At the beginning of September, billionaire and current president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, met with US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken in Santo Domingo. The geopolitical situation in the Caribbean was the primary point of discussion during the diplomatic meeting, with Blinken seeking to cement the Caribbean nation as its key ally in its regional endeavors in Venezuela and Haiti. In the pursuit of its larger strategic goals in the region, the US has seemingly chosen to look past the rights violations being committed by the Abinader government against the Haitian migrant population which have dominated headlines in the past year.
“Cornering” Venezuela
Following Nicolás Maduro’s victory in the Venezuelan presidential elections in July, the US renewed its attacks (though they never really ceased) on the Caribbean nation. For this effort, it sought out more Caribbean countries to become partners to exert certain diplomatic and economic pressures on Venezuela. Since the start of his first term in 2020, the Dominican president has maintained a position of opposition to the Maduro government. This is significant given that many Caribbean nations maintain positive relations with Venezuela and work together in ALBA-TCP on different economic, political, and social cooperation projects.
Days prior to Abinader’s meeting with Blinken, the United States, evidently with permission of Abinader, had confiscated a Venezuelan plane in the Dominican Republic and took it to Florida arguing that it violated US laws and sanctions. The move was widely rejected, and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil at the time denounced that “once again, the authorities of the United States of America, in a recidivist criminal practice that cannot be qualified as anything other than piracy, have illegally confiscated an aircraft that has been used by the President of the Republic, justifying itself in the coercive measures that it unilaterally and illegally imposes around the world.”
In the joint press conference held with Abinader after their meeting, Blinken defended the seizure by the United States of the plane used by President Nicolás Maduro and ratified their ability to impose and enforce unilateral coercive measures. “With regard to the plane seizures, we’ve been very clear: We’ll implement our sanctions, and if we find violations of them, we will act. That’s what we did and that’s what we’ll continue to do,” Blinken stated.
Keeping Haitian migrants away
It seems that the Venezuelan crisis was not the main reason for Blinken’s visit to the Dominican Republic, but rather the serious security situation in Haiti and the recent entry of foreign troops into the French-speaking country. The United States is the main financier of the “Multinational Security Mission” (MSS) in Haiti. Hundreds of elite Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti in June 2024 as part of the UN-mandated mission to combat gang violence and regain control over Haitian territory. Security forces from other Global South countries are supposed to join the Kenyan police in coming months.
In the Blinken-Abinader press conference, both ratified support for the MSS and the importance of increased international funding and support to the mission. This is perhaps due to the fact that one year since the UN mandated the mission, there are less than 400 Kenyan officers in Haiti and they have been unable to make any significant gains with regards to quelling gang violence in the country. Once again, the US’ “magic solution” of foreign military intervention in Haiti to address the symptoms of deeper structural issues appeals to be failing.
For the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s security crisis has become an issue of domestic politics in the Dominican Republic. Abinader stated in the press conference back in September, “The crisis in Haiti has increased migration pressure in our country, impacting our public services and generating risks in safety and security.” He complained that the public schools and health system in the DR are disproportionately occupied by Haitians.
There are no up to date statistics about the true number of Haitian migrants that have fled to the Dominican Republic amid the ongoing political, economic, and security crisis over the last few years, but the most recent data estimated that there are half a million Haitian migrants in the neighboring country.
For the last several years, Abinader and other politicians in the DR have appealed to racist and xenophobic rhetoric against Haitian migrants for political capital and vowed to “take action” to ensure that the violence doesn’t spread over the border.
Since being elected in 2020, Abinader has hardened policies against Haitian migrants and has mainstreamed a racist and xenophobic narrative in the country that stigmatizes Haitians, referring to the security crisis facing the country as a “disease” that Dominicans should prevent from entering their country.
In true US style, since 2021, Abinader has spearheaded the effort to build a two-meter high wall with barbed wire between the two countries; he also deported a record number of migrants. These actions have been questioned by some human rights organizations who claimed that the deportation procedures happened against international law and Dominican law itself.
In this regard, Amnesty International said that it is necessary that “Dominican institutions eradicate racial profiling, structural racism and racial discrimination, and guarantee respect for the human dignity and physical integrity of Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent”. However, this attitude, which some call xenophobic, guaranteed Abinader, among other things, popular support broad enough to win the presidential elections without any difficulty.
Secretary of State Blinken appeared to have no qualms about Abinader’s tough approach on migrants, despite his professed commitment to human rights. Instead he “thanked [Abinader] for his vital work to mobilize the international community to do more for Haiti.”
Mass and forced deportations
On October 2, Luis Abinader announced a new plan to deal with the “excess” of Haitian migrants in the country: the weekly deportation of 10,000 Haitians. The government has set out to achieve this nefarious goal as if it were a national victory. In fact, last week they managed to deport more than 11,000 people, who denounced mistreatment and persecution by Dominican security forces.
Last week, in one day alone, in a sort of massive manhunt, Dominican authorities detained 1,100 Haitians and transported them in overcrowded trucks to the Haitian border. They have had no qualms about separating families, even leaving children alone while their parents were taken away. A Haitian migrant told a reporter that her husband was taken “as if he were an animal”; he was not allowed to show his documents and was detained anyway.
Several activists have even said that they are also persecuting and deporting Haitians who have legal permission to stay in the Dominican Republic, thus constituting, they say, a real xenophobic persecution against all Haitians.
The recent policy is imposed on top of an already severe policy of deporting Haitians. In 2023 alone, 250,000 immigrants were expelled.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights already communicated its concern about the massive deportations: “The Inter-American Court of Human Rights expresses concern about the Government’s announcement to immediately execute expulsion procedures of up to 10,000 persons in #humanmobility per week, without prior consideration of the possible international protection needs they require.”
Haiti’s response
Faced with the mistreatment of its citizens, the Haitian government has requested an urgent meeting at the Organization of American States. In this regard, Prime Minister Garry Conille wrote in his X account: “The forced and mass deportation of our Haitian compatriots from the Dominican Republic is a violation of the fundamental principles of human dignity. Following the emergency meeting convened last week by MHAVE, with the participation of relevant ministers, local associations, and our international partners, I have given instructions for an interministerial task force, including MAÉ, MHAVE, MAST, MICT, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry Delegate for Humanitarian Affairs, to organize as of this morning to coordinate and strengthen our diplomatic and humanitarian response.”
Haiti’s Secretary of State, Dominique Dupuy, said “The brutal scenes of roundups and deportations we are witnessing are an affront to human dignity. The Dominican government’s migration policy contravenes international human rights standards and the imperative of respect for human dignity. We strongly condemn these dehumanizing acts and demand respect and justice.”
DR in the crosshairs
The fraught relationship between the US and the DR, marked by military invasions, colonial extraction of goods and services, and economic subjugation, enters another chapter. Abinader is a willing partner in US efforts to militarily suppress and control Haiti, and help pressure other countries in the Caribbean that do not align with Washington’s policies. And Blinken seems willing to condone Abinader’s xenophobic and racist treatment of migrants in exchange, thus reinforcing the conservative ideological positions within the Caribbean country, in addition to the obvious interest of the occupation force in Haiti to control the borders.
The truth is that beyond geopolitical calculations, Haitian migrants find themselves between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they face a deepening crisis of gang violence, economic despair, and forced displacement, with roots in the foreign backing of corrupt and subservient leaders like Jovenel Moïse and Ariel Henry, the consecutive foreign military occupations, and historic colonial debt. While, on the other hand, the neighboring country that could welcome them seeks to forcibly and en masse expel them as if it were a xenophobic nationalist demand that demonstrates enormous rejection by their neighbors.