," President Luis Abinader said during a visit to a military base. "It will be closed for as long as it takes for this provocative action to stop," he added.
Violation of the Peace Treaty
The Dominican government denounces the construction of an irrigation canal fed by the Massacre River, the natural border between the two countries, in order to provide water to Haitian farmers. Santo Domingo claims that the project violates the 1929 Treaty of Peace, Perpetual Friendship and Arbitration, the 1935 Border Agreement and the 1936 Border Revision Protocol.
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This is a totally inappropriate construction, without any type of engineering, it is a provocation that this government will not accept," insisted Luis Abinader, who has hardened his immigration policy, multiplying the raids and building a wall on the border.
The Dominican Republic on Monday suspended the issuance of visas to Haitian nationals and last week closed the Dajabon crossing, one of the largest, where a binational market operates twice a week. Abinader assured, however, that dialogue remained open with Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, plagued for years by an economic and political crisis aggravated by gang violence. Thousands of Haitians are trying to work in the much more prosperous Dominican Republic, with which their country shares the island of Hispaniola.