Haiti’s authorities says it has met with Dominican officers within the Dominican Republic to speak a couple of menace by that nation’s president to shut all borders in response to a row over the development of a supposed canal
ByThe Related Press
September 13, 2023, 6:41 PM
FILE – Folks bathe within the Bloodbath River, named for a bloody battle between Spanish and French colonizers within the 1700s, on the border with Haiti in Ouanaminthe, Dominican Republic, Nov. 19, 2021. The Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader introduced on Sept. 11, 2023 he has suspended issuing visas to Haitians. (AP Photograph/Matias Delacroix, File)
The Related Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Haiti’s authorities introduced that it met Wednesday with Dominican officers within the Dominican Republic to speak a couple of current menace by that nation’s president to shut all borders in response to a row over the development of a supposed canal.
The temporary assertion by Haiti’s Ministry of International Affairs didn’t present a lot element, besides to say that each side have been looking for a “truthful and definitive” answer to squabbles over the usage of the Bloodbath River that runs alongside the border each nations share on the island of Hispaniola.
Dominican officers haven’t commented on the obvious assembly.
Simmering tensions between Haiti and the Dominican Republic deepened on Monday when Dominican President Luis Abinader introduced that he had suspended issuing visas to Haitians and threatened to close down land, air and sea site visitors if the battle over the canal wasn’t resolved earlier than Thursday.
The excavation of a supposed canal on Haitian soil started lately, but it surely wasn’t clear who, if anybody, approved the digging. It already prompted Abinader to close the border final week close to the northern city of Dajabon, an financial lifeline for Haitians who purchase and promote items there a number of instances every week.
Dominican officers declare that the canal would divert water from the Bloodbath River and damage farmers and the environment. The river is known as after a bloody battle between French and Spanish colonizers within the 18th century.
The Dominican Republic final totally closed its border with Haiti following the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. Since then, it has at instances closed components of the border for safety.
