Caribbean & Central America - October 2009 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The children of foreign parents born in the Dominican Republic will not be granted citizenship, according to the country's new constitution. At the end of September, the national assembly voted by 132 votes to 20 to drop a proposed reform awarding ius soli nationality which had been approved during the first round of voting on the draft constitution in August.

Crucially, the article in question would have offered an amnesty of sorts to the children of the country's Haitian immigrants. The congressional vote was accompanied by cries for the government to crack down on illegal immigration from its poorer neighbour. Several assembly members argued that Haitian immigrants, who make up some 80% of the population in border towns, are pushing Dominicans out of the border area. The secretary general of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC), and deputy for the south-western province of Bahoruco, Luis José González, called for a wall to be erected between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and for all illegal Haitian immigrants to be expelled. NGOs estimate that there are around 1m people of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic [pop. estimated at 10m], of which up to 500,000 are there illegally.

Border security push
At the beginning of October, the head of the army, Major General Joaquí­n Virgilio Pérez Féliz, announced that 600 extra troops would be dispatched to help patrol the 390km border with Haiti.  This came on the back of the launch by the national police of a pilot scheme that will send some 120 officers to the area, with the aim of strengthening border security. Until now, this has solely been the remit of the armed forces.

The government has also announced r that it intends to relocate soldiers and their families to live in border communities that have been largely abandoned by Dominican residents and since repopulated by thousands of illegal Haitian immigrants. The soldiers' remit will be to reforest the area, repair run-down homes and teach locals how to read and write, as well as, presumably, to displace the growing Haitian community.

• Presidential re-election

On 6 October the national assembly voted in the second and final reading of the new constitution to outlaw consecutive presidential re-election. This ban is part of a deal struck between President Leonel Fernández and his chief rival, Miguel Vargas, of the opposition Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) [RC-09-06].  Under the congressional deal, Fernández agreed not to seek re-election in 2012 in exchange for approval by PRD assembly members of seven points of the new constitution. These include key two clauses: the first will re-synchronise legislative and presidential elections; the second paves the way for Fernández to stand for re-election in 2016, after a term out of office.