(Santo Domingo) The Dominican Republic announced Thursday 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.
“Starting at 6 a.m. (6 a.m. Eastern Time) 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.
The Dominican government denounces the construction of an irrigation canal fed by the Massacre River, the natural border between the two countries, with the aim of providing water to Haitian farmers.
Santo Domingo claims the project violates the 1929 Treaty of Peace, Perpetual Friendship and Arbitration, the 1935 Border Agreement and the 1936 Border Review Protocol.
“The Republic of Haiti can sovereignly decide on the exploitation of its natural resources,” reacted the government of Port-au-Prince in a press release, assuring that the dialogue “was underway” between the two countries before comes this “unilateral announcement” from the Dominican Republic.
Haiti has “the full right” to “take catches” in the Massacre River “in accordance with the 1929 agreement,” claims Port-au-Prince.
But, for the Dominican Republic, with this canal, “a totally inappropriate construction, without any type of engineering, it is a provocation that this government will not accept”, insisted Mr. Abinader, who toughened his policy in immigration, increasing the number of raids and building a wall at the border.
The Dominican Republic already suspended the issuance of visas to Haitian nationals on Monday and closed last week the Dajabon crossing point, one of the most important, where a binational market operates twice a week.
Mr. 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.