The Dominican Republic reopens its border with Haiti to trade

The Dominican government announced reopening the border with Haiti for commercial purposes starting at 07:00 Panama time next Wednesday, after nearly a month of closure in retaliation for the construction of a canal on the Haitian banks of the Massacre River.

According to the spokesman of the Dominican presidency, Homer Figueroa, the National Security Council will establish new measures to accompany the unblocking of the border with the aim of strengthening security at the demarcation line, in which Temporary trade corridors will be established that will allow the export of products from the Dominican Republic to Haiti.

These runners will work with “strict military control measures and mandatory biometric registration in the (border) provinces of Dajabón, Elías Piña, Independencia and Pedernales to facilitate trade in essential Dominican products such as food and medicine, especially for infants,” he added.

“The immigration closure of the border will be maintained indefinitely”to prevent the transit of people from Haitian territory, and the suspension of visas to Haitian citizens will be extended “indefinitely,” he added.

Other measures adopted at the session of the National Security Council are: activating the fund to finance agricultural mechanization programs to reduce the employment of undocumented immigrant workers through the Development and Export Bank (Bandex).

Also, The Dominican government tasked its legal consultancy with drafting an emergency decree the operation of the law on border markets, in order to guarantee a high level of security.

Except, The militarization of the border will increase to make access to Dominican territory even more difficult to gang members fleeing multinational forces that will be deployed in a neighboring country, an action approved by a UN resolution a week ago, for which there is still no scheduled date.

Are they the decisions come a few days after the reactivation of the La Vigía channelon the Dominican side of the river, upstream of the water intake on the Haitian side that caused the water conflict.

On September 11, the National Security Council ordered the complete closure of the border with Haiti from the 15th of that month for trade and migration, the suspension of visas and the reactivation of the La Vigía canal, among other measures.

These decisions, according to the Dominican government, were made to guarantee national security in the face of political and social instability caused by gangs in Haiti and to protect the integrity of the environment threatened by the unilateral construction of a canal in the river, goals that the Executive Committee President Luis Abinader take compliments into consideration.