Caribbean & Central America - July 2021

On 14 June the Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader called on the Haitian government to halt construction of an irrigation canal on the border between the two countries.

“They should stop the project,” said President Abinader, the leader of the Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM), which came to power in August 2020. Abinader warned that the Dominican Republic (DR) had “a lot of options” in terms of a diplomatic response but remains open to reaching an agreement with his Haitian counterpart Jovenel Moïse. The canal on the Massacre river, also known as the Dajabón river, which runs along the border between the two countries, will irrigate 3,000 hectares of land in Haiti. However the plan sparked concerns that water supplies in DR would be hit, affecting agricultural production in the Dajabón area along the border.

Tensions rose on 26 April, when four DR soldiers reportedly drove into the construction site, according to local Haitian media. An urgent meeting between the two nations was called to address the issue on 27 April, and then another meeting took place on 27 May. A further meeting on 28 May resulted in an agreement to create a forum to discuss ongoing work in the border area, and the DR foreign ministry released a statement in which it recognised that the canal “does not constitute a change in the course of the river.”

Despite these encouraging signs DR officials later said they would not take part in any further discussions unless Haiti stopped construction work on the canal. On 29 May President Abinader proposed building a dam on the Artibonite river, which has its source in DR but meets the sea in Haiti. By the start of June, he was coming under increasing pressure over the canal. On 1 June Olgo Fernandéz, president of the opposition Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) in Dajabón, told local media that over 1,800 farmers and 6,000 rice fields would be affected by the canal. On 3 June, PLD national deputy for Dajabón Sonia Agüero joined hundreds of anti-canal protesters who marched through Dajabón. Protesters called on the DR government to halt the canal, citing concerns over its effects on local farmers. However local media also reported nationalistic placards, including one which read: “Them over there, us here, Haiti is Haiti and the Dominican Republic is the Dominican Republic.”

While Abinader may have been forced to take a tougher line on the canal due to domestic pressure, the canal does not in fact violate any agreements between the two countries. The right to use water from rivers in the border area in a fair and equitable manner is enshrined in the 1929 peace accord between the two nations.

Tensions since appear to have died down and DR media outlet Listín Diario called the dispute “a diplomatic storm in a teacup” borne out of “a lack of understanding and suspicions at a time of shared difficulties.” Yet journalist Guarionex Rosa wrote that this is a common problem in relations between the two nations, and that these kinds of disputes in the border area have been a long time in the making.

• Fence

At the end of February President Abinader revealed plans to build a fence along its border with Haiti, which extends for some 380km. He said that the fence, work on which would begin in the second half of the year, would help tackle illegal immigration, illegal drugs and the trade in stolen vehicles between the two countries. He also said that in some “conflictive” areas, the structure would include a double-fence, complete with motion sensors, infrared systems and facial recognition cameras.