In previous posts, we looked at how the the “Spanish Island” became divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, how the current border was formed, and the fifty year period when the border became a wall. Today we look at how the border went from being a wall to the sieve that it is today.

There has been a spate of news stories in both the Dominican press and later in the US press about the growing Haitian presence in the Dominican borderlands. Former President Carter invigorated this debate when he called the illegal flow of Haitians into the Dominican Republic “unstoppable.” Cross-border trade has become a significant issue for both countries and there are a growing number of Dominican investments in Haiti. Unfortunately, this growth in cross-border exchanges have happened in a policy vacuum. The rules that govern the border are still those that were developed when the border was largely closed. Therefore, most of the cross-border exchanges violate Haitian and Dominican law. Today we look at how this mess developed.

As we concluded in the previous post, the reopening of the border in 1987 was to have promoted a new era of cross-border cooperation. The Haitian dictator, Jean-Claude Duvalier (“Baby Doc”) had fled Haiti and the country was developing a new constitution to put Haiti firmly on the path of democracy. Unfortunately, that path to democracy was far trickier than anyone had anticipated. Haiti was not able to hold fair elections until 1991. These elections brought Aristide to power and he was overthrown after only seven months in office leading to a OAS-imposed embargo against the military junta that ran the government. Aristide was restored to office in 1994, but the Haitian government seemed to face a continual string of crisis that prevented it from focusing on broader policy issues. (A report by the IMF cites this lack of progress on policy reform as the fundamental reason that Haiti is so much poorer than the Dominican Republic.)

On the Dominican side, President Balaguer came back to power in 1986 where he remained until he finally stepped aside in 1996. After the OAS had imposed its embargo against Haiti in 1991, the Haitian-Dominican border became the weak link in the cordon around Haiti when it openly allowed for goods to be sold across the border. When the embargo was lifted in 1994, the Dominican government allowed the trade to continue. Neither country ever developed any new policies or regulations to control the flow across the border.  As a result, a series of Dominican laws and regulations ban most exports from Haiti:

• Law 4030-55 stipulates that animals can only be imported in the Dominican Republic through Santo Domingo.
• Law 4990-58 stipulates that fruits or vegetables can only be imported if accompanied by a fitosanitary certificate from the country of origin (not available on the Haitian side of the border) accompanied by a certified non-objection from the Dominican Ministry of Agriculture (not available on the Dominican side of the border).
• Law 458-73 prohibits the importation of used clothing.
• Decree 505-99 stipulates that rice can only be imported by licensed importers with a specific permit and based on national need. No permit has ever been issued for the importation of rice across the Haitian border.

During the late 1990’s during the first terms of Presidents Fernandez and Preval, the two governments relaunched the Bilateral Mixed Commission. Through a series of meetings held between 1996 and 2000, they developed various memorandums of understanding on migration, repatriation, and tourism, but none related to trade. These efforts ended with the collapse of the Aristide government in 2004. There has been talk of relaunching the commission, but it has yet to happen.

Despite the lack of progress on policy or regulations, there have been significant changes in how the border functions.

On the Haitian side, two events coalesced to focus the government’s attention on the border. The first was the creation of the bicameral parliamentary commission for the development of the border. PADF is proud to have played a key role in bringing together the parliamentarians and helping them to understand the importance of the border region. At the same time, there was a strike by the Haitian and Dominican transporters against the higher customs tariff’s being charged at the Malpasse border crossing. In early 2006, the entire staff of the customs office in Malpasse was replaced. In the first month, the new management was able to double the customs receipts. The second month, he doubled them again. The transporters complained that these tariffs were unfair and went on strike. Initially the strike was pacific, but by August, they began burning tires and throwing rocks at any passing vehicles and thereby closed the main road between Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince. The Parliamentarians investigated the problems and reported back to President Preval that the new director was doing his job properly. Finally, in September, the MINUSTAH sent their forces to reopen the road. The Haitian government went on to replace all of the customs directors along the border and at the sea ports. As a result, the Haitian government has succeeded in dramatically increasing all of its customs revenues. The interest of the parliamentarians in the border region coupled with the increased customs revenues gave the Haitian government the incentive to begin investing in its borderlands.

On the Dominican side, the biggest change came from the creation of a new military force for the border. Based on his interest in professionalizing the control of the border and the recommendations made by the US Southern Command, President Fernandez created the Cuerpo Especializado Fronterizo (the Specialized Corps for the Border or CESFRONT) in August 2006 with the mandate of enforcing the government’s policy towards the border. When they took control of the border on September 27, 2007, they attempted to do just that. They prevented any foreigner without a proper passport and visa from crossing the border and closed the border markets. Naturally, this caused quite an uproar on both sides of the border, especially in Dajabón. Eventually, the CESFRONT sat down with the mayor of Dajabón and members of the local civil society to negotiate new rules to manage the market. These included the restriction that Haitians vendors could not arrive the night before the market as had been the practice and that the market had to be closed before the border closed.

This conflict highlights the main problem that faces the border today. Cross-border trade has become very important for both countries, yet it operates in a policy vacuum. Without clear rules, the local authorities and the military are forced to make them up as they go along–a situation ripe for corruption and abuse. Both countries have an economic and security interest in properly managing their border. In an upcoming post, we’ll look at what the two countries need to do to improve the management of their border.

Daniel J. O’Neil

The History Series:

Part 1: Gold, cows, and pirates: the story of the of how the island of Hispaniola (or Quisqueya) ended up split into two countries: 1492-1777

Part 2: The birth of the Haitian-Dominican border: 1777-1936

Part 3: The border becomes a wall: 1936-1987

Part 4: The porous border: 1987-present

---

[1] We were unable to locate this agreement, but did talk with a member of the commission to verify its existence.