Haiti’s crisis comes to the fore in the elections in the neighboring Dominican Republic

VERON, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC —

As neighboring Haiti is plagued by increasing violence and political crisis, the Dominican Republic will hold elections on Sunday that have been defined by calls for more crackdowns on migrants and for finishing a border wall between both Caribbean nations.

Politics in the two nations that share the island of Hispaniola have long been intertwined. Haiti’s spiral of chaos in recent years has coincided with harsh measures by its Dominican neighbor.

President Luis Abinader, clear favorite in the race election as he seeks re-election, has begun building a border wall along the border with Haiti along the lines of former US President Donald Trump and carried out mass deportations of 175,000 Haitians last year alone. Dominicans will also elect members of Congress.

“We will continue to deport anyone who is illegal from any country because a society that does not do so would be chaos and anarchy,” Abinader said in a debate in April.

Abinader, who has also pledged to strengthen the country’s economy, said he would finish construction of the border wall with Haiti. His closest competitors — former President Leonel Fernández and Santiago Mayor Abel Martínez — have repeated their calls to intensify actions against migration.

The measures on migration have represented an intensification of the old policies of the Dominican government that human rights groups have criticized because they consider them discriminatory and put vulnerable people at risk.

Fernández, of the Fuerza del Pueblo political party, said that “the Dominican people are afraid to even go out on the streets” despite Abinader’s policies. He also promised that, if he wins, he will continue with immigration measures while respecting human rights.

Dominican voters appear to be rewarding Abinader for the immigration measures, and the current president is the favorite to obtain more than 50% of the votes necessary to win in the first round of the elections. If no candidate reaches 50%, a second round would be held among the candidates with the most votes.

Ana Pagán, a 34-year-old supervisor at a communications company in the country’s capital, Santo Domingo, said she approved of the construction of the border wall and the measures taken by the government.

“No foreigner who wants to stay here in the Dominican Republic can be illegal and that is what (the government) has said,” he said.

However, Pagán said that the wall does not solve all of the country’s problems and mentioned other key electoral issues for Dominicans: Crime and endemic corruption. Pagán noted that many of the country’s security problems come from corrupt officials who allow smuggling and other crimes.

While Dominican voters want the government’s crackdown on migrants to continue, many of the hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the Dominican Republic live in fear.

Haiti, which has been in crisis for decadeshas been on a downward spiral since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Gangs have struggled for power, injecting terror and chaos into the lives of many in the Caribbean nation.

In recent weeks, following the resignation of the prime minister, a transitional council tasked with electing Haiti’s new leaders has offered a small dose of hope to alleviate some of the country’s many problems.

The continued violence has forced many to flee their homes and seek refuge in places such as the Dominican Republic and the United States. The Dominican government’s policies have raised concerns among both newly arrived migrants and Haitians who have long called the Dominican Republic home.

Yani Rimpel, a 35-year-old Haitian businesswoman in the eastern city of Verón, has lived in the country for 20 years. She told the AP that she had never seen so much uncertainty among Haitian communities, something she attributes to Abinader’s immigration policy.

Two weeks ago, he said immigration agents stormed his home at dawn with heavily armed soldiers. She said they searched her house and stole money she had saved to buy and sell merchandise, leaving her with no means to support herself.

“If (Abinader) stays, I can’t live here, I’m going to have to move to my house (Haiti), here I have no value, no security, I have no way to live here if he stays” , said.

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