Caribbean & Central America - April 2012 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Last month Haiti’s President Michel Martelly paid his first official visit to the Dominican Republic since taking office in May 2011, where he met his Dominican peer, Leonel Fernández. The meeting took place against an unfortunate backdrop however; in recent weeks corruption allegations have come to light regarding Dominican companies involved in Haiti’s reconstruction efforts. If proven to be true, the scandal has implications for both governments.  In particular it could damage the chances of Fernández’s ruling Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) which is seeking to win its third consecutive presidential election in May.

Martelly travelled to Santo Domingo on 26 March to take part in a meeting of the bi-national mixed commission, an entity set up in 1996 as the only official forum for promoting relations. While bilateral relations have traditionally been testy, the fact that, under Fernández’s leadership, the DR was quick to offer assistance to Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake went some way to improving ties. The 26 March meeting appeared to further confirm this rapprochement with various cooperation agreements signed. These included one establishing a so-called “Bolivarian Fund of Solidarity with Haiti”, to be financed indirectly by Venezuela, through President Hugo Chávez’s subsidised oil scheme, Petrocaribe which is aimed at promoting the use of natural gas in Haiti.

Martelly’s visit already came at a difficult time for the Haitian President who is facing political problems as a result of the resignation of Prime Minister Garry Conille [RC-12-03]. It also took place amid a growing political scandal involving both governments; one of the factors contributing to the “irreconcilable differences” cited by Conille as grounds for his resignation was his decision to investigate all of the reconstruction-related contracts signed by his predecessor, Jean Max Bellerive (2009-2011). At the time, the Dominican press speculated that Haitian authorities were particularly interested in contracts won by Dominican firms. In a visit to the Dominican Republic last month, Bellerive admitted that he had expedited the normal tender process to award contracts to two Dominican construction firms although he denied any wrongdoing; he said that as prime minister he had the power to do this given the nature of the emergency and dismissed the investigation as a smear campaign on the part of his successor.

On 31 March however, just days after Martelly’s visit, Dominican investigative journalist, Nuria Piera, revealed on her weekly TV show that the two Dominican construction firms in question (Hadom and Rofi) are linked to a prominent member of the ruling PLD, senator Félix Bautista. Bautista, who also doubles as PLD secretary, is considered to be close to Fernández and is already under investigation in the DR following accusations by the opposition Partido de la Revolución Dominicana (PRD) that he used his contacts in government to secure lucrative state contracts. Piera said that she had access to bank records which show that Bautista’s companies had given Martelly a total of US$2.5m prior to and after he assumed office. According to Piera as a result of this, Bautista’s companies were awarded contracts to the tune of US$200m.  

Piera’s allegations prompted Haiti’s presidential palace to issue a short statement “categorically reject[ing] the extravagant allegations unjustly directed towards the head of State by a Dominican journalist”. However, Bellerive has revealed that, when the Haitian government approached Fernández for help in identifying possible companies to assist with immediate reconstruction efforts, he introduced Bellerive to Bautista. Bellerive maintains that he did not know that Bautista was the owner or share holder of the recommended companies. This has once again upped the pressure on Martelly and Fernández to clarify how much they knew about the deals and has fuelled suspicion regarding the latter’s apparent eagerness to assist his neighbour following the earthquake.

• Discrimination

On 13 March the government of President Leonel Fernández was forced to deny at the annual United Nations Human Rights Committee meeting that it promotes or tolerates any kind of racism. This was in response to concern expressed by the UN regarding constant complaints of discrimination against Haitian immigrants and their descendants. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), some 2,272 of the estimated 50,000-200,000 Haitian refugees in the DR have decided to return to Haiti, often complaining that discrimination against them is still prevalent in Dominican society.