We are proud to announce that we are launching the book La Frontera dominico-haitiana on Wednesday, January 13th at 7:00 pm at the Academia de Ciencias (Calle Las Damas, zona colonial, Santo Domingo). This is second book that we have published with Ciudades y Fronteras and their fourth publication. The book consists of ten essays and three annexes in Spanish written by authors from five countries. This is the most complete, most up-to-date reference book on the Haitian-Dominican border. It is available in the Dominican Republic for 500 pesos or internationally for $25.

To order the book from the United States, click on the button below. We are currently only accepting payment through PayPal. Note that the vendor will be listed as danoneil@yahoo.com

La Frontera Dominico-Haitiana was published with support from the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States.

CESFRONT soldier on the Pednernales-Anse a Pitres border on market day. Photos by Karl Grobl

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

One of the concrete "bornes" that mark the Haitian-Dominican border

In last week’s post, we looked at how Gold, Cows, and Pirates led to the division of Hispaniola between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We left off in the story with France building up the economy of its sides of the island through the development of large sugar plantations while the Spanish continued to neglect the eastern side of the island.

The French success came from their participation in the infamous, but very profitable, triangular trade: manufactured goods from Europe were sent to Africa in exchange for slaves, slaves were sent to the Caribbean, and the sugar and rum produced with their labor was sold back to Europe. In 1789, just before the outbreak of the wars on Hispaniola, the French colony of Saint Dominque was the richest colony in the world. It produced 40% of the world’s sugar—more than all of the British colonies combined.  The population of the colony had swelled to include 430,000 black slaves, 30,000 Europeans and 25,000 of mixed descent (mulattos). In the Spanish colony, the population was only around 125,000, mainly of European decent but including some slaves. Ships were sailing on a regular basis between five ports in the French colony and Europe while only one ship a month sailing between Europe and Santo Domingo.

The revolutionary war in the French colony began as a power struggle between the ruling classes in 1788 and later flared into a slave revolt. The 16 year war destroyed Haiti’s economy and the brutal fighting left deep scars. Haiti’s first ruler, General Dessaline had been a field slave and hated his former masters. Through his constitution of 1806, he declared that no white could own land (Article 27) and declared the entire island to be part of the Republic of Haiti. His sudden death and the infighting between his successors led to a two decade-long power struggle and delayed any attempt to control the rest of the island.

In 1821, as Haiti was emerging from its internal power struggle, the Dominican Republic simply declared its independence and no one objected. The leader of the movement, Nuñez de Cacerez wanted to have the newly independent country join the Gran Colombia that was being established in South America by General Simon Bolivar. However, other leaders preferred to align the new country with Haiti. Within a year of the Dominican independence and on the pretext of an invitation from the Govenor of Santiago, Haitian troops were sent to occupy the former Spanish colony.

The Haitian domination of the island lasted for 22 years. The Haitian government conscripted the Dominican youth into the army and used this army to control the country. They abolished slavery and redistributed State and church land. President Boyer also negotiated recognition of Haiti’s independence by France. This involved a substantial payment that was not fully paid off until 1947. To begin payment of this debt, he encouraged heavy logging of the forests and imposed stiff taxes on the entire island. Beginning in the 1830’s, Juan Pablo Duarte began organizing a clandestine opposition to the Haitian presence that ultimately resulted in the independence of the Dominican Republic on February 27, 1844 (February 27^th is celebrated as the Dominican Independence Day).

Between 1844 and 1861, Haitian armies invaded the Dominican Republic several times. Finally in 1861, the Dominican President, Pedro Santana, negotiated the return of the Dominican Republic to the status of a colony of Spain—the only time in history that a free country voluntarily gave up its freedom.  Shortly after losing their independence, the Dominicans began pushing to restore it. With help from the Haitian government, the Dominican Republic won its independence on August 16, 1865 (August 16 is celebrated as Dominican Restoration Day).

In 1874, thirty years after the Dominican Republic won its independence from Haiti, the two countries finally signed and ratified a formal peace treaty. The treaty also provided for free access to each other’s ports (Article 5) and free trade for national production that is exported across the border (Article 10). The free trade provisions had a sunset provision of 25 years (Article 39), but remained in force until the United States took over customs collection in both countries in the early 1900’s and required the countries to collect customs equally at all of their ports.

