(11 Oct 2023)
RESTRICION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dejabon, Dominican Republic - 11 October 2023
1. Various of border gate opening
2. Businesses closed in the market
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Santo Rodríguez, Dominican trader:
“The problem is that here there has been a big loss because one lives here on (doing) business with the Haitians. Since the market was closed just a month ago today, we have been here doing nothing. If we live from these businesses and they stay closed, how can we survive?”
4. Businesses in the market closed
5. Trucks with merchandise parked on the road
6. Army trucks with military driving through streets
STORYLINE:
The Dominican Republic partially reopened its border with Haiti on Wednesday to limited commercial activity nearly a month after closing the frontier in a continuing spat over construction of a canal targeting water from a shared river.
Vendors in Dominican border cities are allowed to sell basic goods like food and medicine, but exporting electronic products and construction materials, including cement and metal rods, is prohibited.
Wednesday marked the first time since Sept. 15 that the border partially reopened, although Dominican President Luis Abinader maintained a ban on issuing visas to Haitian citizens that he implemented last month and will keep the border closed to all migrants, regardless of whether they’re seeking entry for work, tourism, health or education purposes.
While the gates at the northern Dominican border city of Dajabon opened late Wednesday morning, the gates on the Haitian side remained closed, and it wasn't immediately clear why.
Meanwhile, dozens of trucks and containers were lined up nearby, filled with goods.
The Dominican border reopening was delayed after a pre-dawn fire at the main marketplace in Dajabon destroyed dozens of stalls. Authorities said they were investigating what caused the blaze.
The marketplace remained largely empty and quiet as a handful of vendors reopened their stalls nearly a month after they were forced to close.
The most recent diplomatic crisis stemmed from construction of a canal on the Haitian side that aims to collect water from the Massacre River that runs along the border that both countries share on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The river is named after a bloody 18th-century battle between French and Spanish colonizers.
Haiti’s government has said farmers urgently need the water after an extended drought withered crops in the nearby Maribaroux plain.
Meanwhile, Abinader has said construction of a canal violates a 1929 treaty and would divert water needed by Dominican farmers and affect wetlands in the area.
Shortly after the spat began, Abinader ordered officials to revive use of a nearby canal to collect water before the river enters Haitian territory.
Prior to the diplomatic dispute between both countries, the Abinader administration was pushing to limit the number of Haitians migrating to the Dominican Republic, expelling tens of thousands of them, as well as those of Haitian descent.
The administration also has started building a 118-mile (190-kilometer) wall along the border.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic have long had a contentious relationship despite strong economic ties.
Haiti is the Dominican Republic’s No. 3 trading partner, with $1 billion in exports to Haiti last year and $11 million in imports, according to the Dominican Republic’s Export and Investment Center.
AP Video by Martin Adames.
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