Santo Domingo, DR.
Haiti lamented yesterday “the misunderstandings” that occurred after the meeting between the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, and the Dominican President, Luis Abinader, on Thursday on the sidelines of the IX Summit of the Americas, held this week in Los Angeles (United States). States), according to an EFE cable dated in Port-au-Prince.
At a press conference yesterday, where he evaluated his participation in the Summit, Henry referred to what happened after the meeting with Abinader, a situation that “has created a conflict and has caused a lot of ink to be spilled,” he said.
According to a statement released a day after the meeting by Henry’s office, both “agreed to regularize the situation of Haitian immigrants and workers in the Dominican Republic, providing them with identification documents and revitalizing the Mixed Haitian-Dominican Commission.”
However, the Dominican government affirmed hours later that in the meeting between Abinader and the Haitian prime minister “there was no kind of commitment” to regularize Haitian workers in the country, thus denying the neighboring nation.
The Dominican Presidency also denied that Abinader had expressed support at the meeting for the candidacy of the former Minister of Public Health, Florence Guillaume Duperval, for the position of Director General of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), as stated by the Haitian Government in your statement.
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians, most of them undocumented, reside in the Dominican Republic, where they work mainly in agriculture, civil construction and informal commerce.
The Dominican Republic began last February the construction of a 160-kilometer fence on the common border, which measures 391 kilometers, a project with which the Dominican Government intends to stop immigration and smuggling.
The denials
After Luis Abinader assumed the presidency, the Dominican Republic has twice had to deny the statements made by the Haitian authorities, after a bilateral meeting between the two nations.
In May 2021, Abinader and Jovenel Moïse met in Ecuador, the country to which they traveled for the inauguration of Guillermo Lasso. After this meeting, the then Haitian president stated that both leaders had talked about the construction of the dam on the Masacre River (work that brought rejection and disagreement on the Dominican side) and also decided “not to fall into games of Dominican ultra-nationalists and Haitians”.
“I have had in-depth conversations on topics of common interest.
We agreed not to fall into the game of Dominican and Haitian ultranationalists and continue working for the benefit of both peoples,” Moïse posted on his Twitter account.
Given this, the Dominican Foreign Minister, Roberto Álvarez, indicated that in relation to the construction of the dam, President Abinader had stated that the situation was in the hands of the chancelleries of both nations.
“President Abinader spoke with his counterpart, President Moïse of Haiti, in Ecuador, and in relation to the issue of the Dajabón River, he only told him that this issue is in the hands of the foreign ministries of both countries,” Álvarez replied to the published comment. by Moise.
After the murder of Jovenel Moïse, on July 7, 2021, the main authorities of the Dominican Republic and Haiti had not met.
Nothing has gone well
The Ministers of the Environment of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in January 2021 signed an agreement to develop joint plans and actions in pursuit of the conservation of the natural resources of both countries and fight against the adverse effects of climate change. This pact did not have progress either.
run-ins
What has remained a constant have been the statements issued by Haitian authorities and that have sometimes been rejected by Dominicans. Such is the case of the Minister of the Interior, Jesús Vásquez, and the former Foreign Minister of Haiti, Claude Joseph. The latter indicated that the Dominican Republic is experiencing an “increase in crime,” which upset Vásquez.
Personalities come to the fore in attacks by former Foreign Minister Joseph
Reactions of disgust have been generated by the latest tweet by former Haitian Foreign Minister Claude Joseph, who accused President Luis Abinader of using Haiti to advance his political agenda and not fulfilling his promises at the national level.
“President Abinader cannot stop using Haiti as a pawn to advance his political agenda. This is a man who doesn’t deliver on his promise at the national level on many issues, but he believes he can use Haiti as his last resort to pander to the ultra-nationalists in his country to win. votes. Hypocrisy… ”, he wrote on Saturday at 2:43 in the afternoon and since then personalities from the Dominican Republic and Haiti have reacted to the comment.
Although the responses have not been from the Dominican Government itself, as on previous occasions, personalities such as businessman Felipe Vicini was one of the people to react to the comment.
“Political nonsense on your part. Please tell us what you did or are doing to solve the problems in your country. Haitian citizens cannot obtain identity documents either in their country or at any Haitian consulate abroad. Hypocrite,” the businessman wrote, citing Joseph’s tweet.
The leader of the National Progressive Force (FNP), Vinicio Castillo Semán, accused him of being a provocateur. “The provocateur Claude Josep, the main suspect in the death of Pte Moise, attacks Pte @luisabinader for his firm defense of the RD Summit of the Americas.