Although the 1874 treaty formalized the relations between the two countries, it did not define the border. Up until the early 1900’s the border was only fixed in the far north (Massacre River) and the far south (Pedernales or Anse-a-Pitre River). The 1777 Treaty of Aranjuez , signed by the French and Spanish, had defined the border to begin and end at these points, but it bowed significantly to the west in the middle, keeping most of the middle of the island in Spanish hands. After the Haitian occupation of the island, Haitians had settled in this area and the Haitian government continued to administer it. The first treaty that sought to define a new border was not signed until 1929, during occupation of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic by the United States, and then only after the Dominican Republic had changed its constitution to renounce its claims on the border that had been defined in the 1777 treaty and Haiti changed its constitution to drop claims on the entire island.  The 1929 treaty and the clarifications in the 1936 revision were based partially on the idea that the county, whose citizens constituted the majority in an area, should be given jurisdiction for that area. The end result of these negotiations was that the Dominican government gave up rights to a significant amount of territory.

The current border is shown as a black, solid line while the border established by the 1777 treaty is approximated by the dotted line.

In the next installment, we’ll look at the Dominican government’s policy of strengthening its border lands and the Haitian government’s historic neglect of the region.

slaves; slaves were sent to Haiti; and the sugar and rum produced with their labor was sold back to Europe.

Centro Puente, in Dajabon

También en Español

We have a great number of exciting activities happening this month. I wanted to take this chance to share highlights of what is keeping us busy and what will be coming soon:

Work in Both Countries

1. Completing a survey of our main local partners: At the request of our donor, we are doing a survey of our local partners to determine how they are currently functioning and to serve as a baseline to measure the impact of the work that we are doing with them this year. We have hired a consultant for either side of the border and hope to have their reports soon. Once the reports are finalized, we will post them on this website.

2. Study on cross-border perceptions: One of the major stumbling blocks to cross-border collaboration is the deep-seated negative feelings that many Haitians and Dominicans have for each other. These negative perceptions are rooted in the shared history of the island, but have been allowed to fester on both sides of the island. We asked Dr. Gerald Murray to conduct a socio-anthropological study to document the cross-border perceptions that are generally held by Haitians and Dominicans in the hopes that by shedding light on these perceptions, it will be easier to correct the misconceptions. Dr. Murray will arrive here next week and will complete his work in October.

Work focused on the Dominican Republic borderlands

3. Taking the Fear out of Finance: We are running a five-day workshop this week (September 7-11) for the directors and accountants of our local partner institutions. When we began working on the border, we looked around for the most appropriate training program to use with our local partners. We settled upon the courses offered by a British NGO, MANGO. We brought their head trainer, Terry Lewis, to the Dominican Republic to train our trainers and licensed their “Financial Management 1″ material. We have since offered the course several times here in the Dominican Republic and once down in Colombia.

The beauty of the MANGO course is that it focuses on the importance of management systems rather than getting bogged down in the details of accounting. Additionally, the Mango Trainer-of-Trainer course provided us with excellent training techniques that we now use in all of our trainings.

Fronteras en Transición

4. Updated and revised book on the Dominican Borderlands: We are working with Haroldo Dilla of Ciudades y Fronteras to update their excellent reference book on the border, Frontera en Transicion. The new version will include both updated articles as well as some new ones and will come out in paperback in January. We are currently exploring how we could distribute it beyond our local offices in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Work focused on the Haitian borderlands

5. Study of the Production Potential of the Haitian Borderlands: We’ve hired Paul Duret, former Minister of Planning and long-time expert on the Haitian border, to conduct a study of what could be done to stimulate greater production in the Haitian borderlands. One of the significant problems in that area is the lack of big ideas. Most of the population barely survives on subsistence agriculture and there is little investment from the private sector. We asked Paul to dig through the reports on the border, visit the area, and meet with our local partners to determine how best the private sector and the international community could invest in the borderlands. We are hoping that his report will help us attract more development to this region. The report will be coming out in October in French. We will keep you posted of its progress and when it will be published on the website.

Construction of the Belladere Complex

6. The Belladere Border Complex: We’ve been working with the Haitian government for the last couple of years to build a modern complex at the Belladere-Elias Piña border. The old complex is at the edge of the town of Belladere, four kilometers from the border. Not only are the old buildings too small and falling apart, by being so far from the border the authorities are not able to directly observe what happens at the border or to receive the repatriated Haitians from the Dominican officials. We will complete the construction of the new facilities by the end of next month and then work with the Haitian officials to install the equipment and make the complex operational.

We have a whole slew of new training seminars that will begin in the next few weeks as our work with the MIF heats up. We will keep you posted on the progress of these new seminars as they are developed.